RUSH drummer Neil Peart has posted the June blog dubbed News, Weather And Sports on his official website. An excerpt follows:

"The Romans once claimed, “All roads lead to Rome,” and coincidentally (or not), the English have long said the same about London. That makes a good segue to where all of these singletracks (and B-roads, A-roads, and occasional M-ways) were leading us: to the cities where I had to show up and play the drums with Rush.

(Why, some people actually thought that was the reason we were there!)

After the initial shows in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Malmo, Sweden, we played that first-ever show in Ireland, in Dublin, and that was a thrill. (In the comic movie that opens our Time Machine shows, I have a minor role as an Irish cop named O’Malley, and I was delighted when the audience cheered when O’Malley said, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—sounds like the damned howling in Hades,” and they cheered again when Alex’s “Slobovich” mentioned the name “O’Malley.”) Then came some good shows in Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, and finally London. Rotterdam and Frankfurt would follow, and I always explain that every show is important to a dedicated professional, but somehow London, like Toronto, is always “a big one” for me—a kind of home-town show.

Perhaps the most significant time of my youth was spent in London, when I was nineteen and twenty years old, living away from home—so far from home—for the first time, and making my own way. I played in a couple of bands around the London pubs, and even the famous Marquee, as well as some of the universities and dance clubs around the country. (Every time I visit the Lake District, I remember playing in Kendal and Whitehaven back in 1971 with a short-lived band called English Rose—just prior to my “starving artist” period, when that band ran out of work.)

And the shows I saw there in those years—like THE WHO at the Oval Cricket Ground on their Who’s Next tour, with ROD STEWART and THE FACES, PINK FLOYD at the Rainbow Theater, and TONY BENNETT Bennett at the London Palladium. (“One of these things is not like the other”—I know. But that was a great show, and the drummer, Kenny Clare, was brilliant.)"

Check out the entire blog entry here.

As previously reported recently, Neil Peart will be a guest on the Late Show With David Letterman as part of Drum Solo Week on Thursday, June 9th.

According to MusicRadar.com, the show's producers have asked the renowned sticksman, to keep his solo down to "three, maybe four minutes," says Peart.

Just back from a morning rehearsal, Peart admits that when he was approached to be part of Drum Solos Week, his initial reaction was, "I don't know…it's not really my thing. But then I thought, Hey, a drum solo on TV - sounds great! I'd be very honored to be the ambassador to drum solos."

Peart tells MusicRadar.com that he's not used to trimming down his solo. "My regular live drum solo is about eight and a half minutes, so I decided I'd have to do a mental edit, accelerate the changes and minimize the improvisational parts and so on. At the rehearsal, during my first attempt, I had it down to about four minutes and 50 seconds, and the producers were giving me these worrisome looks. I got it down to about four minutes and two seconds, which I think is acceptable."

Read the entire interview here.