The videos are popping up: Rush and Anika Nilles live

So it has happened. Rush is actually on tour, again.

Ok, sure, I get it. I might even do some - meaning a lot of - filming myself if I were there. 

Anika is a fantastic drummer, she has huge shoes to fill, but she's a pro. For the hardcore Rush enthusiast, the "new gal" of course is a huge issue. But let's not forget, she's a top-notch, highly trained musician - and she's a human being. OF COURSE she nails it. lol. What did you expect? Of course all eyes are on her, and that might be a good reason to show some restraint. Yes, we wanna give her all the love and respect, but this can also be a little bit overwhelming for the human soul on the receiving end.

Lots of Rush live videos are popping up on YouTube since yesterday, and, obviously, it's pointless to somehow attempt to channel the flood. But, maybe just as a little reminder of the human being behind the icon, maybe before uploading your Anika Nilles video to the internet, you wanna ask yourself: Does the world really need every last bit and angle of her and her drumkit? Maybe will uploading next year do? So when she goes online, she isn't completely overwhelmed by thousands of HD videos of herself, with millions of comments dissecting her performance, looks, persona? Or something like that.

The same, of course, goes for Ged and The Lerxst. But they had some time to adjust, it didn't happen over basically one live show.

Anyway. Yes, I know. It's pointless. Everybody loves Neil, everybody loves Anika. 

I am guilty, too. We want Rush! ;-)

It's a scandal

Guitar master BERTH, who has created hundreds of millions of views for YouTube, reports that YouTube isn't capable of sending him a letter to verify his new address. 

It's a scandal. One of the biggest (and fastest) guitar players on YouTube, who has a huge audience, and is very successfully collaborating with other YouTubers, creating even more views on other channels, has moved. Now, when you move house, you basically tell your new home address to let's say your bank, and that's it, you can still access your money.

But not with YouTube. According to BERNTH's report, he has provided his new address to YouTube, but they weren't capable of sending him a letter with a verification code for his YouTube account. He requested a resend, three times, and received nothing.

Now YouTube shut down one of his channels, and he's worried about his main channel with 1.52 million subscribers.

Let that sink in: One of the biggest tech companies in the world isn't capable of properly checking an address and sending a letter. Probably the most fundamental process of any administrative contact with a person. In this case, a user that has provided almost 400 million views for them.

Probably because some sort of AI is handling these kinds of issues. Some stupid bot can't read a certain address - and, bang, you're dead.

Is that it? Is that what we invest our time and passion in? Is that the future we want, with algorithm-driven chats, phones, cars, search engines, etc.? Well, you decide, when you choose your next chat, phone, car, search engine.

Big respect to BERNTH for not forgetting about the huge benefits he got from YouTube. Yes, it's true. We got, and get, a lot from YouTube. One must not forget that it's a tool, not a personal relationship. Which, of course, is the sad part: There seems to be no person behind YouTube, it's just this algorithm that has no responsibility or empathy.

From a human perspective, it's just scandalous that a big company seems to be driving away important members of the community, for the simplest, sometimes most random reasons a human would easily be able to fix in just minutes, maybe seconds.

But then, of course, there are alternatives to YouTube and likes of it. "AI-free" is slowly, but steadily, becoming a sign of quality. It remains to be seen how YouTube, Google, etc. will handle this evolution, and how "AI-free" will keep up.

Anyway, here's BERNTH's video, watch it, it's great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXwGHSPfBp4

www.youtube.com/@Bernthguitar

 

 

"Grace Under Pressure" reissue, Rush live 1984 - the full performance!

In case you missed it: About two months ago, Rush put their live video "Grace Under Pressure" reissue on YouTube - it's about 40 minutes longer than the original VHS tape release!

It looks like Rush is doing a lot of PR these days, which is no surprise, since they're preparing to go on tour with new drummer Anika Nilles. They popped up the Juno Awards, just had two interviews with Rick Beato, ... Among their advertising actions is also a reissue of their classic "Grace Under Pressure" live audio and video, originally recorded at Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, 1984. 

Amazingly, the new video isn't just a digitally enhanced version of the original release, or subsequent DVD versions, but contains a lot of "new" content: Where the VHS had only about 60 minutes of footage, which is clearly shorter than a Rush concert is supposed to be, the reissue is more than 100 minutes long, it's the full performance, containing more Rush music!

