According to any available sources the Canadian release for RUSH 2112 has no actual day of week release date. The closest we have is the RPM Magazine of April 10, 1976 with the above full page ad.
I was given a document this week by Joe Pesch with the sign in signatures of both Neil Peart and Geddy Lee dated Apr 5/76 by both band members.
This is the timeline of my research that includes a pretty much forgotten Canadian band Thundermug and as such, this is how I will publish my findings exactly as I wrote them in sequence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thundermug – Canadian band from London, Ontario.
Thundermug had a radio hit here called “Africa”. According to Citizen Freak, a Canadian archive of Canadian music history, they, like Rush, “graduated to the Toronto bar circuit where they developed a loyal cult-like following” under the band name Pink Orange until the name change when they gained notice by manager Wyn Anderson who then arranged “a deal with Greg Hambleton’s local Axe Records”. Hambleton worked with Terry Brown in 1972. Thundermug recorded their debut album THUNDERMUG STRIKES at Toronto Sound Studios that Spring.
Thundermug’s Africa can be heard on this YouTube Channel here and after giving a listen, I do indeed remember this song with the kazoo!
Incidentally, their cover of You Really Got Me by The Kinks I also recognize.
Citizen Freak states that radio station played The Kinks cover as their first single but when they began playing Africa “direction changed”. Thundermug did headline with The Strawbs in central Canada (as did RUSH according to Geddy Lee’s book My Effin’ Life as I read) and they were their own band touring Canada-wide after Africa was released as a single that “cracked the national top 30” with the flip side being Jane J James that you can listen to here:
Thundermug went on to a North American tour and their next album entitled “ORBIT” with the title track of the same name release as a single was “again cracking the Top 40”.
Back to the Rush connection...
A document given to me from Joe Pesch with signatures of both Neil Peart and Geddy Lee signing into RPM on April 5th, 1976 raised the question of when did Rush release 2112 in Canada? We now know through my RUSH 2112 research project and with the assistance of Donna Halper in my “quest” as she called it, that 2112 released on Mercury Records in the United States March 27, 1976. Some dedicated fans like us Canadian fans, me and Joe Pesch seek to find the answer of the Canadian release. We do know it was released the week of April 10th as it was advertised on the RPM magazine issue of that date (with thanks to Donna Halper again for the reminder of the introductory ad above).
This ad (posted below) on Page 4 of RPM, “Thundermug clap and stomp abroad” states that Thundermug completed a Canadian tour with the Stampeders in “late 1975” and that they opened for Aerosmith that year in September.
Furthermore, RPM wrote how “Guest appearances have also been logged in with Rush during that band’s Stratford, London [February 21, 1976 with Max Webster only listed in RUSH: Wandering the Face of the Earth Page 94], Kingston [February 19, 1976] dates” of which only the London and Kingston dates are recorded with no Stratford date listed in RUSH: WTFOTE.
*Incidentally, Thundermug also played with RUSH February 17, 1975 in London, Ontario as well.
Being that February 19, 1976 was a Thursday and February 21st a Saturday with that Friday as a “blanker” to steal the word from Geddy’s My Effin’ Life that Howard "Herns" Ungerleider made up (sorry I had to), it wouldn’t be far fetched to make an educated guess that if RUSH played that Friday, February 20th, it would have been in Stratford, Ontario, less than an hour away drive with Thundermug. Of course, RUSH did perform in London for two dates, on February 6th and 7th with no back-up band and according to RPM Thundermug was the back-up band for only three (as it appears consecutive) dates. So those two early February concerts don't really jive. Did London get three RUSH shows that month? I wonder.
There are no RUSH concerts between March 31 and April 6, 1976, they took a week off. These are the connections I made.
As we can see, Thundermug’s band members are listed to perform at Larry’s Hideaway on April 5th of that year.
We can also see that Geddy and Neil appear to have attended the RPM office that same day with their residences listed as “HOME” and “AS WELL” and it sure looks like Neil’s printing. They appear to be the only people to sign into RPM that day and of course no phone numbers listed!
My point is that these two RUSH guys were in Toronto that day if this sign in schedule is authentic, because of the source, I have no reason to believe otherwise. Thundermug was playing in Toronto that night. Did Neil and Geddy go see their musician friends play that night? Where was Alex when Neil and Geddy went to RPM that day? Why are there signatures of Neil and Geddy at the RPM office with very apparent “residences” in Neil’s printing, "HOME" and "AS WELL"? You can't tell me that wasn't them. It looks to me they came together and that maybe Alex came at a separate time and did not sign in. That's a realistic possibility.
Image credit Joe Pesch.
This “$ Million worth Of Rush product” (that is included as part of my RUSH 2112 project” from the same RPM Magazine date) states how Bob Ansell from Polydor “brought in Rush’s new album ‘2112’”.
Was the day of this meeting April 5th, 1976? I’ll bet you a million Monopoly bucks it was.
With many thanks to Joe for the copy of the document, putting me on another RUSH history hunt and for getting me back to write Donna Halper regarding this most important historical date, who reminded of the “full page ad” of which I wrote back stating I would revisit this magazine of this date. By all evidence provided, I believe we have the most probable answer, the date 2112 was brought to Canada, which is very likely that Monday, April 5, 1976.
Written and researched by Alice Csuka on Friday, January 26, 2024.
PS: I love to think back on old Canadian music I used to hear Thundermug which brings back those songs on radio, so thanks for that, Joe.
Additional sources:
Robert Williston who also runs the Facebook page Museum of Canadian Music.
THE GOLD “RUSH’ OF 2112 STARTS NOW.” Full page ad credit from Page 20, RPM Magazine, April 10, 1976.
These three images are from my 2112 CD on the Anthem label. One day I hope to acquire an original album pressing.
Addendums:
On RUSH 2112 Le Devoir April 3, 1976, page 17. Image from Le devior magazine archived in Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec.
This shows that the RUSH 2112 album is released as of Saturday, April 3, 1976 in Canada, does it not? Therefore, one can make a reasonable conclusion that Neil Peart and Geddy Lee went into the RPM office that following Monday on April 5, 1976 to promote the album here.
Online translation from my favourite auto translator of which I'm not revealing my source.
I put out a request in the Facebook group Canadian Classic Rock for a translation from French to English and this is the reply I received from Andrew Leccese on March 22, 2024.
I had heard their previous record, Fly by Night, without being impressed other than by Rush’s big musical machine. With such a name, one mustn’t expect little birds and little flowers, waltzes or minuets. They are but three creating this air displacement: Alex Lifeson on guitar, Neil Peart on percussion, Geddy Lee on bass and vocals. It’s always a bit foreboding when a group is so small: the sound is necessarily concentrated, the effects of subtlety usually reduced to the minimum; Hot Tuna is proof of this and Rush doesn’t avoid such pitfalls either. Science fiction novel put to music, 2112, promotes an imaginary world, a dream creator (The Twilight Zone) but Rush is all rhetoric. Charity begins at home: I’ll believe their words when they prove it in their music.
Link to my interview and PowerPoint presentation conversations with Johnny Racine on his YouTube Channel Aspie Drummer: