Your First Rush Moment, and Who Introduced you to Rush,

[Sarge]

A friend in school gave me a loan of 2112 & ATWAS round about the end of '76 maybe the beginning of '77 which blew me away & luckily they came on their 1st UK tour not long after which was my 1st ever gig aged 13 & I've never missed a UK tour since.

[losingit2k]

My 10th grade english teacher is the one to blame for getting me hooked, keeping my Dad up at night while I blast their music, and for spending massive amounts of money on CDs, Blurays, merch, and other swag... He preached to me that RUSH is one of the greatest bands, and (at the time) I shrugged it off as whatever... I had heard 2112 (just the title track) through Guitar Hero and thought that it was epic in its composition. It also had been the heaviest thing I had ever heard... One night, about a month after my teach preached, I saw the Time Machine Tour was on VH1 Classic to promote it being released(before it came out). I decided to sit down and watch it because I had nothing better to do. At first , especially during the opening video I was saying to myself, "What the hell is this crap and who are these guys?" But I recognized TSOR as soon as they started playing. I ended up watching the entire abridged version on VH1... I was blown away by the entire performance, I knew I needed to have it, but unfortunately I had to wait until my birthday in January to get it. But during that time, I purchased copies of MP and 2112 and started playing them incessantly. That held me over for about a month and then I started listening to Fly By Night and PeW. I finally got TMT for my 16th birthday and over the course of the next week, I watched it every day, and sometimes even twice a day. I knew after that, that I had truly found one of the greatest bands in the world. I then proceeded to buy the rest of their back catalog and then when CA came out, I bought tickets to go see them. Its been a long road, but I've become Rush junkie every since I first laid my eyes on that screen. I've already got a buddy of mine hooked in less then 3 months! It is contagious this stuff haha...

You need to get yourself "Beyond the Lighted Stage!"

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B003J27WFW/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1381097560&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=yond+the+Lighted+Stage&condition=new

 

Its a must have for any RUSH fan!

[pfrushfan0122]

My 10th grade english teacher is the one to blame for getting me hooked, keeping my Dad up at night while I blast their music, and for spending massive amounts of money on CDs, Blurays, merch, and other swag... He preached to me that RUSH is one of the greatest bands, and (at the time) I shrugged it off as whatever... I had heard 2112 (just the title track) through Guitar Hero and thought that it was epic in its composition. It also had been the heaviest thing I had ever heard... One night, about a month after my teach preached, I saw the Time Machine Tour was on VH1 Classic to promote it being released(before it came out). I decided to sit down and watch it because I had nothing better to do. At first , especially during the opening video I was saying to myself, "What the hell is this crap and who are these guys?" But I recognized TSOR as soon as they started playing. I ended up watching the entire abridged version on VH1... I was blown away by the entire performance, I knew I needed to have it, but unfortunately I had to wait until my birthday in January to get it. But during that time, I purchased copies of MP and 2112 and started playing them incessantly. That held me over for about a month and then I started listening to Fly By Night and PeW. I finally got TMT for my 16th birthday and over the course of the next week, I watched it every day, and sometimes even twice a day. I knew after that, that I had truly found one of the greatest bands in the world. I then proceeded to buy the rest of their back catalog and then when CA came out, I bought tickets to go see them. Its been a long road, but I've become Rush junkie every since I first laid my eyes on that screen. I've already got a buddy of mine hooked in less then 3 months! It is contagious this stuff haha...

You need to get yourself "Beyond the Lighted Stage!"

 

http://www.amazon.co...e&condition=new

 

Its a must have for any RUSH fan!

 

I beat ya to the punch! Here's my actual collection minus CA, p/g Vinyl, VT remixed CD, and the 89-07 boxset : :D http://instagram.com/p/cmDgnjIViQ/

Edited October 6, 2013 by pfrushfan0122

[temporary madness]

Every time I heard one of their songs on the radio I would be like "ooh I like this song" and then I would ask my mom (the classic rock know it all), "who is this?" And she would say Rush. I finally looked them up online, listened to some more or their songs and the rest is history.

