RUSH Hemispheres release dates. A history from Billboard, R&R, RPM, Sounds and The Toronto Sun.

By Alice Csuka.

**This research paper and it's title have been updated and now includes evidence for the true release dates in Canada (Tuesday October 10th, 1978 on the Anthem label) and Europe (Wednesday November 8th, 1978 on Mercury) with initial date of release on the United States being Tuesday October 24, 1978 (Mercury).

** See the addendum at the bottom.

TWO SIDES TO THEIR ROCK AND ROLL STORY

(Billboard Magazine, Page 13. Issue 1978-10-21)

The two

hemispheres of Rush

come into perfect balance.

HEMISPHERES

S7 Ray Danniels/Vic Wilson

Rush appears on Anthem Records En Canada.

TWO SIDES TO THEIR

ROCK 'N ROLL STORY

1974 marked the genesis of a

group destined to stamp an indelible

imprint on rock music. The group

was Rush, three talented young men

from Canada. Their debut album was

characterized by a direct, thundering

energy which was never to abandon

them.

Shortly before the release of

their second album, Fly by Night,

drummer Neal Peart joined Alex

Lifeson (guitar) and Geddy Lee (bass,

vocals). The integration of Peart into

the band proved to be a milestone.

His lyrics ushered in a new side to the

music. The sound became more mys-

tical. Lyric content of such depth and

complexity had never before been

mined by a high-energy group. The

idea was surely experimental and

perhaps at the margins of revolution.

The more the group evolved,

the more sophisticated the ideas be-

came. Concept album after concept

album rushed from their fertile

minds. Caress of Steel with its soul-

searing quest. 2112, a hugely success-

ful sci-fi album speculating on future

societies and their political architec-

ture. Next, a Farewell to Kings, apul-

sating, elegiac mourning of individ-

uality's demise.

By now, Rush had become story-

tellers of the first water-and clearly

the most challenging and cerebral of

all the hard rock bands. With prem-

ises rooted in objectivism, each album

bore a message-saturated story on

one side and surging, high-powered,

energy-flooded, hot-blooded rock n'

roll on the other. Rush had developed

a form which communicated what

they were about-the fusion of

reason and emotion, mind and heart,

cerebrum and viscera.

Their new album, Hemispheres,

Preaches what Rush practices in their

music. Peart sculpts his images from

materials made of the band's essence.

The playing and composing harden

the images with kiln-like heat.

Again, we hear the heavy use of

mythology, symbolism and meta-

phor. Again, we feel conflict shred-

ding us, dividing us. A monumental

battle is developing between two

gods, Apollo (symbolizing Mind) and

Dionysus (symbolizing Heart).The

struggle is resolved when Cygnus

(yes, the same Cygnus who had dis-

appeared into Farewell's black hole)

intervenes and proclaims that a bal-

ance between Mind and Heart is the

perfect way for Man to conduct his

life. The Aristotelian Golden Mean

meets Rock! Wow!

And there is an irony in all this,

To boot. That the balance of Mind and

Heart espoused by Cygnus is the very

same balance one hears in the work

of Rush. Like their albums, one side

(or hemisphere) is devoted to the

Intellectual (without abandoning the

emotional) and the other side (or

hemisphere),vice-versa. And their

new album, Hemispheres, doubtless-

ly represents the deepest and most

satisfying expression of that balance.

Mercury Will Widen Market Horizons... Page 172.

Billboard 1978-10-28. Page 94.

Rush Rates First

Merc Picture LP

CHICAGO-Phonogram / Mer-

cury will release its first commercial

picture disk next month in conjunc-

tion with the new Rush album,

"Hemispheres." The special $13.98

list pressing is being produced in an

edition of 50,000 as part of a massive

promotion of the concept LP.

Two merchandising pieces, post-

ers and a one-hour special radio pro-

gram about Rush also have been de-

vised.

The first US Radio Station Breakouts can be viewed in Issue 1978-11-04 for the week ending October 25th, 1978.

RUSH Hemispheres was added by CHUM-FM in Toronto that week as well according to this advertisement on Page 49 from Radio & Records but states on Mercury. ** Please read Addendum for the Anthem Premier that occurred on October 5th, 1978 at this station.

During that same week a report on the convention held in Toronto by Bob Roper, Director of Capitol Records/EMI of Canada the weekend of September 29th to 30th at The Four Seasons Hotel is advertised. While they were general meetings, “separate get-togethers were held by Aquarius and Anthem Reocrds [sic]” of which on September 30th, “the convention ended at Anthem Records' Oak Manor for a preview of the Rush album, Hemispheres”. RPM, Issue 1978-10-28, Page 7.

I find it interesting to note here of this OP by Bob Roper where he talks about bands from Canada and elsewhere that found success in Canada before other countries and how other talk about the differences between Canadian and US radio. Page 8. (Bob Roper is the man who sent Donna Halper the Rush Debut album).

Can an act have a Canadian hit without U.S. acceptance?

An overwhelming " YES" from the people who have done it!

Bob Roper, Director of National Promo-

tion, Press and Artist Relations for Capitol

Records/EMI of Canada, cited the examples

of Kate Bush, Bob Welch, and the Little

River Band. " We were way ahead of the

States on these acts,' says Roper. " Bob

Welch was platinum in Canada before it was

even gold in the U.S.; same story for Little

River Band. There are a lot of situations like

that. Anne Murray, of course, has always

been very big for us here in Canada.'

Roper also discussed the cases of acts on

Capitol's distributed labels which have enjoy-

ed Canadian success prior to, or totally

without, U.S. acceptance. " Look at acts like

Rush or April Wine, which have always been

huge in Canada before the U.S., and it's the

same situation still April Wine is really a

perfect example; double platinum albums

here for a long time, and the group is just now

beginning to get reaction in the States."

