RUSH - EXIT STAGE LEFT uncut restored film... Why not?

I was just internally humming YYZ in my head and once more came upon the frustration of not having footage of Rush playing this and many other tunes from the Moving Pictures tour.



The original cut of Exit Stage Left was severly abridged in comparison to the complete show(s).
The footage looks like it's been shot on film so if the original reels could be found, we could potentially have a really nice looking HD upgrade as well as the songs that were left out of the original cut.
I am relatively new to Rush, do any of the more knowledgeable fans know if any such project has ever been attempted or would indeed be possible?

 

RUSH never played in Oz, so any chance to see this film would be great. Bonus is hearing Geddy in full throat during the ‘helium years’.

 

1. 2112 Part I: Overture
2. 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
3. Freewill
4. Limelight
5. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part I: Prelude
6. Beneath, Between & Behind
7. The Camera Eye
8. YYZ
9. Drum Solo
10. Broon's Bane
11. The Trees
12. Xanadu
13. The Spirit of Radio
14. Red Barchetta
15. Closer to the Heart
16. Tom Sawyer
17. Vital Signs
18. Natural Science
19. Working Man
20. Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres Part IV: Armageddon
21. By-Tor & The Snow Dog
22. In the End
23. In the Mood
24. 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale
25. La Villa Strangiato

 

I would be totally all for it!
If well done it would be a jewel in the collection.

 

It is even known if they filmed the whole show?

 

I guess the answer is YES

I can't imagine hiring all the film crew just to capture 52 min of footage.
The concert was taped multitracked in full. So it's pretty obvious to think that it was filmed complete as well

 

Definitely. Completely illogical to set up a film crew and shoot sections.

Generally you film the whole thing and edit what you want seen/heard

 

Yet it happened all the time. Just a few examples that have been discussed on these boards in the last few months:
Hendrix Maui 1970
Springsteen Tempe 1980
Pink Floyd Delicate Sound of Thunder 1988

Reasons I’ve heard include “film isn’t cheap” and “the artist didn’t want bright lighting and camera crews distracting the audience from their performance through the entire show.”

 

That's craziness.
Hiring a film crew isn't cheap either, and a good one should be able to be reasonably inconspicuous.
The bright lighting and camera crew through the show would better than keep being turned on and off lol
Also filming often has issues, changes of reels etc.... so either way it seems illogical... but I am not an expert

 

In the case of DSOT, Welcome To The Machine was the only song not filmed and probably this was for political or logistic reasons as opposed to fragmented shooting.

 

Hear Hear to this idea!

Would absolutely love to see a remastered blu-ray of this come out, just like they did with McCartney's Rockshow film a few years back that covered his 75-76 tour.

 

“Another Brick in the Wall Part Two” was also not filmed. I don’t believe that there has been an official explanation for why those songs weren’t filmed, but the hypothesis that they weren’t filmed because they’re written by Waters (and only Waters) doesn’t add up: the same is true of “Money,” which was filmed.

 

Maybe those songs were film breaks.

 

I was pretty disappointed that they didn't restore the full shows when these were reissued on DVD back in the day. It'd be a bummer if the original tapes no longer existed, but it's a distinct possibility.

 

Possibly... but they filmed the entire first set (11 songs in a row) yet skipped the sixth and ninth songs of the second set. Seems to suggest they could have filmed them if they’d wanted to.

 

Is Moving Pictures the next anniversary edition due? They need to at least include the full show in audio form. I would imagine this will be a bigger deluxe edition than any of the previous ones.

 

Probably wanted less $$ to go to old Roger.

 

I worked on the Rush doc, 'Beyond The Lighted Stage'. I saw the film canisters. I implored the producers to open them. I lost that battle.

 

I find myself wondering when the super-deluxe Moving Pictures will be announced...

I also wonder if there will be another vinyl reissue of an existing live album/film...

 

Yeah the complete Grace tour would be great as well.


For Genesis Visible Touch video did not record In the Cage from Wembley to save tape. Which was stupid.
We also need uncut uninterrupted live footage from 1976 and 1981.

 

Now I want to see if there’s any footage of Camera Eye.

 

This won’t happen for a number of reasons.
The people who own Rush’s catalog won’t spend the money to have the show recut, even if those reels of film exist.
The one advocate for Rush fans in the rerelease of their material for the 40th anniversary sets, Andy Curran, was not involved in the Permanent Waves box set because he is no longer with Anthem/Olé. And look at what we got? They had enough live recordings to release a full live show but instead there was 75% of the set released, with songs out of sequence with the set list, with fades in between songs. There was no 5.1 mix, which I understand why because the multi tracks are gone... BUT, they charged about the same amount for that box set as the others that had a 5.1 and a full live show (or as much of a show as what was available that was recorded on reels - Pink Pop.)
I’d suggest writing to Jeff Fura at UMe to try to convince him to be kinder to us with the 40th for Moving Pictures/Exit. I would hope they would at least do a full audio of an MP show, but...
The other reason I suspect you won’t see a full show for Exit on film is that it’s likely they did not film the whole show.
You have to remember that Rush was heavily in debt until they started turning a profit on the PeW tour. Exit was filmed very early in the MP tour. They were still cash conscious at that point and film is expensive. So, it’s very likely Ray Daniels was working on a tight budget and that only portions of the show were filmed.
So... either way, I’d just accept that nothing real earth shattering is coming next year.

 

Such a shame....

 

Why exactly were they heavy in debt in 1980?

Was under the impression that Permanent Waves was a hit, and they seemed to play good sized venues in the late 70s early 80s?