Intro (0:53)
The Big Money (5:52)
Subdivisions (5:19)
Marathon (6:32)
Turn The Page (4:40)
Manhattan Project (5:00)
Mission (5:44)
Distant Early Warning (5:18)
Mystic Rhythms (5:32)
Witch Hunt (Part III Of Fear) (3:55)
The Rhythm Method (Drum Solo) (4:34)
Force Ten (4:50)
Time Stand Still (5:10)
Red Sector A (5:12)
Closer To The Heart (4:53)
Geddy Lee-bass guitar, synthesizers, vocals
Alex Lifeson-guitars, synthesizers, backing vocals
Neil Peart-acoustic and electronic percussion
Produced by Rush
Engineered by Paul Northfield
Recorded during the
Hold Your Fire tour '88: Birmingham UK, New Orleans, Phoenix, and San
Diego; and the
Power Windows tour '86: Meadowlands, New Jersey.
Live recording by Le Mobile, assisted by Dave Roberts; and Advision Mobile,
assisted by Gary Stewart and Peter Craigie. Engineered by Guy Charbonneau.
Executive Production by Val Azzoli.
Mixed at McClear Place Studios, Toronto, assisted by Rick Anderson
Mastered by Bob Ludwig and Brian Lee at Gateway Mastering Studios, Portland,
Maine
Art Direction and Design by Hugh Syme
Photography by Fin Costello and Dimo Safari
The Rockin' Constructivists created by John Halfpenny
The voice of Aimee Mann appears courtesy of Epic Records.
Management by Ray Danniels, SRO Management Inc., Toronto
Tour Manager and Lighting Director: Howard Ungerleider
President and Stage Manager: Liam Birt
Production Manager: Nick Kotos
Concert Sound Engineer: Jon Erickson
Stage Left Technician: Skip Gildersleeve
Centre Stage Technician: Larry Allen
Stage Right Technician: Jim Johnson
Synthesizer Care and Feeding: Tony Geranios
Stage Monitor Engineer: Steve Byron
Concert Projectionist: Lee Tenner
Personal Shreve: Kevin Flewitt
Carpenter (and Stage Right Assistant): George Steinert
Concert Sound by Audio Analysts; Michael Caron, Paul Parker, Dan Schriber
and Mike Mule
Lighting and See Factor Inc; Frank Sciling, Jack Funk, Conrad Coriz, Roy
Niendorf, Ethan Weber, Russell Sladek
Varilites: Matthew Druzbik, Daniel Koniar, Bill Snawder
Rear Screen Projections created by Keen Pitures, Norman Stangl
Concert Rigging by Myriad/One: Billy Collins, Don Collins, Tim Wendt,
Bill Spoon
Lasers by Laser Media: Craig Spredeman; and Laserlite FX: Stev Magyar
Drivers: Tom Whittaker, Mac MacLear, John Davis, Daniel Harmer, Tom Hartman,
Leonard Southwick, Bill Barlow, Rande Wolters, and Russell Fleming
Booking Agencies: International Creative Management, NYC, The Agency Group,
London; The Agency, Toronto
For valuable and continuing technical assistance we would like to thank
Jim Burgess and Saved By Technology, Wal basses, Signature guitars, Ludwig
drums, Avedis Zildjian cymbals, Russ Heinl, and The Percussion Center,
Fort Wayne.
And at SRO/Anthem: Wayner, Stu Gaatz, Pegi, Sheila, Kim, Evelyn, Bob,
Cindy, Wall-Tor, Linda and Pat.
Dedicated to the memory of Sam Charters (Screvato)
© 1989 Mercury Records © 1989 Anthem Entertainment
Notes
- Mercury/Polygram, January 10, 1989
- Highest Billboard Chart Position: 21 - Certified Gold by RIAA: March 9, 1989
- Recorded 4/21, 23 & 24/88, except track 5 recorded 1/27/88, tracks 6 & 12 recorded 2/1/88, track 7 recorded 2/3/88, tracks 9-10 recorded 3/31 & 4/1/86
- The album's title, A Show of Hands, comes from a lyric in "Prime Mover".
- Three tracks appear on the video release not found on the CD release: "Territories", "Prime Mover" and "Lock & Key" (Lock and Key was only included on the first run pressing of the laserdisks in the US, which have a lavender label on the disk; it was later included on the R40 Bonus Disc).
- Reissued December 18, 2016 by Universal Music Enterprises on 200-gram, heavyweight vinyl with a download code for a 320kbps MP4 vinyl ripped Digital Audio album as well as high resolution Digital Audio editions in DSD (2.8mHz), 192khz / 24-bit, 96kHz / 24-bit.
- Click here for the 'A Show Of Hands' Transcript Archive.
In Their Own Words
"The genesis for A Show Of Hands was the trio's desire to close off a chapter in their discography and also fulfill a record company obligation. 'It either had to be a "greatest hits" or a live album,' Lifeson explains, 'and since we had been taping dates during the Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows and Hold Your Fire tours, we had a good cross-section of different shows and different stages of playing to choose from.'" - Music Express #132, 1989
"The live album represents a retrospective and to me a more viable alternative to the greatest hits kind of package. So we used it to symbolise an era, and tried not to repeat songs that were recorded live before. For the most part we chose from the most recent selection of studio albums to encompass a milestone statement from us. Whereas the live video we wanted to represent the show and it's evolution as an entity - quite a different thing from an album. It's part of a whole series of evolutions that we've gone through. The video is an hour and a half long which is close enough to the length of our show to represent the dynamics it goes through... By accident or design a live album sends us off to explore new directions." - Neil Peart, Metal Hammer, February 6, 1989
"Choosing the material was difficult. We didn't want to use anything that had appeared on previous albums, with the exception of 'Closer to the Heart', as it had that snappy 'improv' bit at the end that we liked, so we decided to put it on. Other than that, all the material is from Signals on, except for 'Witch Hunt', which hadn't been recorded for a live album previously...While the growing popularity of CDs and cassettes allowed us to make Hold Your Fire a little longer than a record likes to be, this time we were in the quandary of making a double-record set that we wanted to fit on one CD, so you, the hard-pressed consumer, wouldn't be obliged to shell out for two CDs. So we had to keep the time down to around 74 minutes, and had to be fairly selective about the songs we included. There are some we had to leave off which we would like to have included, and no doubt some of you will be disappointed not to find one or two you would have liked too, but we had to be ruthless. (And now we have no more ruths.) The approach to sound was a difficult balance too. In retrospect we always felt that All The World's A Stage was a little too raw, and that Exit Stage Left was a little too refined, so we were trying to find the right balance somewhere in between. We're pleased with what we've got, and hope you will be too. We wanted it to sound good, but we wanted it to sound live too, and it's difficult to find the right meeting point sometimes." Neil Peart, "Rush Backstage Club Newsletter", 1988
"A lot of tracks on A Show of Hands were recorded from the last show we recorded, in Birmingham, U.K. The second-to-last night we also did a video shoot and there were a large number of cameras on stage. What I think happened was the next night the cameras were all gone so it almost felt like nothing was happening. Everybody relaxed. Everybody gave a very loose performance in relief that there was no camera pointed at us." - Geddy Lee, Greenville News, February 17, 1990
"Rush insisted that A Show of Hands be released as a single CD even though it had to be a double vinyl album. 'Everybody was freakin' out about that,' said Val Azolli, working at SRO at the time. 'They [Mercury Records] wanted two CDs so they could charge $40 instead of $20. They were just being greedy. That would have been pure profit for the record company and the retailers, profit which we wouldn't have seen, but we won that battle.'" - Chemistry
