timeline

Rush

A Canadian trio from Toronto who turned hard rock into long, intricate progressive suites, with Neil Peart's lyrics and drumming at the center, and who played for more than five decades.

Origin
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Years active
1968-2018, 2025-present
Genres
progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal
Labels
Moon, Mercury, Anthem, Atlantic, Roadrunner

Toronto

Rush formed in August 1968 in Willowdale, a district of Toronto, with Alex Lifeson on guitar, John Rutsey on drums and Jeff Jones on bass and vocals. Their first show was at the Coff-Inn youth centre that September, and they were paid twenty-five Canadian dollars. Geddy Lee, born Gary Weinrib, replaced Jones that year. He was briefly dismissed and rejoined in September 1969.

The early band played blues-rock covers and hard rock in a Led Zeppelin mold. Their first single, a version of Not Fade Away, appeared in September 1973, and their debut album, Rush, followed in March 1974 on Moon, the label run by manager Ray Danniels. Rutsey, a Type 1 diabetic, played his last gig on 25 July 1974. Neil Peart took over the drums four days later.

Peart and the long songs

Peart became both the drummer and the lyricist. Fly by Night and Caress of Steel arrived in 1975, 2112 and the live All the World's a Stage in 1976. A Farewell to Kings came out on 29 August 1977. It was the band's first residential recording, made over about three weeks in June 1977 at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer Terry Brown. It gave them their first American gold record and contained Closer to the Heart, their first hit in Britain.

Hemispheres, recorded in Wales in 1978, was an album of long suites, after which Lee said the band meant to break tradition and avoid long conceptual pieces. Permanent Waves followed in January 1980 with shorter songs, led by The Spirit of Radio, which became their biggest hit in Britain. Moving Pictures, released on 12 February 1981, reached number one in Canada and number three in both the United States and Britain. It holds Tom Sawyer, Limelight and the instrumental YYZ. The live double Exit...Stage Left closed the era in October 1981. The tour for Permanent Waves, which ran from January to June 1980, was the first to earn the band a profit, and Moving Pictures was certified platinum in the United States two months after its release.

Synthesizers

Signals appeared in 1982, and the band's partnership with Brown ended in 1983. For Grace Under Pressure, released on 12 April 1984, Rush and the engineer Peter Henderson worked at Le Studio in Morin-Heights, Quebec, for the longest studio sessions the band had yet had. The record kept the synthesizer-led sound of Signals but gave the guitar a bigger role. It reached number five in Britain and number ten in the United States. It also holds Afterimage, a song about a friend of the band who had been killed in a car accident.

Power Windows (1985) and Hold Your Fire (1987) kept the same course, and the live A Show of Hands came out in 1989. The band moved to Atlantic for Presto in 1989, then made Roll the Bones, Counterparts, which reached number two in the United States, and Test for Echo in 1996. Rush had also been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994, and five of their songs, including Closer to the Heart, Tom Sawyer, Limelight and The Spirit of Radio, entered the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on 28 March 2010.

Loss and return

The band went on hiatus after the 1997 tour. Peart's daughter Selena died in August 1997 and his wife Jacqueline in June 1998. He returned in 2001, and Vapor Trails came out in May 2002. Snakes & Arrows followed in 2007 and Clockwork Angels, on Roadrunner, in June 2012. Rush entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 18 April 2013, with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins giving the induction speech.

The R40 tour, which ran from May to August 2015, was the last large one, and Peart announced his retirement that December. Lifeson said in January 2018 that the band was basically done. Peart died on 7 January 2020, aged 67, of glioblastoma. On 6 October 2025 the band announced a reunion, the Fifty Something tour, with Anika Nilles on drums.

Members

Records

Songs

Led Zeppelin, Yes, King Crimson, Foo Fighters

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Film and video

Fan sites and communities

Sources

  1. Rush (band), Wikipedia
  2. Rush discography, Wikipedia
  3. Rush, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  4. Grace Under Pressure, rush.com
  5. A Farewell to Kings, rush.com
  6. Neil Peart dead, Billboard (2020-01)
  7. Rush: Moving Pictures (40th Anniversary), Pitchfork (2022-04-16)
  8. Moving Pictures (master release), Discogs
  9. Closer to the Heart on SecondHandSongs, SecondHandSongs