[losingit2k]

My 10th grade english teacher is the one to blame for getting me hooked, keeping my Dad up at night while I blast their music, and for spending massive amounts of money on CDs, Blurays, merch, and other swag... He preached to me that RUSH is one of the greatest bands, and (at the time) I shrugged it off as whatever... I had heard 2112 (just the title track) through Guitar Hero and thought that it was epic in its composition. It also had been the heaviest thing I had ever heard... One night, about a month after my teach preached, I saw the Time Machine Tour was on VH1 Classic to promote it being released(before it came out). I decided to sit down and watch it because I had nothing better to do. At first , especially during the opening video I was saying to myself, "What the hell is this crap and who are these guys?" But I recognized TSOR as soon as they started playing. I ended up watching the entire abridged version on VH1... I was blown away by the entire performance, I knew I needed to have it, but unfortunately I had to wait until my birthday in January to get it. But during that time, I purchased copies of MP and 2112 and started playing them incessantly. That held me over for about a month and then I started listening to Fly By Night and PeW. I finally got TMT for my 16th birthday and over the course of the next week, I watched it every day, and sometimes even twice a day. I knew after that, that I had truly found one of the greatest bands in the world. I then proceeded to buy the rest of their back catalog and then when CA came out, I bought tickets to go see them. Its been a long road, but I've become Rush junkie every since I first laid my eyes on that screen. I've already got a buddy of mine hooked in less then 3 months! It is contagious this stuff haha...

You need to get yourself "Beyond the Lighted Stage!"

 

http://www.amazon.co...e&condition=new

 

Its a must have for any RUSH fan!

 

I beat ya to the punch! Here's my actual collection minus CA, p/g Vinyl, VT remixed CD, and the 89-07 boxset : :D http://instagram.com/p/cmDgnjIViQ/

 

Sweet! :rush: :haz: :rush:

[lal90RushFan]

I got into Rush about a year ago. I had heard of them before, but had never really listened to their music (or so I ignorantly thought), and decided I should check them out.

 

At that time, a local radio station was playing several of their songs, only I didn't realize it was Rush because my knowledge of music was, alas!, shamefully pathetic. I liked the music, but I didn't know what to make of the singer. Then my brother-in-law educated me on the fact that what I was listening to was Rush. One day I caught the tail-end of "Working Man," and that, my friend, is when it happened: the Geddy Lee Mystique descended upon me and I was hooked from that moment on.

 

I listened to their first album, was blown away, and then proceeded to listen to the rest of their discography. It was awesome. So, so awesome.

[micgtr71]

1982. I heard New World Man on the Radio and loved it. A few days or so later I heard Tom Sawyer and thought it was on the same record. Yes...I said record. My friend got a copy (Maxell tape...some of you will remember those) and we went into his finished basement to listen to it. His sister, who was in high school, came in and said, "That's good, but if you want to hear a real rush album try this." She handed us Permanent Waves. This was the first album I heard all the way through. We eventually listened to the rest of Signals, but not until getting through PeW twice.

[gangsterfurious]

My husband put on "The Trees" I asked him what the f**k did he think he was doing and why did that nerdy guy singing sound like the way he did. What a bunch of NERDS. It took him about two years until he tried again...

[JARG]

My first Rush moment was in 1976 when I heard the intro to 2112 coming from my older brother's friend's car. It did nothing for me.

 

But about a year later I walked into the house after school when my brother was blasting By-Tor, and I walked in right during the massive drum fill that comes near the end of the battle section, and I was hooked.

[FountainOfSyrinx]

I was like 3, and my dad played "What You're Doing" on the radio and I was hooked.. No clue who the band was, because I was so little. But I listened to that song for like 2 years straight whenever I was in the car. Finally, when I was 5 or 6, I had this little stereo deal, and I played through the whole album and it was all downhill from there.

[analog guy]

MTV introduced me to Rush via the "Tom Sawyer" video. I was five or six years old, and was absolutely mesmerized by the drummer and his massive kit. I tried to recreate it in my bedroom with Lincoln Logs boxes. That's when Rush first carved out space in my conscience.

 

The next thing I remember from there is the MTV "World Premiere" of the "Distant Early Warning" video. I think Martha Quinn introduced it. (I was obsessed with MTV as a child. It was my babysitter most nights.) I became a complete fan later, through the Chronicles release.

