Chapter 3
With an album out and a tour booked, it might be said that the band had hit the big time. However, they now had months of touring, mainly as the second or third billed act in front of them. This was something John did not want to do. He was unhappy being in a rock band, and there were also arguments about what kind of music they would play. John announced he was leaving Rush again. This time the split would be permanent. With his diabetes a strong argument against touring, the musical and personal differences closed the case.

"I was into a sound very much like that of Bad Company," says John. "At the time, Alex and Geddy envisioned the band going into other areas. I also just wasn't enjoying it any more, and that's just the first tell-tale sign. I wasn't looking forward to it. I could tell I was straining the friendship with the other guys. It's just a hard thing to explain. I've never been able to pin it down accurately myself. I would sort of drift off and spend more time just talking with the roadies. I knew I had to do something. If you can't go out there and enjoy yourself you know it's time to get out."

Alex talked about the musical differences and some of the personal problems involved. "He was into the basic rock thing, and Gedd and I wanted to get a little more progressive. Our relationship was also not the same as it had been. He and I were friends since the age of eight, playing street hockey, but at this point the musical differences were happening and we didn't hang out as much as we used to, outside of working, whereas Geddy and I would hang out together all the time. So it really was a combination of his illness, our musical differences combined with the way we were growing as three people together."

With their debut US tour little more than two weeks away, the band began looking for a new drummer. A mutual friend set up an audition with the drummer of a St. Catherines area band called Hush whose name was Neil Peart. His group played the Southern Ontario bar circuit, where Neil's wild style of playing came in handy when he took on the task of playing Keith Moon licks on his Rogers kit. Most of 'Quadrophenia' was covered by Hush. Neil started out playing piano but his interest in pounding out 'Chopsticks' soon took on a more literal form. When he was 18 he went on a musical odyssey that took him far from home.

He later told Modern Drummer magazine: "I went to England with musical motivations and goals. But when you go out into the big world, as any adult knows, you're in for a lot of disillusionment. So while I was there I did a lot of other things (besides playing music) to get bread in my mouth."

He ended up working on Carnaby Street hawking trinkets to tourists at a store called Gear. He also told Modern Drummer: "When I came back from there, I was disillusioned basically about the music 'business'. I decided I would be a semi-pro musician for my own entertainment, would play music that I liked to play, and wouldn't count on it to make my living. I did other jobs and worked at other things, so I wouldn't have to compromise what I have to do as a drummer."

He had one consolation while he was in England. He found a copy of Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead on the London tube. He found Rand's tales of fierce individualistic characters struggling to maintain their integrity inspiring. It must have seemed at the time that he had his shot at the big time and failed. He would get a second chance.

Before they heard Neil, Alex and Geddy had already listened to several other drummers. None of them had really impressed. Neil cut a strange figure coming in an old car with his drums packed into garbage cans.

"Neil came down the second day of auditions," says Alex, "and he looked really weird. He had really short hair with shorts on. He was working in a parts department, selling tractor parts. So this weird looking guy comes down with this small kit of Rogers drums, and he played them like a maniac! He was really an intense drummer! I had reservations, however, I wasn't really sure. Neil was the second or third guy we tried, so who knows. Maybe there's going to be three or four others as good. It was a bit weird. We sat down and talked a lot. Geddy and Neil talked mostly. I had these reservations. I wasn't sure. "

While Alex stood on the sidelines, Geddy was immediately won over. "After I heard Neil play, there was no one else who could come after the guy. I was convinced that he was the drummer for the band."

Neil was convinced that the audition was a disaster. "It was funny because Geddy and I hit it off right away. Conversationally we had a lot in common in terms of books and music... so many bands that we both liked. Alex, for some reason, was in a bad mood that day. So we didn't have much to say to each other. Playing together, we did what eventually became 'Anthem'. We jammed around with some of these rhythmic ideas. I thought 'Oh this is awful'."

After Neil left, Geddy tried to convince Alex that the strange looking guy was the man for the job. The argument was settled when the next drummer came in and politely played to charts he had written for all of the songs on the first Rush album.

