Rushing to Judgement February 2026

So I’ve been doing some semi-casual internetting and quite a bit of speculative mathing and here’s how it breaks down.

There are tickets still available at a (somewhat) reasonable price for the December ’26 gigs in Edmonton. Now, if you don’t have your map zoomed in too close, it looks like Vancouver to Edmonton is a pretty easy drive. I would imagine it’s especially delightful in December in the famously mild Canadian climate.

Oh, wait. Bloody hell! Edmonton is 1100km from Vancouver! What? How cold? How much snow?

Okay, new plan. It turns out you can actually fly direct from Heathrow to Edmonton. Who knew? I think, in my head, Edmonton is kinda like that town in Northern Exposure, but they have a Zoo and a University and the West Edmonton Mall, it’s right there on Google Maps. So, direct flight to the metropolis that is Alberta’s capital city and home to… checks notes… 1.9 million people. A not entirely unreasonable seat in the nose-bleeds high above stage left (exit where appropriate) and we’re good to go.

Now, how many books am I gonna have to sell to pay for this little Trek? Take that, times that, by that, add the... carry the… Oh. Oh boy, as you were… It appears I’m probably not going to be able to find a way to justify a trip to North America next year and will, instead, have to double the household budget for knee pads and votive offerings while I pray extra hard.

Yes, you heard it here last. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have announced, booked and massively over-subscribed a series of tour dates in 2026 and I, for one, could only be happier if they stop piling on dates in America’s over-indulged top-half and get their asses on a plane over the pond to dear old, scandalously neglected, Blighty.

Last week I was walking up the high-street of our small market town (way smaller than Edmonton,  slightly larger than that place in Northern Exposure) when a bloke of a similar vintage stopped me to ask if I had heard the news? Never met the fella before, might never again, but my Rush hoodie was a signal. He didn’t just want to make sure I’d seen the beacons had been lit, he also wanted to ask me what I thought?

See, it’s not Rush that are touring in ’26. That would not be possible since the quite literal pulse of the band left us back in January 2020. Heartbreakingly, Neal Peart got out early to avoid the 2020 social distanced crowds. When I found out I wept as I have never wept before or since for a person I only knew from his images on magazines and video screens and from his art that still lives inside a soul his lyrics helped to craft.

When Peart left us, everyone knew Rush would never again take to the stage. Geddy and Alex knew it too, and seemed to be at peace with that. Until, we are now informed, (with the help of Paul McCartney) they realised there were not.

I’m also getting to the point in my professional writing career where I might find myself retired, not out of choice but because there is no longer a market for what I have to sell. When and if that day comes I’m not sure what or how I will feel, but I’m now reasonably sure I will remain a writer in my bones - not just because it is what I do, but because it is what and who I am and it is where I find my joy.

Having been touring musicians their whole lives it’s entirely understandable Geddy and Alex have also come to realise they deserve to go where their joy is. I feel certain the great man would not deny them that. But, what makes the announcement they are going to tour again all the more wonderful and joyful, is the news of who they are touring with.

I had not heard of Anika Niles until the announcement dropped. Obviously I immediately did a deep dive and it’s obvious the lady can properly play. She has chops for days. More important, this choice of drummer says something very important. It says this is not Rush, it is something at the same time old familiar and wonderful and entirely new. It says they are not replacing the irreplaceable, but are honouring him in the best way possible - by choosing someone I believe he would absolutely have chosen had he been here to do so.

I love this for them. I love this for me. I love this for a world that seems somehow a little more joyful knowing two old men and an astonishingly talented young woman are soon going to be filling it with music.

So now fellas, all that being said, how can we get you into a slightly shop-spoiled, centrally located National Exhibition Centre with room for you, your double neck guitars and 15000 of your closest friends?

Update! February 2026

They've aonly gone and done it!

Extra dates, Europe in 2027 - including 4 nights in the UK for what appears to be about 80 000 seats. 

Hopefully, I'll get some for the first night at the O2 (and maybe Manchester - if they aren't priced to make my nose literally bleed.)

So, see you there? 

"Freeze this moment a little bit longer, make each sensation a little bit stronger..."