T   r   i   v    i   a   !!!

·  Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee's real name is Gary. His nickname is attributed to his mother who pronounced "Gary" with such a heavy Yiddish accent that it came out sounding like "Geddy." The name stuck and he has been known as Geddy ever since.

·  "YYZ," the title of a 1981 song from Rush's "Moving Pictures" is the transmitter code for Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport. In a 1990 edition of the band's newsletter, drummer Neil Peart said the song is "loosely based on airport-associated images. Exotic destinations, painful partings, happy landings, that sort of thing." Peart plays the Morse code for "YYZ" at the beginning of the song.

·  Guitarist Alex Lifeson owns a restaurant/bar in Toronto called The Orbit Room. Lifeson has been known to make surprise appearances at the club, jamming with the house band, The Dexters.

·  The DVD version of the 1999 film "Magnolia," features a deleted scene (called "Frank T.J. Mackey Seminar") in which Tom Cruise's character talks on the phone in front of a giant Rush "Chronicles" poster.

·  "Countdown," from 1982's "Signals," chronicles the band's experience at the first space shuttle launch on April 12, 1981. In the Signals tour book Peart writes, "I remember thinking to myself as we flew back to Fort Worth after a couple days without sleep: 'We've got to write a song about this!' It was an incredible thing to witness, truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I can only hope that the song comes even close to capturing the excitement and awe that we felt that morning."

·  Rush was once fired from a local club gig because they played so loud the barmaids couldn't hear the customers' orders.

·  The release of "Vapor Trails" adds a new installment to the band's "Fear" series of songs. The series consists of: Part I: "The Enemy Within" ("Grace Under Pressure")
Part II: "The Weapon" ("Signals")
Part III: "Witch Hunt" ("Moving Pictures")
Part IV: "Freeze" ("Vapor Trails")

·  Rush has been nominated for two Grammy awards. The band's first nomination came in 1982 for Best Rock Instrumental for "YYZ" from the album "Moving Pictures." (The song lost to The Police's "Behind my Camel.") The band was nominated again a decade later in the same category for "Where's my Thing?" from the 1991 album "Roll the Bones." (Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover" won that year.)

·  Ray Danniels has been the band's manager since 1969, about six months after Rush formed.

·  When CNN asked what artists would be on the soundtrack of his life Lee replied: "Certainly The Who, played an important part in my early life," he said. "Joni Mitchell, in a way. I used to love her music when I was young. Neil Young ... so many artists. You know, I was such a huge music lover when I was a kid and I had an enormous record collection. You know, I don't know if one message or one person's music helped me psychologically, but I know the music of many, many bands and many individual artists always moved me and made me want to be a musician, so in that sense, they affected my life very directly."

·  Neil Peart's last name is actually pronounced so that it rhymes with "near," thus "peer-t," as opposed to "pert" or "part."

·  The instrumental song "La Villa Strangiato (An Exercise in Self-Indulgence)" from 1978's "Hemispheres" was reportedly based on some of Lifeson's recurring nightmares. The song is composed of 12 parts with such intriguing titles as "Buenos Nochas, Mein Froinds!", "To sleep, perchance to dream...", "A Lerxst in Wonderland" and "Monsters!" The song's title loosely translates to "the weird city."

·  The lettering on the cover of the band's eponymous debut album, "Rush," was supposed to be red, not hot pink. Due to a printing error, only the original Moon Records editions were red. The lettering has been hot pink ever since.

·  Rush came in at No. 28 on VH-1's list of the 100 greatest artists of hard rock. The network aired a program highlighting each of the 100 acts in November, 2000.

·  Early in Rush's career, Lifeson realized that he had to play acoustic guitar for some tunes and then quickly switch to his electric guitar (e.g. "Closer to the Heart"). Proving necessity is the mother of invention, he created a stand that holds his acoustic guitar in an adjustable playing position.

·  He soon began to sell this invention (the Omega Stand) under the company name The Omega Concern. Lifeson's company reportedly also made Lee a back-lit lyric stand and Peart a newspaper/book holder.

·  Since releasing their first album in the early 1970s, Rush has been compared to such groups as Led Zeppelin and vintage Yes. Yet their incomparable style has influenced modern artists like Primus, Billy Corgan (of Smashing Pumpkins), Stone Temple Pilots and the Beastie Boys, the latter of which opened a recent tour with a cover of the Rush standard "Tom Sawyer."

·  In 1999, Rush is honored with a spot on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. Lee and Lifeson attend the presentation ceremony sans Peart, who was maintaining a low profile after the devastating loss of his wife and daughter. With this honor, the band joins such other influential Canadians as Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, Neil Young, and Céline Dion (a fellow inductee that year).

·  Rush took an excursion into science fiction with the mysterious and haunting "Fly By Night." At once beautiful and dark, this album is one of contradictions. The lovely ballads "Rivendell" and "In the End" are rendered even lighter and more ethereal when contrasted with hard-crunching numbers like "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and "Beneath, Between and Behind." Despite its initial lack of critical or commercial success, "Caress of Steel" is a landmark album in the history of Rush. It includes the band's first forays into long-form pieces; the 12-minute saga of "The Necromancer" closes out side 1, and side 2 is entirely taken up by the six-part, 20-minute "The Fountain of Lamneth." Elsewhere, the disc goes from the crunch of "Bastille Day" to the lilting humor of "I Think I'm Going Bald" and the pensive paean to the freedom of youth "Lakeside Park."

·  Rush's experiment with epic-length songs reached its peak with the release of "2112." One complete side of the album featured just one song, broken into seven movements. While critics lambasted it as pretentious and self-indulgent, fans loved its intricate drum sequences, soaring guitar licks and thundering bass lines. This multi-platinum release remains one of Rush's best-selling albums.

·  "Moving Pictures" is widely considered to be one of Rush's finest works. The album features three of the band's classic songs: the immensely popular rock anthem "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight," and "YYZ," a hard-driving instrumental track showcasing the trio's considerable musical talents. In 1982, "YYZ" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental. "Moving Pictures" is the band's best-selling album.

·  Rush's second live album was considered a triumph, capturing the energy and raw power of the band in concert. The live renditions of "YYZ," "Red Barchetta," and "La Villa Strangiato" nearly outshine the original recordings. "Exit...Stage Left" is Rush's best selling live album.

·  Geddy Lee was a bare knuckle boxer as a teenager.
 
·  In 1973 Neil got a government grant to build a self powered flying machine.
 
·  Alex is allergic to plastic.