 

Early MTV was something else. Can you imagine MTV today, or even 10 years ago, doing something like this now?

 

That was a big part of my childhood. To this day I have such a huge affinity for music of the early 1980s because of that connection. It's the first music that I remember being new and relevant.

[sun dog]

The first song I ever heard---and I liked it immediately---was Spirit. I remember thinking that it sounded a little like Styx, but that there was no way that Styx could be that cool. This was 1980 and I was either 11 or 12 years old. I grew up in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and many of my early Rush experiences came piped through the rock radio station there, DC 101.

 

The following year, I was introduced more thoroughly. During the summer of 1981, I was hanging with a friend in Fairfax, Virginia and somehow Rush came up. He told me that his older brother had been a fan for years, and he led me over to the stereo system. I had heard Tom Sawyer on the radio and I'm sure was asking about it. He put Moving Pictures on the turntable, and I grabbed the headphones and sat and listened to all of Side A, and at least a couple of times. It was a revelation, and I can trace my lifelong pursuit back to that one experience. Red Barchetta sealed the deal. KISS was out after that. Nearly 30 years later I visited my friend's parents and told them about about that day. They walked me back through their house to show me the stereo and the headphones, and it was nice to see where it all began.

[circumstantial tree]

MTV introduced me to Rush via the "Tom Sawyer" video. I was five or six years old, and was absolutely mesmerized by the drummer and his massive kit. I tried to recreate it in my bedroom with Lincoln Logs boxes. That's when Rush first carved out space in my conscience.

 

The next thing I remember from there is the MTV "World Premiere" of the "Distant Early Warning" video. I think Martha Quinn introduced it. (I was obsessed with MTV as a child. It was my babysitter most nights.) I became a complete fan later, through the Chronicles release.

 

Early MTV was something else. Can you imagine MTV today, or even 10 years ago, doing something like this now?

 

That was a big part of my childhood. To this day I have such a huge affinity for music of the early 1980s because of that connection. It's the first music that I remember being new and relevant.

 

That's the way it was with me. I was constantly watching MTV in 1982, particularly the summer. I saw "Subdivisions" world premiere but didn't tune in specifically for that. I just happened to have MTV on at the time it was aired for the first time. Unless I'm wrong, I seem to recall the ads for it and seeing a cartoon version of the dalmation running and barking until it gets to the hydrant where it "freeze frames" into what is the album cover, then the announcement of the video.

[Lerxster]

First Rush Moment: Hearing The Spirit Of Radio on the radio in 1980.

 

Who Introduced you to Rush: my older brother was a fan and had seen them in the 70's. He made me aware of them. When I heard TSOR on the radio, I ended up buying MP which was their latest release.. and the rest is history. :codger:

 

:hail: :rush:

[jjgittes]

Went to college in southern Ohio. A frat brother from the Cleveland area was spinning the debut album one day and, naturally, I was one of those who asked "Hey, is that Zeppelin?" He lent me the album and the rest is...well, you know the rest or I wouldn't be on this website. :eyeroll:

[Lorraine]

On the FM radio in 1977 or 1978 I heard "Closer To The Heart" - I didn't like it then and still don't like it today. Fast forward a few years, one day a song came on and I asked "What is the name of this song and who does it?" It was "The Spirit of Radio".

[GeminiRising79]

Its a long, convoluted, enigmatic path to my discovery of Rush.

 

Turns out that I attended a Rush concert in '75 or '76 that I don't have any recollection of, paradoxically. Two years ago, some friends of my father told me that I went with them. No, I wasn't on drugs. Mind blown!

 

I can recall hearing "working man" in 10th grade, but dismissed interest in Rush since the song seemed fairly unsophisticated/elementary.

 

Then, in 11th grade, of all people, I asked a "jock" (who happened to always be nice to me) if he knew of any good rock 8-track tapes. He told me to get Atwas, by Rush. Said it was "awesome". Went out, bought it and the rest is history.

[H. P. L.]

"The Big Money" video. At that time, there wasn't MTV in Italy, but a "local" version called Videomusic that was very brave. They played a lot of stuff, not just pop. Hell, they even had a Metal! show. All in good fashioned DIY style.

