Exit Stage Left Youtube Upload (possible 50th anniversary announcement?)

[TheGhostRider]

On 10/10/2024 at 5:10 PM, snowdog2112 said:

All that is true and I agree with you, and as a collector I want everything I can get. Heck, I would kill for stuff that even most fans around here probably wouldn't care about (Like the 1992 Irvine Meadows show that we now know was filmed by Atlantic, they were on fire at the end of that tour and there's almost no proshot video of the tour).

 

But at the same time I try to be realistic about what to expect and what exists. I seem to be the only person on the forum that was fully expecting there to be no live stuff for the Signals box set at all, I would have been shocked if there was. There's never even been a hint that anything was saved at a professional level from that tour. Do they have simple reference recordings and such? Possibly, and even then it might not still exist in usable condition, but nothing that was ever intended for release. Every single box before that one had live stuff of varying value and length, there's no reason to believe there wouldn't have been some if they had it. And I'm confident any future boxes will, too.

 

Likewise, I'm a little less certain, but still pretty confident, that we'll never see any more footage of any of the 1980s concert videos. And I sure hope I'm wrong about that. And I guess we'll find out soon enough when the GUP box comes, but there wasn't even a hint when the MP box was released that more footage of ESL might exist. I just think it's a longshot. But of course you're right, at least ESL and ASOH were both shot on film and I'd love remastered versions of those even if they only have the same content (although they could add Lock and Key back in). Again, I wouldn't bet my life or my house that they don't have them, but I've always been extremely pessimistic. I think those projects were outsourced back then, with short-term thinking, and the rest was trashed or has rotted away or gotten lost since.

 

Also, as much as I want more stuff, when I see many other major bands it's pretty astonishing how much we've gotten as Rush fans over the years. Poor Van Halen fans for example never got a single live Blu-ray or official documentary, not a single live release from the original band lineup of any kind (which is a crime), there are only two official live albums in their entire career, and literally the only archive release in their entire history was the Carnal Knowledge box set released this summer with an abbreviated show from Dallas. That's it. As a collector of tons of bands Rush is way near the top in terms of releases of all kinds. So we should at least complain with some context. If you had told me in the late 90s when the band was dead that every single future tour would be filmed and released on Blu-ray and we'd have many documentaries and the 1974 concert video and the 1976 footage and some alternate songs from ATWAS and a full AFTK concert mixed by Terry Brown and a full MP show and more Permanent Waves live songs and the 1990 footage and the 1997 footage and so on I would have not believed it. 

 

Having said all that, we should have every reason to believe they still have the remaining half of the 1990 Auburn Hills show, the remaining half of the 1997 Toronto show, the 1992 Irvine Meadows show, etc. And we know for a fact many shows were professionally recorded on the Power Windows and Hold Your Fire and Counterparts and Test For Echo tours, and the London 1992 RTB tour, and the Edmonton Moving Pictures show (along with a bunch more Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures shows). Plus we know that the 1979 Hammersmith shows were recorded and filmed. That's the one that blows my mind that no one ever talks or asks about because they spoke openly about it at the time, it's not just some wild speculation. 

 

So there's a still a lot archived that we know of, and maybe a few things that we don't, but regardless it's up to the hands-on people at this point. It's not realistic to expect Geddy and Alex in their 70s to say "Hey, let's get together and spend a bunch of time digging through old boxes at a warehouse to see if we can find hidden gems of ourselves!" It's out of their hands and I don't blame them for saying "I don't know, ask someone else" at this point. Maybe we'll still get something this fall for the 50th. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I once read a YouTube comment from a guy who claimed to Work on Beyond The Lighted Stage who claimed that the film reels still existed for ESL (No mention of ASOH)and despite his pleas nobody cared or was interested in opening the cans to see what was actually inside. Obviously there's no way of verifying that claim but it does leave us with some interesting questions: Like what exactly exists in the archives?

