Happy Birthday Neil Ellwood Peart (pron.: /ˈpɪərt/; born September 12, 1952), OC, is a Canadian musician and author. He is the drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush. Peart has received numerous awards for his musical performances, and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina.[1] Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario (now part of St. Catharines). During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band in pursuit of a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined a local Toronto band, Rush, in the summer of 1974. Early in his career, Pearts performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene.[2] As time passed, however, he began to emulate jazz and big band musicians Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. In 1994, Peart became a friend and pupil of jazz instructor Freddie Gruber.[3] It was during this time that Peart decided to revamp his playing style by incorporating jazz and swing components. Gruber was also responsible for introducing him to the products of Drum Workshop, the company whose products Peart currently endorses. In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several memoirs about his travels. Peart is also Rushs primary lyricist. In writing lyrics for Rush, Peart addresses universal themes and diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes. All five of his books are travel-based non-fiction, though they diverge into his life and these subjects as well. Peart currently resides in Santa Monica, California, with his wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and daughter, Olivia Louise. He also has a home in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, and spends time in Toronto for recording purposes. Life and career Early childhood Peart was born in a Hamilton hospital to Glen and Betty Peart and lived his early years on his familys farm in Hagersville,[1][4] on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four,[5] his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two. At this time, his father became parts manager for Dalziel Equipment, an International Harvester farm machinery dealer. In 1956 the family moved to the Port Dalhousie area of the town. Peart attended Gracefield School and later Lakeport Secondary School, and describes his childhood as happy and says he experienced a warm family life. By early adolescence he became interested in music and acquired a transistor radio, which he would use to tune into pop music stations broadcasting from Toronto, Hamilton and Welland, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.[4] His first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons, which he later said in his instructional video A Work in Progress did not have much impact on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice drum and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.[4] His parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday and he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music.[4] His stage debut took place that year at the schools Christmas pageant in St. Johns Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie. His next appearance was at Lakeport High School with his first group, The Eternal Triangle. This performance contained an original number titled LSD Forever. At this show he performed his first solo.[4] Peart got a job in Lakeside Park, in Port Dalhousie on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel.[6] He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack resulted in his termination. By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, the Majority, and JR Flood. These bands practiced in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools and roller rinks in towns across Southern Ontario such as Mitchell, Seaforth, and Elmira. They also played in the northern Ontario city of Timmins. Tuesday nights were filled with jam sessions at the Niagara Theatre Centre.[4] Career before joining Rush At eighteen years of age, after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada, Peart travelled to London, England hoping to further his career as a professional musician.[3] Despite playing in several bands and picking up occasional session work, he was forced to support himself by selling trinkets to tourists in a souvenir shop called The Great Frog on Carnaby Street.[7][8] While in London he came across the writings of novelist and objectivist Ayn Rand. Rands writings became a significant philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her writings on individualism and Objectivism inspiring. References to Rands philosophy can be found in his lyrics, most notably Anthem from 1975s Fly by Night and 2112 from 1976s 2112.[9] After eighteen months of dead-end musical gigs, and disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and returned to Canada.[3] Upon returning to St. Catharines, he worked for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment. Joining Rush After returning to Canada, Peart was recruited to play drums for the St. Catharines band Hush, who played on the South Ontario bar circuit.[3] Soon after, a mutual acquaintance convinced Peart to audition for the Toronto-based band Rush, which needed a replacement for its original drummer John Rutsey. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson oversaw the audition. His future band mates describe his arrival that day as somewhat humorous, as he arrived in shorts, driving a battered old Ford Pinto with his drums stored in trashcans. Peart felt the entire audition was a complete disaster.[3] While Lee and Peart hit it off on a personal level (both sharing similar tastes in books and music), Lifeson had a less favourable impression of Peart.[3] After some discussion, Lee and Lifeson accepted Pearts maniacal British style of drumming, reminiscent of The Whos Keith Moon. Peart officially joined the band on July 29, 1974, two weeks before the groups first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1974.[10] Early career with Rush Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the bands primary lyricist. Before joining Rush, he had written few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Pearts previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship.[11] The band was working hard to establish themselves as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, began to undertake extensive touring. His first recording with the band, 1975s Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act,[12] but the follow-up, Caress of Steel, for which the band had high hopes, was greeted with hostility by both fans and critics.