Review | Geddy Lee is joined by Alex Lifeson for My Effin’ Life in Conversation at Portsmouth Guildhall: "It's the Rush fan's holy grail"

This is a five-date UK tour where Geddy Lee the singer/bassist of legendary prog-rockers Rush is being interviewed by a different guest each night, ostensibly plugging his new autobiography My Effin’ Life. Previous UK shows have had Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers, Melissa Auf Der Maur of Hole/Smashing Pumpkins and comedian Phil Jupitus – fine guests all.

But at Portsmouth Guildhall Rush’s guitarist Alex Lifeson is first on stage and the entire room immediately erupts with a lengthy standing ovation. When Lee eventually emerges from the wings, he jokes to his lifelong friend: “They seem pleased to see you – my work here is done.”

The Canadian trio had last toured in 2015 and the death of drummer Neil Peart in January 2020 following a three year battle with cancer ended any chance of a full reunion. Therefore a rare chance to see these two together on stage again, even if they’re not playing music, is the Rush fan’s holy grail.

The pair settle in to a stage set which resembles a cosy living room, and rather than the more typical interviewer/subject dynamic we get two old friends reminiscing on a career that has spanned five decades. It would be easy for this to fall into self-indulgence, but the pair are engaging company – anecdotes and memories flood out of them. Of course, their absent friend looms large on proceedings as they recall him frequently – including their wildly different perceptions of Peart when he auditioned for them. It’s this aspect which is most fascinating – the subjective nature of memory and their differing recollections of the same events. While Lee’s recollections alone would have been good enough for fans, the two together adds a whole extra dimension to the evening.

We also get to hear about how they “terrified” Kiss’ Paul Stanley by playing him their then-unreleased 1975 album Caress of Steel while on tour together, recording antics and touring escapades among many other things. While much of it is very funny, it is also deeply touching when they talk about how Peart’s daughter and first wife died within 10 months of each other with the band going on hold while he grieved, unsure if he’d ever return to the fold. And then they cover Peart’s final years – the drummer revealed his illness to his bandmates, but it was kept hidden from the public. The affection and bond between the three men is still so clear.

While there’s no live music, their obvious chemistry creates a great double-act. It is part comic dialogue, part mutual therapy – and when the first half overruns by a good 20 minutes no one is complaining.

The second half is a Q&A with questions submitted in advance from the audience with rock journalist Phil Wilding keeping things running (relatively) smoothly, and there’s a wide variety of well-informed queries, covering Geddy’s bass set-up, his and Lifeson’s love of fine wines, appearing at the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows, and many more subjects – triggering yet more anecdotes.

Any Rush fans who were considering coming to the show but passed it up will be kicking themselves at missing this. This was something really very special.