[Rush Didact]

1 hour ago, TheGhostRider said:

I once read a YouTube comment from a guy who claimed to Work on Beyond The Lighted Stage who claimed that the film reels still existed for ESL (No mention of ASOH)and despite his pleas nobody cared or was interested in opening the cans to see what was actually inside. Obviously there's no way of verifying that claim but it does leave us with some interesting questions: Like what exactly exists in the archives?

 

The same guy posted that story over on the Steve Hoffman forums. I tend to believe him, it's a weird thing to lie about.

[TheAnarchist2112]

Some stuff I'd like to see released as part of a 50th Anniversary set:

 

- Ivor Wynne Stadium 1979 (doesn't even have to be the full concert, I just wanna see more!)

- the rest of Auburn Hills 1990

- Auburn Hills 1991

- irvine 1992

- the rest of toronto 1997

 

I'm sure I'll think of more stuff, but that's all for now

 

[BanterFromTheCosmos]

The video quality's nothing to write home about, but the sound on the uploads is a nice improvement over my worn out VHS. The less said about the garbage sounding Replay version, the better. Even the 5.1 on there is dreadfully loud and smashed. I was hoping they'd follow up on this by uploading Grace Under Pressure Tour and Show of Hands, but the Vevo channel hasn't had any additional activity in a week. So why would they unceremoniously put Exit online with no explanation. Did they think StickHits was 'stealing' potential views with their versions and then went "screw it, let's just upload it ourselves"? But on the other hand, you think they'd simply just rip the DVD and upload that version. Seems like it'd be less work than going out of their way to do a VHS or laserdisc capture. Which again, I guess, goes back to StickHits with their remaster. Maybe the label is aware that people don't like how bad the Replay DVDs sound.

 

Now as for whether or not this has anything to do with a potential 50th anniversary release, your guess is as good as mine. It was mentioned in the GUP thread that something is supposedly being done with the Molson Amphitheatre show. If this is true, then that plus Exit Stage Left getting uploaded to the official YouTube channel out of the blue could hint that the set might be something along the lines of a more comprehensive R40. For now though, we have no idea. The upload may very well be just that; an out of the blue thing.

Edited October 18, 2024 by BanterFromTheCosmos

[condemned2bfree]

On 10/8/2024 at 10:30 PM, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

 

Santa and the Snowdog

Fly By Christmas Night

The Christmas Trees

Open Presents

The Spirit of Radio Past

Red Poinsettia

Where's My Present?

 

Leave That Present Alone.

[ytserush]

On 10/18/2024 at 12:01 PM, BanterFromTheCosmos said:

The video quality's nothing to write home about, but the sound on the uploads is a nice improvement over my worn out VHS. The less said about the garbage sounding Replay version, the better. Even the 5.1 on there is dreadfully loud and smashed. I was hoping they'd follow up on this by uploading Grace Under Pressure Tour and Show of Hands, but the Vevo channel hasn't had any additional activity in a week. So why would they unceremoniously put Exit online with no explanation. Did they think StickHits was 'stealing' potential views with their versions and then went "screw it, let's just upload it ourselves"? But on the other hand, you think they'd simply just rip the DVD and upload that version. Seems like it'd be less work than going out of their way to do a VHS or laserdisc capture. Which again, I guess, goes back to StickHits with their remaster. Maybe the label is aware that people don't like how bad the Replay DVDs sound.

 

Now as for whether or not this has anything to do with a potential 50th anniversary release, your guess is as good as mine. It was mentioned in the GUP thread that something is supposedly being done with the Molson Amphitheatre show. If this is true, then that plus Exit Stage Left getting uploaded to the official YouTube channel out of the blue could hint that the set might be something along the lines of a more comprehensive R40. For now though, we have no idea. The upload may very well be just that; an out of the blue thing.

 

Perhaps the label thinks putting 4K videos on you tube is something to get excited about.

