On January 21st, 1979, Blondie found themselves in a strange predicament. Canadian megaband Rush (R.I.P. Neil Peart) needed a last-minute opening act for their sold-out show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia—most likely New Jersey’s early-glam metal band Starz, or perhaps the opener from the previous night, Georgia band Stillwater had to cancel. It’s not entirely clear. What is clear is that the unlikely pairing of the New York New Wavers and the Canadian rockers wasn’t what Rush fans were expecting that night, and they let Blondie know this the minute they walked out on stage.

Blondie had played the Spectrum before, opening a show for Alice Cooper in the summer of 1978. This gig also started off on shaky ground for Blondie as they were greeted by boos as well as one Cooper fan shouting “Boo Blondie off stage…they’re PUNK!” The crowd kept jeering Blondie, but, according to people at the show, by the time they ripped into their second song, the audience was hooked, and they finished their set, incident- and heckling-free. For some reason, Rush fans were not as well behaved as Alice’s (which seems weird in its own right, right?). There are several first-hand accounts posted by fans who were there, telling the story of what happened that night at The Spectrum, describing Deborah Harry getting pelted with glow sticks and more. And it wasn’t pretty like Deborah Harry. Not even close.
 

A photo of Deborah Harry backstage at the Spectrum as seen in the book, ‘Daft Punk: A Trip Inside the Pyramid’ By Dina Santorelli.
 
The Spectrum was packed to the gills with around 18,000 rock fans waiting to see their idols perform jams from their sixth album, Hemispheres. Blondie took the stage in front of a standing-room-only floor, and the audience immediately started to boo them. Ignoring the haters, they started their set. By the second song, objects were steadily flying at the stage. At one point, Harry leaned into the crowd during “One Way or Another” and was slapped by dozens of glow sticks.

Continues after the jump…

 
Neil Peart of Rush represents the “gear” end of the great spectrum of drummers. Love him or hate him, his drum kit is famous for having the most pieces of any major band. Peart’s drum kit is the arena rock drum kit par excellence.
 

 
Peart elicits strong feelings from music lovers. In Freaks and Geeks, Mr. Weir, played by Joe Flaherty, somewhat improbably blurts out to Rush fan Nick Andopolis (Jason Segel), “Neil Peart couldn’t drum his way out of a paper bag!”

The flip side of that finds Peart being voted “greatest drummer of all time” by the readers of Consequence of Sound earlier this year.
 

 
Either way, those with less skin in the game will appreciate CBC’s little presentation here of Peart explaining why he has so many goddamn drums. For what it’s worth, he seems like a super nice guy.
 

 
Thank you Roger Gibian!

 
Hot on the heels of posting something about a former Spice Girl, I feel an obligation to, uh, spell out clearly that I ain’t no Rush fan lest you think that I have completely lost my everlovin’ mind. No, the notion of a trio of Canadian sci-fi geeks who love Ayn Rand is a total non-starter for me, and yet I still think you should watch this utterly wonderful clip posted over at the mighty Cherry Bombed:

Here’s a pretty incredible seven minute clip from 1973 documentary, Come On Children, featuring a 17 year old (and completely hot, lets face it), Alex Lifeson of Rush. The film interviewed a bunch of Toronto teens, then invited them to live on a farm for 10 weeks, in an attempt to get deeps inside the psyche of a gloomy suburban adolescent.

In this clip, Lifeson (who was already a father to his first son, Justin) tries to convince his Serbian emigrant parents that his plan to quit the 12 grade and play in a band full time, is the right decision. If you haven’t seen this film, or this footage, I’m not going to spoil it for you. It’s a must watch, period.

As much as I think Rush suck, this is one impassioned, articulate young man who knew at an early age what he wanted out of life. His parents seem pretty cool, too. That something like this—such an amazing record of his youth and of their family—exists is such a fantastic thing. This is classic.
 

Bonus clip: Alex Lifeson is kidnapped by The Trailer Park Boys

 
The lads vs. the ladies. Pics taken 30 seconds apart.

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