Neil officially joined Rush on Geddy's 21st birthday, July 29, 1974. On the 30th they went out to buy equipment for the tour. "We got this big advance from the record company," says Neil. "We went down to the music store with all of us sitting in the front of the truck with Ian. Just going wild. We ran into Long and McQuade Music at 459 Bloor Street and Geddy got his first Rickenbacker (the black one). I went downstairs and picked out my Silver Slingerlands. Alex got new Marshall Amps and a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. It was a Babes In Toyland kind of day, total fantasy. All the way home we were screaming and yelling up the highway. It was fantastic...'

With all the new equipment, the band went to work. They had less than two weeks before they had to start off for their first date. The one advantage they had was that since they were the opening act, the set would be short, 26 minutes to be exact.

Their first full U.S. tour began on August 14 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, warming up the stage for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann before 11,642 people at the civic Arena. The fear factor was very high. Neil's first performance with the band thus took place in front of more than 10,000 people. After seeing the crowd enter the hall Geddy had a ceremonial shot of Southern Comfort because he believed that's what 'Rock Stars' did to warm up. He was wrong.

Neil: "It was both testy and fabulous at the same time. It was the big time, and a very big gig at that."

The brief set included 'Finding My Way', 'Working Man', and 'In The Mood'. The Professor--as Neil was christened--also did a short solo, a major element of the band's live show to this day.

This concert of firsts also introduced road manager Howard Ungerleider to the scene. Howard worked for A.T.I. and he was along to shepherd the lads through their first major tour. Also accompanying the band were Ian as drum roadie and sound man, Liam, who lifted Geddy's equipment and called lights, and Dave Scace who worked as guitar roadie for a few weeks, soon to be replaced by J.J. Johnson.

Howard took over the lighting after a couple of shows. Liam never had enough time to look after them properly, and Howard was glad to take the job off his hands. One of the reasons for the change was all the new equipment. "The first show we did with Uriah Heep was with almost entirely new gear," Liam says. "There was no chance to work any of the bugs out at all. So the first few weeks were frantic. It was a matter of ploughing through and persevering as well as we could, and we pulled it off."

Alex, Geddy and Neil travelled by car with Howard. Ian, Liam and J.J. used a 12-foot G.M.C. box truck to cart around the equipment and themselves. Within a few weeks, Neil began to feel like a member of the band, instead of just a last-minute replacement. His drumming skills added to the band's sound. He was soon able to give them a tightness they never had with John. "The songs were the same, but with Neil they had a different treatment," says Alex. "A really good feeling was established between us."

Once the equipment problems were sorted out, the band and crew found they had plenty of free time on their hands. Since they were an opening act, they rarely played for more than half an hour, and there was not that much set-up time, since the headliner brought the lights and sound system. Often Rush had no time for a sound check if the main act decided it needed to tune up. It was very different from playing five or six hours a night in Toronto bars.

While the crew used the extra time to see the US, the band spent hours writing new material. According to Alex much of the work was done "sitting in hotel rooms, writing heavy metal tunes on acoustic guitars."

The long hours of travelling between gigs may have been hard on a more experienced group, but for the members of Rush, their first major tour was a dream come true. "It was so exciting," says Alex. "You couldn't wait for the next day to start. Travelling... going where I never thought I would go. We all felt like that. It was a little rough on the back, travelling by car, but we could deal with it."

On one of those rent-a-car runs, 'Making Memories' was written with Alex in the front seat strumming on a guitar. The song captures the time. 'There's a time for feeling as good as we can/ The time is now and there's no stopping us.'

But no matter how enjoyable the tour was, there were at least some memories in the making that did not seem funny at the time. The band had just played St. Louis. Howard pointed the car, which was engulfed in pot smoke, in what he thought was the direction of Cleveland. Three hours into the trip as they neared Memphis, Tennessee, Howard realised he was going in the opposite direction and it was no time to stop by and meet Elvis. Alex, Geddy's and Neil's singing turned into screaming. In response, Howard turned the car around and tore off to Evansville, Indiana where the band could catch a plane. They pulled into the airport parking lot just in time to see the Delta jet 'fly by night' departing.

Rush opened for many bands during the tour. Besides Uriah Heep they warmed up the crowd for Rory Gallagher, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, Kiss, P.F.M., Billy Preston, Wet Willie, The Marshall Tucker Band and Manfred Mann. Gallagher always treated the band well, and in later years Rory would open many a show for them.