[BanterFromTheCosmos]

It's a little sad that this upload just sorta came and went with little fanfare. I'm glad there's an easily available version that's better than the garbage DVD remix without having to resort to obsolete video formats, but it'd be nice to hear it at a higher bitrate than 128kbps. A physical release wouldn't hurt either...

[Rush Didact]

Does anyone have a rip of the ESL laserdisc available? I've looked and I can't find it anywhere.

[currygoat11]

5 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

Does anyone have a rip of the ESL laserdisc available? I've looked and I can't find it anywhere.

 

I have a copy. Give me some time to upload to the cloud, will let you know..

[Rush Didact]

15 minutes ago, currygoat11 said:

 

I have a copy. Give me some time to upload to the cloud, will let you know..

 

You're a saint! Is it lossless audio? That's the part I'm most interested in. The best thing about laserdiscs was the CD standard audio track...

[currygoat11]

1 hour ago, Rush Didact said:

 

You're a saint! Is it lossless audio? That's the part I'm most interested in. The best thing about laserdiscs was the CD standard audio track...

 

full disclosure, the rip I have is straight from the laserdisc and was transferred to a dvd format. So the bitrate should be equivalent to the laserdisc, although I admit I haven't verified this myself.

[currygoat11]

Here, let me know if you cannot get to this link. The file is 4GB in size.  It is an .iso so vlc player should be able to open it.

 

https://mega.nz/file/5sIHEZgb#WiqX_Smv6aQu8_OXX4PMPZ8UJRE26Pl_ShmNHERochw

[Rush Didact]

3 hours ago, currygoat11 said:

Here, let me know if you cannot get to this link. The file is 4GB in size.  It is an .iso so vlc player should be able to open it.

 

https://mega.nz/file/5sIHEZgb#WiqX_Smv6aQu8_OXX4PMPZ8UJRE26Pl_ShmNHERochw

 

Thank you, I really appreciate this! :)

[Rush Didact]

Wow.

 

Well, of the three versions I've now heard — the laserdisc, the DVD, and the recent uploads to Youtube — the Youtube version sounds FAR and away the best.  The laserdisc is thin and trashy, the DVD is loud and trashy, and Youtube sounds like something entirely different.  It's way cleaner than any other source out there and is definitely NOT just a copy of the laserdisc audio.

 

What the hell, Rush?  Did you guys really go back to the master tapes for this one, just to sync this amazing-sounding audio to a crappy-looking AI-upscaled Youtube video??

 

Can someone on the inside please just do this properly, scan the damn film, and get a blu-ray out into the world?!

 

 

Edited November 2, 2024 by Rush Didact

[BanterFromTheCosmos]

In an ideal world, these Youtube uploads would just be a teaser for casual fans. Meanwhile, they're holding back a properly restored and complete ESL (along with the other other 80s concert films + whatever else) for R50. I know it damn well won't happen, but a man can dream, right?

 

It's been a month since the channel started uploading the videos with nothing else since. There's no sign that this was leading up to anything unfortunately; they probably just wanted to highlight some concert footage from their heyday and Exit Stage Left was the most convenient option for that. Doesn't explain why bothered to remix or remaster the audio as opposed to lazily using the Replay X3 version instead, but someone at the label has to know how terrible those DVDs are. 

Edited November 2, 2024 by BanterFromTheCosmos

[ytserush]

15 hours ago, Rush Didact said:

Wow.

 

Well, of the three versions I've now heard — the laserdisc, the DVD, and the recent uploads to Youtube — the Youtube version sounds FAR and away the best.  The laserdisc is thin and trashy, the DVD is loud and trashy, and Youtube sounds like something entirely different.  It's way cleaner than any other source out there and is definitely NOT just a copy of the laserdisc audio.

 

What the hell, Rush?  Did you guys really go back to the master tapes for this one, just to sync this amazing-sounding audio to a crappy-looking AI-upscaled Youtube video??

 

Can someone on the inside please just do this properly, scan the damn film, and get a blu-ray out into the world?!

 

 

 

Maybe they feel it's not a good return on their investment.