Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart is being honored with the naming of a pavilion in his Canadian hometown.
The St. Catharines Standard reports city council made the name Neil Peart Pavilion at Lakeside Park official Wednesday in a unanimous vote following public engagement earlier this year that saw more than 81 per cent of residents who voted online chose it over the name Lakeside Park Pavilion.
"The public voting on naming is obviously fairly conclusive," says Port Dalhousie Councillor Bruce Williamson. "Neil Peart's been one of our most famous local individuals and a lot of his songs have local roots, including the namesake park."
Peart grew up in St. Catharines and went to elementary and high school in the city; he worked at the former midway in Port Dalhousie's Lakeside Park in the summer and wrote the 1975 Rush song of the same name.
Rush formed in 1968 in Toronto’s Willowdale neighborhood when guitarist Alex Lifeson started a high school band that eventually included his classmate, Geddy Lee, on vocals, bass and keyboards; Peart joined the band in 1974.
The drummer passed away on January 7 at the age of 67 after a three-and-a-half year battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, Glioblastoma, in the years following the band’s final concert in Los Angeles in 2015.
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