When you've been in the same band for 40 years, laughter is the best medicine, Rush frontman Geddy Lee tells Jon Perks.

Geddy Lee likes his wine. The singer and bassist with Canadian rock band Rush has a cellar collection at home which totals some 5,000 bottles, and on tour he’s always on the look-out for a new variety to try.

“I’ve been drinking a lot on the tour,” chuckles the 57-year-old. “Days off are usually my evening to go out and find a good restaurant and drink some wine; I also always carry my portable eight-bottle cellar with me...”

Like a fine wine, Rush seem to get better and better with age – uncorking a spectacular three-and-a-half hour show on their current Time Machine Tour, which rolls into the LG Arena this weekend.

“Yeah, it’s a working job, manual labour... but it’s great work if you can get it,” Lee jokes.

Playing full pelt for that long is no mean feat in itself, but especially when you’ve known each other – and many of the songs – for longer than most folks’ marriages.

Lee says the secret is not only a shared musical vision, but the ability to have fun at the same time:

“We’re really pleased with the way we’re playing on this tour,” says Lee. “In all immodesty I think we’re playing as well as we’ve ever played; I feel pretty good about that.

“We’re all very different personalities – I think that’s a contrast and a healthy thing; we all have certain strong things in common too – we have a great sense of pride in our ability to make each other laugh, and that is almost like a nightly challenge, always in the background, you know – it’s a one-upmanship we have with each other, making each other laugh and that even crosses over onto the stage.

“We’re not just pretending, we are having fun,” he insists. “Everything else about touring is not so pleasant – days off are great, but on a show day there’s no better time than on stage.

“Your secret goal every night is to see if you can crack up one of your bandmates during a song and crack him up so bad that he’ll make a mistake as a result; Alex is the clear winner on a nightly basis, because he’s such a goof and an idiot.

“The other thing we share is a remarkably similar sensibility of the kind of music we want to make – that’s no small part of why we’re together after all these years.”

‘Alex the goof’ is Alex Lifeson, Rush’s guitarist and Lee’s childhood friend who he joined in Rush in 1968. Drummer Neil Peart, who completes the trio, took his seat in 1974.

Since their self-titled debut that year, Rush’s unchanged line-up has released 19 studio albums and sold more than 40 million units, with countless platinum albums and awards – although oddly they’ve never got their hands on a Grammy, despite several nominations.

Work on their 20th studio album, Clockwork Angels, is due to start in earnest in the autumn. Lee hopes to have it finished by Christmas. Two new songs are aired in the current show.

This year also sees the 30th anniversary of the release of Moving Pictures, one of their most successful and best-loved albums, featuring hit singles Tom Sawyer and Limelight – and live favourites YYZ and Red Barchetta.

To mark the occasion, Rush are playing Moving Pictures in its entirety as part of the marathon Time Machine set.