RIP Richard Coughlan (drummer from Caravan)

He was Caravan's drummer, I guess throughout their entire history.

I saw Caravan live in 2002 at Nearfest, and they were really good. I would assume he was with them at that show.

I remember when prepping for that show, namely with my radio show on KFAI, my friend John was stressing to me not to miss Caravan. And the song below "For Richard" whether it was written for Richard Coughlan, Caravan's Richard Sinclair, or some other "Richard" at least showcases how great Caravan could be, especially live.

Caravan's Facebook

"It is with a very heavy heart that we announce that Richard Coughlan passed away on Sunday 1st December.

Richard was a founder member and drummer for Caravan for over forty three years. Richard died at his home and had been in poor health for the last few years.

He has played on all of the band’s releases to date and was one of the early birds in the history of the Canterbury bands having sessioned with The Wilde Flowers and predecessors. Despite not being well Richard played percussion at Caravan’s reunion gig in London in December 2010 and received a standing ovation.

His unique style of playing and wonderful character will be sorely missed. We pass our sincere sympathies to Richard’s wife Sue, his daughter Beth, and all his family.

We will publish a fuller obituary in due course and will have a book of condolences on the website so that his friends and fans can leave a message.

Richard was 66 years old
May he Rest in Peace."

Rush - Clockwork Angels (2012)

Go stream the full "Headlong Flight" at this rollingstone.com link

digging the instrumental element, the vocals? jury=is=still-out. I'm not sure how good the vocal melodies Geddy comes up with in recent years ever become. Snakes and Arrows suffered from the same issue.

That being said, I am still optimistic after hearing this. The riffs are ballsy, which I dig no matter.

4/11/12 8:45AM

June 12th is now the release date.

Artwork, track list and a teaser for the song/single "Headlong Flight."

I guess there's a reference to "Bastille Day" (I haven't heard this yet)



1 Caravan
2 BU2B
3 Clockwork Angels
4 The Anarchist
5 Carnies
6 Halo Effect
7 Seven Cities of Gold
8 The Wreckers
9 Headlong Flight
10 BU2B2
11 Wish Them Well
12 The Garden

Billboard story

Rush will return this summer with "Clockwork Angels," the iconic prog-rock band revealed on Wednesday. The new album, due June 12, will be the trio's first studio effort since 2007's "Snakes & Arrows" and their debut for Anthem/Roadrunner Records.

For the new set, the band turned again to "Snakes & Arrows" co-producer Nick Raskulinecz and recorded in Nashville and Toronto. The conceptual set will trace a protagonist's journey through a world of steampunk, alchemy and an exotic carnival; drummer and lyricist Neil Peart is also penning a novelization of the album with prolific author Kevin J. Anderson

Between albums, Rush has kept busy with a series of tours, documenting their most recent dates with the "Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland" live album and DVD last November. (They also made an appearance as the object of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel's sonic affection in the 2009 film "I Love You, Man.")

The band is sharing an advanced taste of the music with a hard-riffing album trailer based on the "Clockwork" cover art.


2/20/12 1:07AM

As posted/linked here, the album is expected to come in May. Some stuff about it being loosely a concept, and stuff like the title track being a multi-part piece, has been posted before elsewhere, but still worth reading about/adding.

Am I expecting a prog masterpiece? no, not really. But I must admit, having liked "BU2B" and "Caravan" enough, I'm a little more intrigued by this, than I was hearing ":Far Cry" from Snakes and Arrows especially, a few years ago.

But as always, we'll see. I am kind of curious about the tour to support this record regardless.