Rush also played a handful of headlining gigs in small clubs. At these dates the trio would play most of the first album and several early songs from their bar band days like, 'Fancy Dancer' and 'Garden Road' along with a few cover songs done a la Rush.

In September the band recorded a Toronto concert that was aired on The King Biscuit Flower Hour. On October 9, 1974, the trio taped a Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. Neil broke a bass drum head during the shooting of 'Best I Can' on ABC Television's In Concert series. That was aired on December 6, 1974. The band also appeared on quite a few local television shows during the period.

Just before Christmas Cliff Burnstein set up an important radio concert for the group in New York City. Rush's gear was set up in Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland Studios. The show was broadcast live over WQIV to Big Apple rock fans.

Cliff hoped that the concert would help break the band in New York. They had received very little airplay in the States' largest city, but if the band could get a following in the media capital of the country, success in the smaller towns would be easier to achieve. For, despite heavy touring and that initial burst of airplay in Cleveland, radio was a shaky proposition for Rush. The strategy, according to Ray was "If you were not a hit singles act, you had to tour. So that's where we started and as a result of where we played we'd end up at least getting token airplay. Record sales would go with it. We just built up territory by territory. Rush almost never received airplay before they played in a town."

Besides giving the group radio time in New York, the show gives a good sound picture of the band, just a few months after Neil joined and before they hit the studio for the second album. The guys played much of the first album, along with Larry Williams' '50s rock song (covered by The Beatles) 'Bad Boy'. Several tunes from 'Fly By Night' made an early appearance. 'Anthem' sounds much as it did on the record, but the title track is very different. Part of 'By-Tor And The Snowdog' is tacked on to the end of 'Fly By Night'.

Even at this early date you can hear the power of Peart's drumming. Geddy's singing is loose. He hasn't learned all the lines to the new songs, and he does not have the control over his voice he was later to attain. Alex sings back-up on 'Best I Can'. His guitar work is sharp. As an ensemble the group's playing is a little rough around the edges. Still, there is a powerful passion to their performance.

With much of what would become the second album already written, it was time to head back to the recording studio. Neil had taken over most of the lyric writing. Neither Geddy nor Alex really took to lyric writing, so when Neil began writing, the pair encouraged him. "Gedd and I weren't into it," says Alex. "On the first album Gedd wrote most of the lyrics, all but one song ('Here Again'). With 'Fly By Night' we figured if Neil wanted to do it, fine. Especially since when you're writing music it's difficult for a drummer to take a strong hand in the melodic writing of a song. So Gedd and I did that and Neil took over the lyrics. '

The first Rush song with lyrics penned by Peart was 'Fly By Night'. He had worked on a few songs before he joined the band, but he became the lyric writer for Rush by default. "Basically it was because nobody else wanted to do it," says Neil. "And I thought, well, I've always been interested in words. I've always loved to read. So why not give it a try. I wrote a couple of songs and showed them to Alex and Geddy. They liked them. So I continued. It later became an obsession."

The material for 'Fly By Night' was formulated during the period Alex, Geddy and Neil were really becoming acquainted with each other. A chemistry was starting to develop between the three that had not existed when John left the band. "We were pooling our creative resources," Neil later wrote, "and exploring each other's aptitudes and personalities. A real unity of purpose was beginning to develop."

In many ways it was a different band assembled in Toronto for Fly By Night. Neil's effect on Alex and Geddy and their effect on him would cause a burst in their collective creativity.

Terry Brown was once again behind the board. For Terry, the second album, recorded and mixed in 10 days, was "A bit of a panic... but we made it. In those days it was strange because you had nothing really to judge it by. All we knew were the tunes and the direction we wanted. So it was just a question of working ridiculous hours. I mean you just start with day one and make it to day two, and so on. There was no discussion of 'Is it okay', 'Do we need to remix anything', or 'Would you have rather done this or that'. When it was done, that was it. There was no time for discussion when the album was finished. We rushed out, cut it and pressed it."

No matter what the time constraints, just the fact that they were getting a chance to record a second album signalled to the band that they had staying power. As it turned out, a lot more than they could have ever imagined.

