Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle (edition 2007)

Although I read Neil's first two published books, I didn't pick up on the next two as I didn't really enjoy his writing style that much. I found it a bit wooden, a bit like recent Rush lyrics ! Anyway, having read some somewhat polarised reviews, I just had to read Roadshow and see which side of the fence I found myself on.

On the positive side, I think Neil's writing style has definitely matured, and seems to flow much better than the first books. I definitely felt more engaged with this book than the others and really enjoyed it, whereas with Ghost Rider I started to find it a bit of a slog towards the end. This is helped I think by numerous Rush anecdotes which are fascinating to any die-hard Rush fan such as myself, and the insights into what goes into a Rush tour, the personalities involved, etc. There's also a lot of background information about the places Neil visits which is very reminiscent of Bill Bryson and makes the whole experience informative and interesting. I would have liked a bit more background on the bikes he was riding. I think he could have opened that up a lot more, history of bikes, the way they work, that kind of thing. I like books like that.

My problems with the book are that great travel-writing is as much about the people you meet as the places you visit, and quite clearly Neil, by his nature, is not going to meet that many new people, especially if he suspects they have an inkling who he is (although there can't be THAT many out there can there ?) I also found it strange how little was written about Brutus, his enigmatic travelling companion in Europe. Whereas I felt I got to know Michael on the American leg, Brutus didn't really ever speak, either literally or as a character.

Other negatives are that most of the Rush performance commentary focuses on Neil's own performance. There's very little said about the performances of the band in general and very little written about the other members of the band on the tour. This may be simply respecting their privacy, but again it tends to make the book seem a bit narcissistic.

I appreciate Neil's honesty however, in exposing his own shortcomings, as well as those of his fans. Clearly a risky strategy there, but his sense of humour really shines and he obviously has a great time on his bike, and this is what I took from the book.

In conclusion, I think if you're a Rush fan you'll definitely enjoy this. ( )