Anyway, the "Money for Nothing" Dire Straits video was big at that time, dare I say HUGE. Then I saw this video, with similar prehistoric CGI sequences, but with these 3 guys playing like crazy, the drummer with a tail singing the lyrics, the bass player with a dress twice his size... and my mind blew up. "Who are these guys?!?!?". Not long after, the "Mystic Rhythms" video followed. Fan for life.

[Duke1]

January 1980 and Our one and only musical TV show "radio with pictures" showed two Rush videos back to back, "spirit of radio" and "free will". I loved them, and had never heard of them. The next day my best mate called me and said his sister was really keen to get the album by this band called Rush as she loved the 2 videos she saw as well. We went into town, my mate picked up Permanent Waves for his sister plus a white snake album, I picked up Permanent Waves and the one before it, Hemispheres. Hemispheres became my favourite album and still is and Rush became one of my favourite bands... Magical times!

[Blue J]

I don't remember the very first moment, but it was the collective bits of the Fly By Night and 2112 albums that my brother played for me, sometime in 1979 or '80. I was six or seven, and he was six and a half years older than I. Anyway...I remember him getting Permanent Waves when it was new, and then he filled in the rest of the holes with the earlier things than that. The first Rush album I bought with my own money, the first album that wasn't handed down to me by my brother, was Hold Your Fire.

 

It's hard to believe that I go back almost 35 years now, with this band. I'm only 40 myself!

[Narps]

Gemini. You started at the top like I did. Congrats!

[KennyLee]

I was about 11 or 12 and was given a ticket to the Grace Under Pressure tour. Heard of Rush but didn't really know them. I went simply because I had never been to a concert and it sounded cool. My mind was blown and I spent the next year listening to every Rush album before it.

 

Fan for life!

 

Learned bass and keyboards and worked like a maniac trying to increase my vocal range. I'd slap a nun and club a baby seal to have 1/2 of Geddy Lee's talent!

[Starman.2112]

I'm a product of the 80's and for me Rush was a small part of the music I listened to back then. I remember Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions (and the other more popular songs) and really liked it when I heard them play on the radio (I taped Tom Sawyer of the radio at one point). Those two specifically had been some of my favorite songs in the 80's even though I wasn't a "Rush" fan, I was more into Def Leppard. Time moved on and so did I. Then I had a buddy in around 91 reintroduce me by handing me Chronicles. The songs I had liked to hear were in there and lots of new ones. Roll the Bones came out and I really wasn't much of a fan of it and spend a lot of time over the next few years listening to Chronicles. Counterparts hit in 93 and I absolutely loved it, just about every song on the album. I played that Album for probably 6 months strait. I was a great break from the depressing grunge of the prior 3 years. I was then pulled down the rabbit hole and became a "Rush" freak. So I'd say in 93'ish I started going back historically and listening to their older music not on Chronicles. Now, my buddy likes to think he is a more *elite* fan then I am since he got Chronicles a year before me but I still say I was good fan the day Tom Sawyer came out (long before him :) ) Edited October 8, 2013 by Starman.2112

[GeminiRising79]

Gemini. You started at the top like I did. Congrats!

 

Like ur story! Atwas touched me very deeply too. I forgot about Fleetwood mac, Ted Nugent, etc that I listened to prior to atwas.

 

Just occurred to me- Geez, we're getting old!

Edited October 9, 2013 by GeminiRising79

[greyfriar]

It was the late 70's. Every month I spent my pocket money for a new LP. One day I walked in the record store and saw ATWAS. The cover and the pictures of the band were so capturing that I knew immediately "I must have that disc". The problem was that I didn't have enough money. A few weeks later a friend called me and said he bought the album and it wasn't his cup of tea. We listened to Bastille Day and I thought, wow this band has something extraordinary. Although it took me a few more years to really get and enjoy the music of Rush.

It was in 1981 when I heard a radio special on Exit...Stage Left. The radio station played that whole new album and I taped it. I loved what I was hearing and it was a real blast for me to listen to this tape, over and over again. I've found what I was looking for.

To this day there wasn't a band or even other music that means more to me than Rush still does.

To be continued...