Needless to say, with a contemporary new Rush release, picture and sound quality is probably the best you can get out of the source material. (Wow, "Witch Hunt" sounds very epic in this one!) But what really stands out are "Subdivisions", "The Body Electric", "Between The Wheels", a couple of other songs, and some proper drumming by Neil Peart we didn't get to see and hear previously. 

Great stuff!

Make sure you check out the links below, support Rush on YouTube and elsewhere!

Thanks, Rush! Und herzlichen Glückwunsch, Anika!

"Rush - Grace Under Pressure Tour: Live in Toronto, 1984 | Full Concert"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7A0bnsM1tc

https://www.youtube.com/@rush

https://www.rush.com/grace-under-pressure-reissue/

https://rush.lnk.to/graceunderpressure

Thank you, Mr. Anderson

That's very kind of you, Ian Anderson / Jethro Tull / EMI / Parlophone. 

Thank you very much. :-)

(I don't know who exactly holds the rights.)

A friendly copyright notice from Jethro Tull. Thanks! :-)

 

Amp-issimo

Lots of different amps to experiment with. :-)

 

Ozzy Osbourne dead

So the unthinkable has happened. Today, Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince Of Darkness, passed away, aged 76.

Only hours ago, I was listening to Black Sabbath's "Master Of Reality" album, thinking: That's quite a statement by Ozzy. "Alright now!" And their songwriting is actually really nice, it has a great moderate pacing, it's heavy, and sometimes fast, but never hectic. The experience is more like a story that someone reads to you, than the sudden rush of energy one would typically associate with stressful heavy metal music.

For some time, many years ago, I used to be a huge Ozzy fan. "Blizzard Of Ozz", "Diary Of A Madman", and probably most of all "Bark At The Moon" were among the most played albums in my collection. I tried to play Randy Rhoads' guitar riffs and lines, and especially the "Ultimate Sin" tour live concert video, with Jake E. Lee's amazing guitar solo, had a massive impact on me.

I was also deeply impressed by Zakk Wylde's "Miracle Man" riff and solo, and the "No Rest For The Wicked" album. Later Ozzy albums didn't have that much effect on me - I had mostly moved on to listening to jazz and fusion music. 

To this day, my Ozzy period is among the defining ingredients of my musical understanding. It's part of the essence of what defines heavy metal for me, and also part of what defines guitar playing for me. I spent more time on studying Randy Rhoads transcriptions, rewatching Jake E. Lee's live solo, and practicing Zakk Wylde's "Miracle Man" triad-picking, than on any other musician or band. I listened to a lot of Van Halen, Scott Henderson, and John McLaughlin, but I never studied these like I studied the Ozzy guitarists.

Especially Randy Rhoads is obvious standard literature for the heavy metal guitar player - but I'm wondering about the overall impact of Ozzy Osbourne's guitar players. There must have been tens of thousands of kids like me, going through the same experience of growing up, and learning how to play guitar, with exactly these records. Let's imagine that Ozzy Osbourne had made different choices, selected other musicians, had less success - oh wow, what a loss. Imagine there was no "Revelation (Mother Earth)" on "Blizzard Of Ozz", imagine there was a default bluesy-shreddy guitar solo on "Flying High Again", imagine Jake E. Lee's and Zakk Wylde's spectacular playing wouldn't have gotten massive exposure with Ozzy's success. That thought almost hurts.

So, besides the popularity Ozzy Osbourne has achieved with Black Sabbath, as a musician under his own name, as a celebrity on TV, and as a general pop culture icon titled the "Prince Of Darkness", his choices in music must have had, and probably still have, a big impact on guitar playing in general. His career was a platform for a handful of outstanding guitar players, and has certainly inspired countless kids to pick up a guitar and try their best.

Obviously, I never met Ozzy Osbourne. From what I've seen, he must've been a very nice guy. Losing him means losing one of the defining figures of heavy metal - and an ambassador of high quality guitar playing.

Thanks for the music & the memories, Ozzy. Rest in peace. 

John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (3 December 1948 - 22 July 2025)

 

Ephemeral Escapism (music video)

A somewhat progrocky composition for electric guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXgqYRE9wI

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