THEY may not have had a hit single for almost three decades, but that hasn’t stopped Rush from selling over 40 million records and having more consecutive gold and platinum albums than any other artists apart from The Beatles and The Stones.

Prices at an eye-popping £80 for the best seats didn’t put off the Rush faithful, who crammed into the Arena to see the Canadian trio perform for a staggering three hours.

The set covered material from the vintage Working Man, the instrumental tour de force, La Villa Strangiato, and the hit The Spirit of Radio, to the current Caravan and BU2B from their forthcoming album, Clockwork Angels. The centrepiece was the performance of their classic Moving Pictures opus in its entirety to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Band members Alex Lifeson, Geddy Lee and Neil Peart were backed by a spectacular light and multi-media stage, designed along the lines of a Wallace and Gromit-style time machine.

This was no po-faced muso fest, though, as hilarious videos opened and closed the show, while the band was clearly having the time of their lives on stage and this energy fed into the enthusiastic and appreciative crowd.

Rush have never been fashionable and have been pilloried endlessly by the critics, but their world-wide fan base remains huge and their attraction as a concert draw is undiminished.

Whether any of the current crop of bands will be around next year, let alone 40 years later, is doubtful, but for one night in Newcastle we were glad that Rush have achieved that milestone and let’s hope they are still around for a few more years yet.

Mick Burgess