A tribute concert for the late-Rush drummer Neil Peart has been announced for May 16th. Classic Rock reported A Night For Neil, will be held in his hometown of St. Catherines, Ontario with tickets going onsale this Friday, February 28th. Neil Peart died on January 7th at the age of 67, after battling brain cancer for the past three years.
The show, which is being produced in connection to the Peart family, “is set to feature an array of performers and speakers to pay tribute to the drummer.” There's been no announcement as to whether Rush bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will attend and/or perform at the show.
Proceeds from the event will benefit Overtime Angels, the St. Catherines Hospital and Walker Cancer Center, the Juravinski Hospital & Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ontario and The Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie, Ontario.
2021 will mark the 40th anniversary of Rush's 1981 watershed Moving Pictures collection. During a chat with George Stroumboulopoulos a while back, Neil Peart spoke about the importance of those sessions for the band: “We had been together for six years, and had had enough success that the industry wasn't leaning on us anymore about what we were going to do. And there was a real maturity (and) coming of age for us as a band, because we had been doing so much experimenting of all kinds as individual instrumentalists and as a group of instrumentalists. . . There was nothing self-indulgent, or so-called pretentiousness about it. It was true boyish enthusiasm that was involved in creating all those things.”