[13] In response to this negative reception, most of which was aimed at the B side-spanning epic The Fountain of Lamneth, Peart responded by penning 2112 on their next album of the same name in 1976. The album, despite record company indifference, became their breakthrough and gained a following in the United States.[14] The supporting tour culminated in a three-night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue Peart had dreamed of playing in his days on the Southern Ontario bar circuit and where he was introduced as The Professor on the drum kit by Lee.[15] Peart returned to England for Rushs Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977s A Farewell to Kings in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow-up, Hemispheres, in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as a dark tunnel.[16] Playing style reinvention In 1992, Peart was invited by Buddy Richs daughter, Cathy Rich, to play at the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert in New York City. Peart accepted and performed for the first time with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Peart remarked that he had little time to rehearse, and noted that he was embarrassed to find the band played a different arrangement of the song than the one he had learned.[17] Feeling that his performance left much to be desired, Peart decided to produce and play on two Buddy Rich tribute albums titled Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich in 1994 and 1997 in order to regain his aplomb. While producing the first Buddy Rich tribute album, Peart was struck by the tremendous improvement in ex-Journey drummer Steve Smiths playing, and asked him his secret. Smith responded he had been studying with drum teacher Freddie Gruber. As a result, Peart would put Rush-related activities on hold while he regularly met with Gruber. In early 2007, Peart and Cathy Rich again began discussing yet another Buddy tribute concert. At the recommendation of bassist Jeff Berlin, Peart decided to once again augment his swing style with formal drum lessons, this time under the tutelage of another pupil of Freddie Gruber, Peter Erskine, himself an instructor of Steve Smith.[17] On October 18, 2008, Peart once again performed at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert at New Yorks Hammerstein Ballroom. The concert has since been released on DVD. Family tragedy and recovery Soon after the conclusion of Rushs Test for Echo Tour on July 4, 1997, Pearts first daughter and then-only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on Highway 401 near the town of Brighton, Ontario, on August 10, 1997. His common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20, 1998. Peart, however, maintains that her death was the result of a broken heart and called it a slow suicide by apathy. She just didnt care.[18] In his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes that he told his bandmates at Selenas funeral, consider me retired.[18] Peart took a long sabbatical to mourn and reflect, and travelled extensively throughout North and Central America on his motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 mi). After his journey, Peart decided to return to the band. Peart wrote the book as a chronicle of his geographical and emotional journey. Peart was introduced to photographer Carrie Nuttall in Los Angeles by long-time Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan. They married on September 9, 2000. In early 2001, Peart announced to his bandmates that he was ready to return to recording and performing. The product of the bands return was the 2002 album Vapor Trails. At the start of the ensuing tour in support of the album, it was decided amongst the band members that Peart would not take part in the daily grind of press interviews and Meet and Greet sessions upon their arrival in a new city that typically monopolize a touring bands daily schedule. Peart has always shied away from these types of in-person encounters, and it was decided that exposing him to an endless stream of questions about the tragic events of his life was not necessary.[19][20][21] Since the release of Vapor Trails and his reunion with bandmates, Peart has returned to work as a full-time musician. Rush released an all-covers EP, Feedback in June 2004 and their 18th studio album Snakes & Arrows in May 2007, supported by tours in 2004, 2007, and 2008. In the June 2009 edition of Pearts websites News, Weather, and Sports, titled Under the Marine Layer, he announced that he and Nuttall were expecting their first child.[22] Olivia Louise Peart was born on August 12, 2009. Peart and the rest of the band toured North America, South America and Europe on the Time Machine Tour, which concluded on July 2, 2011, at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington. Musicianship Style and influences Peart (right, behind Alex Lifeson & Geddy Lee) performing with Rush. Pearts drumming skill and technique is well-regarded by fans, fellow musicians, and magazines.[1][23] His influences are eclectic, ranging from Jon Thomas, John Bonham, Michael Giles, Ginger Baker, Phil Collins, Steve Gadd, and Keith Moon, to fusion and jazz drummers Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford and Gene Krupa.[24][25] The Who was the first group that inspired him to write songs and play the drums.[26] Peart is distinguished for playing butt-end out, reversing stick orientation for greater impact and increased rimshot capacity. When I was starting out, Peart said, if I broke the tips off my sticks I couldnt afford to buy new ones, so I would just turn them around and use the other end. I got used to it, and continue to use the heavy end of lighter sticks – it gives me a solid impact, but with less dead weight to sling around.[27] Peart had long played matched grip, but shifted to traditional as part of his style reinvention in the mid-1990s under the tutelage of jazz coach Freddie Gruber.[3] Shortly after the filming of his first instructional DVD A Work in Progress, Peart went back to using primarily matched, though he does switch to traditional when playing songs from Test for Echo and during moments when he feels traditional grip is more appropriate, such as the rudimentary snare drum section of his drum solo. He discusses the details of these switches in the DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo. Read more: answers/topic/neil-peart#ixzz3D7rW5GWS
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:04:44 +0000