The flood of Rush DVDs continues with an expanded version of their programme in the Classic Albums series.

The flood of Rush DVD’s continues with an expanded version of their programme in the Classic Albums series that features both ‘2112’ and ‘Moving Pictures’. For anyone who’s recently seen the ‘Beyond The Lighted Stage’ documentary, this DVD just basically gives more detail to those two albums with archive clips and new interviews with the band, manager Ray Danniels and producer Terry Brown. It follows roughly the same format as the documentary but explains more about the writing process and their feelings going into these important points of the band’s career.

The original version of the TV programme only deals with certain tracks, for instance the ‘2112’ section only covers the side long title track, ‘A Passage To Bangkok’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’, and only the songs from side one of ‘Moving Pictures’. It’s still pretty interesting and it’s nice to see the brand new clips of Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee still getting on well with former producer Terry Brown as the three of them sit in the studio and talk about the recording of the albums, isolating individual instruments from the original tapes to make their points.

As a bonus you also get 54 minutes of footage that landed on the cutting room floor, like their thoughts on other songs from the two albums and individual interviews where each member talks about their bandmates and what each brought to the table. I guess you could class this release as a companion piece to the documentary and yet again the ambition, musical prowess and camaraderie of the band shines through. There isn’t really much that the fanatical Rush follower won’t already know or archive clips they haven’t already seen, but like ‘Beyond The Lighted Stage’ the good humour of the trio makes it a joy to watch.

Phil Ashcroft