Rush R40 - Tour Crew Tag Heuer

[maplebank 296]

I was sitting in the garden today in the sunshine and was listening to the newly released 40th anniversary edition of Rush's Permanent Waves.

I haven't listen to this all the way through in ages and it got me reminiscing about their last, and final tour in 2015, which at the time was also a celebration of their 40 years together.

I've seen Rush many times over the years, in both the UK and North America and Canada, and I wasn't going to miss out on this last chance to see them either and I ended up doing a 48 hour round trip from Glasgow to Toronto (yes, it can be done) and not only saw the concert but also managed to see a Blue Jays game too!

Anyway, this was in the June of that year and the tour finished in LA on 1st August and it was reported at the time that the band had presented their long time tour crew with specially engraved watches as a thank you.

I didn't give it much more thought until later that year, in the November, one of my Rush friends, knowing I had the odd watch or 3,  sent me a link to a forum where there was a thread  discussing one of these watches which was being sold by a jewellery store in Toronto!

I won't go into all the detail but following several emails with the dealer the watch was on its way to the UK (and if you think waiting for a watch from China can be slow, Canada Post are even worse, plus I had to pay duty on the watch !)

Ok, the watch is nothing really to get overly exited about and is a quartz Tag Heuer Formula 1

However, the important bit (well, to me anyway) is the back which is engraved firstly with both the Rush and R40 logos

And secondly around the edge of the case back is engraved, "Thanks for the memories..."

And then it has the band names,  Geddy, Alex, Neil.

The watch was brand new and had been sold on by one of the crew (the jeweller wouldn't give any details) but it did come with the box, warranty card and registration details (it was originally purchased by Showtech, Rush's merchandise and tour company, from Wempe Jewellers on 5th Avenue New York)

I've had it now for nearly 5 years and although it doesn't get anywhere the same amount of wear as some of my reps, it's probably my most prized possession and something I could never imagine selling 

  

 

[paccbet 7,176]

Wow a piece of history here! Very cool. RIP Neil 

[tribefan 6,768]

This is killer. And you picked the perfect date for photo shots!

I have not seen any public appearances by either Geddy nor Alex since Neil's death. It would be good to hear from those guys again.

[BravoDelta 22,423]

Cool story and piece 

[GulfGT40 3,162]

Great back story. One to be cherished, congrats.