Rush - 12 December 1974 - University of Toronto Convocation Hall, Toronto, Ontario [1ST GEN UPGRADE]

Rush live at the University of Toronto Convocation Hall in Toronto, Ontario during the debut Rush tour. This performance was originally set to be The Sensational Alex Harvey Band opening for Manfred Mann, however the equipment for SAHB was lost in air transit and they were ultimately unable to play the show. This resulted in Rush being called to fill the opening slot with an hour's notice, who were luckily already in Ontario, having played in Ottawa two days prior. The lengthier intro at the beginning of this 1st gen copy captures an announcer telling the crowd about the SAHB equipment loss and that Rush would be filling in. In hindsight, it's a miracle a last minute show like this was even recorded, as no one would have been at this concert expecting to see Rush, but luckily a group of habitual tapers were in the audience.

This recording features an early live version of Anthem. Early pieces of By-Tor And The Snow Dog can be heard during the middle section of Working Man, as usual for 1974 shows with Neil.

Track Listing:​

01 - Intro​ [0:00]
02 - Finding My Way​ [2:46]
03 - Best I Can​ [7:48]
04 - In The Mood​ [11:15]
05 - Anthem​ [14:59]
06 - Here Again​ [19:42]
07 - Bad Boy​ [29:05]
08 - Guitar Solo​ [33:33]
09 - Working Man​ [35:56]
10 - Drum Solo​ [45:59]

This show was recorded by the same group of friends who recorded Rush on October 24 at Massey Hall, and again in 1975 on June 25 at Massey Hall. It's interesting to note how they call out for Suffragette City a total of nine times during this show (plus another few times at Massey Hall 1975), the David Bowie cover that Rush was well known for when John Rutsey was still on drums. It's clear some of these guys saw Rush at a show prior to August, though if a recording ever actually existed, it seems unlikely to have survived.

This show was recorded by two different tapers among the friend group in attendance. Source 1 (the recording here) is the version that has circulated for decades, however as of May 2025 we now have this notable upgrade, sourced from a 1st gen reel-to-reel copy made by the original taper for their own listening purposes. Sadly the master tape was long lost. Source 2 (not on YouTube) is completely uncirculated and was transferred direct from the master tape, however it was sadly damaged in the past, having serious flutter issues and a constantly increasing speed, therefore is not really listenable. The damage on Source 2 seems to have been the result of the tape being stretched, which could have been caused by either the pressure pad falling off during an unmonitored transfer, or issues with resistance in the original poor quality cassette shell. While Source 2 could be the better recording, it sadly is not really fixable even with the tools currently available.

Old bootleg releases incorrectly reference the date to be November 1st at the Convocation Hall in Toronto, however Rush played the Forum in Montreal on that day. Years ago I wrote an extended post at Rush-Archives explaining why this tape was most definitely December 12th in Toronto, but if anyone still had doubts, a newspaper review for the show on December 12 corroborates what is heard at the beginning of the 1st gen upgrade of this tape about Rush filling in.

Downloads:
rush-archives.net

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