Part two of the definitive biography of the rock 'n' roll kings of the North - covering Rush's most iconic and popular albums, Moving Pictures and Power Windows Includes two full-color photo inserts, with 16 pages of the band on tour and in the studio In the follow-up to Anthem: Rush in the '70s, Martin Popoff brings together canon analysis, cultural context, and extensive firsthand interviews to celebrate Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart at the peak of their persuasive power. Rush was one of the most celebrated hard rock acts of the '80s, and the second book of Popoff's staggeringly comprehensive three-part series takes readers from Permanent Waves to Presto, while bringing new insight to Moving Pictures, their crowning glory. Limelight: Rush in the '80s is a celebration of fame, of the pushback against that fame, of fortunes made - and spent ... In the latter half of the decade, as Rush adopts keyboard technology and gets pert and poppy, there's an uproar amongst diehards, but the band finds a whole new crop of listeners. Limelight charts a dizzying period in the band's career, built of explosive excitement but also exhaustion, a state that would lead, as the '90s dawned, to the band questioning everything they previously believed, and each member eying the oncoming decade with trepidation and suspicion. This three-part series celebrates Canada's iconic rock band, offering the most comprehensive biography ever, combining cultural context and canon analysis. All based on extensive firsthand interviews with family, friends, musicians, and the boys in the band. Book two covers the height of Rush's popularity and is a look at all their 1980s albums. Martin Popoff is the author of 85 books on music, including four previous titles on Rush. He has also worked on various documentaries for Banger Films, including the award-winning Rush documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage. Popoff has more record reviews published in books than anybody in the history of music writing. He lives in Toronto, Ontario. "The right time, the right place, the right song, the right parts" Pleased with the live/work arrangements for A Farewell to Kings, Rush tried it again for Hemispheres. Pleased with the live/work arrangement for Permanent Waves, Rush tried it again for Moving Pictures. Fortunately, the sequel effort this time didn't disappoint, and the guys found themselves more Canadian than ever. Living and raising families in Canada, writing on Canadian farms, recording immersed in the Canadian forest, bridging the divide between English Canada and French Canada, winning Junos and paddling canoes... Rush were celebrating everything it meant to be Canadian. "We went out to Ronnie Hawkins's farm, out in the Stony Lake area," begins Alex, on preparations for the record that would serve as Rush's Machine Head and Paranoid, or Fragile and Not Fragile, as it were. "I guess it's just north of Peterborough. He had a really nice little home up there, nice cottage with a big barn on it. We converted the barn into the studio, and set Neil's drums up, and had areas for Geddy and myself. And it was a really nice location. "We were there in the summer and everybody was in good spirits. There was a good energy to the work. We started writing there and basically wrote everything in rehearsal there, and then moved into Le Studio later that fall and started recording. There was a real positive energy, not unlike what we went through with Snakes & Arrows years later. But at that time, there was just something that was very strong and positive about where we were with that record. I don't want to say it was effortless, but the effort seemed to be very smooth. We had some guests visit and we had a lot of fun across the whole process. It wasn't just in the studio - it was a really nice place to be at that point in our lives."