Exit...Stage Left (Video)

[LaVillaStrangiatoESL]

My favourite concert video of all time, of any band, full stop. I've watched it more times than I dare to think of. There's only one thing about it that bugs me.

The concert video does not contain the full performance from that night.

It was filmed in Montreal on the Moving Pictures tour, a tour that many a fan would give a lot to have seen. This means that it's missing the following tracks which would have been played on that night:

 

2112 (Overture/Temples of Syrinx)

Hemispheres: Prelude

Beneath, Between and Behind

The Camera Eye

YYZ

Broon's Bane

The Spirit of Radio

Vital Signs

Natural Science

Working Man

Hemispheres (Armageddon)

La Villa Strangiato

 

 

Now I don't know about anyone else on here, but that list makes a die hard 74-85 era fan like me wish for a full release. Immediately!

I understand that when it was oringially released on VHS back in the day they had to work around the constraints of the limits of capacity. This is why I was puzzled when the Replay x3 DVD releases came out with no additional content, even with the added capacity of DVD. They must have filmed the whole show.

 

Anyone thinking the same? Anyone think they'll ever release the rest?

[English Muffin]

I'm thinking it will surface when Rush decide to retire

[Cyclonus X-1]

QUOTE (LaVillaStrangiatoESL @ Jun 14 2012, 12:07 PM)

Anyone think they'll ever release the rest?

At this point, my guess would be no, but I'm with you in that I love the video and I'd like to be able to watch the entire show. I'd also like to check out the whole concert that was recorded for their Grace Under Pressure Tour release. That's my favorite of their live albums/videos.

[Rush Cocky]

QUOTE (English Muffin @ Jun 14 2012, 02:36 PM)

I'm thinking it will surface when Rush decide to retire

Yep.

 

And probably only on Blu-Ray.

[Sin City]

I have a theory about exit stage left...............................don't think the majority of the footage was actually recorded at the concert but at a soundcheck. Why?

The lack of wide shots and how tightly shot 95% of the footage is.

The light show is very restricted and does not show the whole lightshow

Check out the footage from behind Neils drumkit in xanadu, I think. Can you see any audience in the background?

Why has no other footage come to light in over 30 years? The only logical explanation is that none exists.

Like I said, just a theory

 

[beherit]

Several of those songs are on the ESL album.

[jnoble]

I doubt that the extra footage still exists being that this is over 30 years old now. This topic has come up before. Concerning the extra GUP show footage, someone claimed that some company has it and might restore/release it in full someday. ESL was captured on film while GUP was on video.

[ACL]

There are many reasons why the full concert isn't there. One is the limitations of film, like video they do have there limits. Not just in length, but also in cost. If your Director doesn't plan well enough there will be a time when all the cameras have run out of film at once. Also going back 30 plus years there were limits to how many cameras were there, and often at some point one or two cameras would be moved during the show (seems silly, but I've seen it done - just to save money). There aren't many concerts from the '70s or early '80s where the whole show was shot.

 

Artists had funny views on this emerging medium. Big bulky cameras and all these extra crew running around tended to make artists defensive, so many times the director would have to negotiate for only being in their face for a few songs. As well artists also believed that if they released the whole show many people wouldn't attend the live one.

 

There is also equipment failure which again at that time happened often. Even recently an entire Rush show from Toronto's Molson Amphitheater was lost because of and audio issue. I've worked on shows (mostly in foreign countries) where the generator died and the video truck went dead or a fork ran over the cables and cut them. I have seen lots of money wasted on shows that were out of focus, silly i know but the Gods more often than not seem to be against Video shoots.

And then you have a situation like Rush in Rio, where everything should have gone wrong and didn't.

 

Long and short, I doubt the Exit or Grace stuff ever was.

[LaVillaStrangiatoESL]

Read all your feedback and I have to say I agree with a few of you.

 

First of all, I don't believe it was shot at a soundcheck. We all know Rush were capable of performing this sort of thing live, so they would gain nothing from recording a soundcheck. Also, I've heard bootleg tapes from the Moving Pictures tour, recorded from audience mics and they can cut it, theres no question.

 

You raise a good point about cost, but theres a bit of evidence that leads me to believe it was all filmed. In the intro, when the Camera Eye is playing over footage of them setting up, it shows a shot of Alex doing a sort of Pete Townshend windmill on his guitar, footage that doesnt appear in the concert. Also, for the end credits, theres shots of Geddy jumping up in the air that doesnt appear anywhere else. (yeah i've watched it a lot ) It shows the cameras must have been there the whole time...

 

I hope it will surface someday. I would also agree, would love to see the full GUP and ASOH concerts restored too. Just cant help but think that the hopes of seeing those are gone since nothing was added in the Replayx3 releases. Who knows?

[Bangster of Goats]

And it's a *live* version of Camera Eye being played at the beginning.

 

Also, during Neil's little spoken bit, it appears it's his drum solo being shown as he's speaking.

 

Unfortunately, I imagine a lot of that stuff that was filmed ended up on the cutting room floor, or plain just lost or thrown out, and is gone forever.

[jnoble]

QUOTE (Bangster of Goats @ Jun 14 2012, 07:54 PM)

And it's a *live* version of Camera Eye being played at the beginning. Also, during Neil's little spoken bit, it appears it's his drum solo being shown as he's speaking. Unfortunately, I imagine a lot of that stuff that was filmed ended up on the cutting room floor, or plain just lost or thrown out, and is gone forever.

THIS

 

Even if the film does still exist in a jumble on someone's editing room floor, it's probably in bad shape and degraded.

Edited June 18, 2012 by jnoble

[s_b_g]

as someone old enough to have shot film as well as video - can i just knock on the head this idea that somehow people who used to shoot with film didn't understand how long we had to shoot - utterly fk'n ridiculous - if this was the case you would not have had a woodstock film!!

 

i am sure all of esl was captured on film - however they may not have liked what was shot and so may very well have chosen not to release it all - and in the intervening years it may have been scrapped

 

d