Hectic understates the last minute nature of the way the record was completed. Alex said, "It was 8 o'clock in the morning, and we had just finished mixing when Vic Wilson came down to pick up the tapes. We had worked most of the previous day and night and then on the final night straight through until the morning. After all this we went to the airport to catch a 10:30 a.m. flight to Winnipeg for a gig. We were so tired we barely made it to the airport. I remember sleeping for an hour and a half on the plane, getting there, waking up, and it was freezing cold. We had a horrible day. It was snowing and it felt like minus 530 degrees. I'll never forget trying to get it together in the dressing room before the show. A crazy day."

The hard work resulted in a large step forward for the band. Putting aside for a moment the songs themselves, the playing sounded as if the revamped trio had been together for years, not months. Neil was already showing that he was a great rock drummer but the improvements were across the board. Before, the distortion had covered up the fact that only three people were playing, now it was the group's chops that did the trick. All three shared leads and rhythms. Geddy and Alex's trademark bass and guitar riffs are in full evidence. Even with Neil's first appearance on vinyl, he has his own style. You can hear the manic fury of a Keith Moon, but there is an added control that is strictly Neil Peart. 'Fly By Night' showed that the three musicians could sound like five or six.

The straightforward, hard rock of the first album was still there. Yet it was tighter and more focused. Quieter passages were brought to life by Geddy and Alex's playing of acoustic guitars. Neil's battery of percussion toys brought new textures to many of the songs. In comparison to 'Rush', 'Fly By Night' is almost symphonic rock.

The album opens with 'Anthem', a tough tune with tough subject matter. Neil had interested the other members of the band in the philosophy of 'objectivist' writer Ayn Rand, and the title is taken from a novella of the same name in which Rand wrote about a world where individual initiative is forbidden, and all is done collectively. To Rand, this was the ultimate horror. Having expenenced the Russian Revolution in 1917 at first hand, she believed that all of man's great achievements were accomplished by individuals and that collective actions were often destructive; in many cases destructive of society's most outstanding figures. To the band her uncompromising position was a model for many years for it seemed to mirror their determination to do things their own way. Paradoxically Rand would probably have been horrified by the group. Although they went their own way, they did so collectively, and Rand railed against long-haired hippies and rock music on several occasions, most notably in a collection of essays on the Woodstock Generation.

'Best I Can' comes next, a Geddy/Lee [sic] rock composition like 'Beneath, Between And Behind' which follows.

'By-Tor And The Snowdog' marks the beginning of a Rush tradition of extended story songs, in this case a battle between By-Tor and the Snowdog. The song has bite, in more ways than one. Howard actually came up with the title one night at a party at Ray's house. "Ray had these two dogs," says Howard. "One was a German Shepherd that had these fangs, and the other was this little tiny white nervous dog. I used to call the Shepherd By-Tor because anyone who would walk into the house would get bitten by him. Ray would go, 'This dog is trained fine, don't worry about it.' Well the night of the party we were sitting down eating our steaks when the Shepherd started biting my leg. I started screaming and calling the dog a By-Tor. Now the other dog was real neurotic, constantly barking and jumping all over you. And since he was a snow dog, I started calling the pair 'By-Tor and the Snowdog'."

The second side opens on a high note with 'Fly By Night', a really potential hit single, followed by 'Making Memories', a tune which captures Rush's early experiences on the road. Next is 'Rivendell', inspired by the ever-popular J.R.R. Tolkien, whose tales inspired a series of early '70s rockers including Led Zeppelin. 'Rivendell' is the name of a city of elves mentioned in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and other works by Tolkien, a paradise on earth. Geddy's keening vocals suggest the beauty this imaginary refuge had for him and Neil. Incidentally, Tolkien's influence could also be heard on 'By-Tor And The Snowdog' and several later songs by the band.

The album closer, 'In The End' opens quietly, much like 'Rivendell'. But then Alex kicks in with a killer guitar riff followed by Neil and Geddy before a classic Rush tempo change.

'Fly By Night' hit the record racks in February 1975. By that time the band were already back on the road, opening shows for Kiss and Aerosmith, with the occasional headlining gig on the side.