RUSH Hemispheres record ad in RPM.

New album, North America tour for Anthem's Rush (Page 20).

Anthem recording group Rush ore [sic] now on

release with a new album. Titled Hemi-

spheres, the album shows the group's con-

tinued development in a progressive, science

fiction- inspired vein, while continuing to

display their well-known, solid rock sound. As

has been the case with the group's past few

albums, most of the music was composed by

bassist- vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex

Lifeson, with drummer Neil Peart supplying

the lyrics.

As was the case with their last album, the

platinum A Farewell to Kings. Hemispheres

was produced by the group and Terry Brown

at Rockfield Studios in Wales, with vocals

added at London's Advision Studios.

Side one of the album consists of the

title cut, which is divided into six sections.

Hemispheres serves as Book II to Cygnus

X-1, a major project which was recorded on

the last album. It completes the story of a

pilot falling through a black hole in the

universe. Side two contains two shorter

songs and an instrumental medley.

In support of the album, the Toronto-

based trio have embarked on what they are

referring to as the Tour Of The Hemispheres.

On the road steadily through mid- January,

Rush will appear before over 300,000

Americans and almost 200,000 Canadians.

The tour began October 14 in Kingston,

Ontario, and continued with Canadian dates

in Guelph ( 15), North Bay ( 17), Sudbury

(18), Thunder Bay ( 20), Winnipeg ( 21),

Brandbn ( 22), Regina ( 24), Saskatoon ( 25),

Edmonton ( 27), Calgary ( 28), Lethbridge

(29), Kamloops ( 31), Victoria ( Nov. 2),

Namaimo ( 3) and Vancouver ( 4). Rush

immediately enter the U.S. for major headline

appearances throughout the West, including

Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Sacramento, Reno,

Long Beach, Fresno, San Francisco, San

Bernardino, Phoenix, Tucson and Albu-

querque.

After a week's break, the group move into

the U.S. Midwest, with stops in Indianapolis,

Dayton, Toledo, Detroit, Fort Wayne, Mil-

waukee, Green Bay, St. Paul, St. Louis,

Kansas City, three dates in Chicago, and Madi-

son, Wis. They then return to Canada for

stops in London ( Dec. 29), Kitchener ( 20),

the Ottawa Civic Centre ( 21), Montreal

Forum ( 27), Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens

(two shows, 28-29), and Peterborough. In the

new year, Rush are slated for dates in Boston,

Philadelphia and New York ( two dates).

Rush's three most recent albums, 2112,

All The World's A Stage and A Farewell To

Kings, are all platinum in Canada on the

Capitol- distributed Anthem label. The same

three LP's are gold in the U.S.

That week:

Radio Programmers' Music Award NOMINATION RESULTS

(As tabulated by the accountancy firm Donald Hill & Partners)

Contemporary (Top 40 or Rock) [Canada]

And I saw them all! I even met the guys in Stonebolt and even partied with them. I also met Chilliwack.

In the first week of the launch, RUSH Hemispheres was at Number 86 on Canadian charts.

Here you can see a copy of my treasured red wax original Anthem Canadian pressing of RUSH Hemispheres. The outside cover isn't mint but the record and inside cover is.

Ad from the show I saw in Calgary October 28, 1978 at the Calgary Stampede Corral.

Image of Newspaper ads courtesy Cygnus-X1 RUSH Library.

The Calgary Albertan concert review.

The Calgary Herald ad the day before the concert.

Newspaper clips courtesy Claire This Day in Rush History Twitter 𝕏.

**Addendum X's 2:

The red wax RUSH Hemispheres record released in Canada on Tuesday, October 10, 1978. To quote Ron Wilmot who gave this copy of his to me tonight, Tuesday, October 24, 2023: “The Toronto Sun review from Oct 5 1978. The last paragraph says the album will be released next Tuesday (Oct 10th)”, article entitled: "Pregnant power trio births a beauty".

And just prior to this conversation on the same night, from Joe Pesch: “The U.K. magazine Sounds says Hemispheres is being released there on November 8th, which fits with the 2 week delay for the charts”. And then after further inquiry, Joe gave me this, his copy from Sounds Magazine, article entitled: "It could be a Meisterwerk (but it's more like a terrible mistake).

We can see now Hemispheres was actually debuted on CHUM-FM Night at 11 on Thursday October 5, 1978 and that Alex, Geddy and Neil came into the studio that night. (I await any confirmation that it was also aired on other Canadian radio stations).

With many thanks to Joe Pesch and Ron Wilmot for these most important sources for the true release dates of Hemispheres in Canada and Europe.

Billboard HITS OF THE WORLD Page 70. November 18, 1978.

Canada: RUSH Hemispheres at Number 3 on the Charts.

Incidentally, beginning on Page 3 and continuing on Page 89 is an article entitled “CANADIANS SAY EXPORTS EXAGGERATED” of which the gripes, if I may, talk about discs (records), and explicitly mentioning coloured records, are in high demand by US markets. The article talks about the differences between Canadian versus United States dollar values in record exports and how Canada basically wanted to jack up prices to make them somewhat equivalent calling the move the “$8.98 policy”. The significance here being how the RUSH Hemispheres red vinyl pressing was included with other albums that were viewed as undervalued exports to and from the US. Furthermore, how certain import companies were importing Canadian stock from the US at US market value wholesale which was lower than Canadian manufacturer’s costs. You can read more here: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/70s/1978/Billboard%201978-11-18.pdf

Fin.

Thanks for reading!