RUSH

RARE! Debut LP Vinyl MOON MN-100

Moon Records Cat.# MN-100 Stereo Canadian Pressing 1974

After the disappointing reaction to the Not Fade Away single, Rush and their management team found themselves ready to go for bust and record an LP. They went back into Eastern Sound Studios and recorded "Rush". The Group and the management both felt that David Stock, the producer, had taken the rawness out of the LP, so Ray and Vic called a friend to see if he could help them out. Over the space of two days Terry Brown remixed the LP at Toronto Sound Studios with two songs being re-recorded "Need Some Love" and "Here Again" while "You Can't Fight It" and the single "Not Fade Away" were dropped from the LP in favour of "Finding My Way". Once again Vic and Ray approached London Records and managed to get them to distribute the LP. Showing their faith in Rush both Ray and Vic decided that instead of pressing the minimum 1000 copies they would get 3500 pressed.

The LP was due to be released in December 1973 but was delayed due to the OPEC oil crisis making vinyl too expensive to produce - The LP "Rush" was eventually released in January 1974. To their credit CHUM-FM a local Toronto Radio Station began playing the record and while Rush continued playing at every opportunity they could, more people began to take notice. Donna Halper the Programme Director at WMMS in Cleveland, Ohio, heard the record and started the ball rolling by giving the LP radio airplay in the US and by organising copies of the LP to be imported from Canada. Ray and Vic organised live dates through American Talent International and spoke to Ira Blacker of ATI regarding a record deal, who subsequently became Rush's American Co-Manager. This partnership would eventually cost Rush $250,000 in an out of court settlement through a dispute. With Casablanca Records on the verge of signing Rush a copy of the LP eventually reached Cliff Burnstein at Mercury Records Promotion Dept in the USA and after hearing the record he knew Mercury had to sign Rush. Over the telephone Cliff Burnstein along with Mercury President Irwin Steinberg agreed terms with Ira Blacker. Rush received an advance from Mercury of $50,000 plus $25,000 towards future recording costs. Mercury and A.T.I then organized a five month tour beginning on August 14th with Mercury also deciding to re-release the Rush LP on the Mercury Label.

The main variations between the Moon and Mercury releases are the labels and covers - the Moon issue has a bright red coloured logo while the Mercury issue was changed to pink, also the rear credits differ on the original Moon Cover to the Mercury release. The band and its management formed their own company, Moon Records, and released the album in Canada. Only 3,500 copies of the original Moon Records LP (catalog number MN-100) were pressed. The first version of the LP has a cream-coloured label with a blue Moon Records logo and black type. The album was soon picked up by WMMS, a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio. Donna Halper, a DJ working at the station, selected "Working Man" for her regular play list. Every time the song was played the station received phone calls asking where to buy the record. Copies of the Moon Records album were imported to the Cleveland area and quickly sold out. In the 2010 documentary film Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, Halper says that "Working Man" was the perfect song for the Cleveland rock audience, as it was still mostly a factory town in 1974. The record's popularity in Cleveland quickly led to the re-release of the album by Mercury Records. The first Canadian Mercury release on the standard red Mercury label is nearly as rare as the Moon version. It also had the Moon number 'MN-100' between the run-out groves, indicating that it was pressed from the same metal parts as the Moon disc. A special thank you to Donna Halper was added to the album credits of this and all later versions.

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