The dates with Kiss were particularly memorable. Kiss were on their way to becoming one of rock's biggest bands. Their mixture of extreme theatrics, painted faces and bone crushing hard rock made them a tough act to precede. Their fans expected a spectacle and Rush managed to hold their own. The members of Kiss were friendly to Alex, Geddy and Neil, and much fun was had on their tour.

Gene Simmons, the long-tongued bassist of Kiss, said "We've always had great bands open for us. We believe in exposing good talent to the people. We liked Rush for their Led Zeppelin junior approach. Very straightforward kick-ass rock."

Neil described the final show Rush played with Kiss to a writer from Circus magazine. The date was in San Diego. "We were going to dress up as them, put on their make-up, and go out and do our set as them, but what finally happened was an onstage piefight that happened in front of 6,000 screaming kids. They caught us at the end of our set by surprise, and the whole stage was covered in shaving cream and whipped cream. Then it was our turn at the end of their set. All their guitars and drums and machines were completely buried in shaving cream, so their encore sounded just great!" "The end of tour party," said Geddy, "was one of those great all-nighters with stuff being thrown out of the hotel windows."

In between tour dates Alex married his long-time girlfriend, Charlene, on March 12, 1975. They had been seeing each other since Alex was 15. The honeymoon was a little unconventional. "On our honeymoon," says Charlene, "he was playing up north and I had to go by myself. He had a couple of shows to do, so he came down and met me later. I thought, hmmm! This is a sign of what it is going to be like (laughter)."

Also around this time Ray wanted to change the name of Moon Records. Rush made some suggestions and eventually they came up with the title and theme of Anthem so he used it as the new name for the company. He also liked it because Anthem sounded like a great name for a record company. "It was tied in with Rush but it didn't mean we couldn't put another act on the label," says Ray.

The second tour saw the band begin to pick up pockets of loyal fans across the United States. The gigging paid off with limited airplay, mainly in the Midwest, where the band began to sell out small gigs as a headliner. While Rush were treated very well by Kiss, not every group they opened for was so kind.

On April 13, the trio played a sold-out show in front of 4,500 fans at Detroit's Michigan Palace. Another show at the Agora in Cleveland was a tour highlight for Alex. "We ended up going to cities two or three times in the space of a year. In Cleveland we did that show with ZZ Top. Then we came back and did one with Uriah Heep. We got a real strong response the second time around, so we were booked into the Agora two weeks later. It was a hot, sweaty, sold-out night. Lots of electricity."

Donna Halper was the stage announcer for the Agora show. "Rush had worked their way up from being the third act on the bill to the point where they could take an entire show themselves in Cleveland and just command the performance. Fans were fighting for tickets for days. The concert was then rebroadcast on WMMS."

While on tour with Aerosmith in Michigan the band received a phone call from a very drunk Ray Danniels. He was ranting and raving about Rush being the best new trio around. It took Alex, Geddy and Neil a few minutes before they realised what he was trying to say. Rush had won a Juno award for the most promising new group, the Canadian equivalent of the American Grammy Awards. The trio promptly went out and celebrated on their own. Rush had never won any kind of award before, so a few dozen drinks seemed to be in order.

The band closed the 'Fly By Night' tour with a short Canadian jaunt. But before they could begin the dates in their homeland there was the little matter of a rental car they had hired for the tour. They told the rental company they were only going to use it for a short period of time. Eventually it was returned a few months later with 11,000 additional miles on the clock, no hubcaps, no rear-view mirror and a broken radio. Alex later told David Fricke in an article for Rolling Stone magazine that the vehicle was ruined. And that the people at the rental agency "were quite surprised."

On June 25, Massey Hall in Toronto held 2,765 Rush fans as the band blasted their way through a sold-out show. Max Webster warmed the crowd. Alex was blown away by the way the fans seemed to know the words to every song. Neil could hardly believe he was playing at Massey Hall. He had always dreamed of playing at the venue and there he was pounding away as part of a successful rock band, and in top form too. His solo spot utilised speaker panning and a phase shifter that filtered the sound of his snare. To Geddy it was the culmination of seven years of hard work.

'Fly By Night' was out-selling the first album and was not unheard of on radio. The second half of 1975 would see a longer album, extended songs, more complex arrangements and lyrics, constant concerts and a serious testing of Alex, Geddy and Neil's commitment to make music their own way.

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