Audio 7 April 1975 - Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio [Soundboard]

[Rush Archives]

Downloads:​

• 1975-04-07 - Cleveland, Ohio *recommended*
• Anthem For Cleveland
• Bad Boys In Cleveland
• Bad Boys In Cleveland (speed corrected)
• Can't Fight It
• Juvenile Delinquents

Track Listing:​

01 - Finding My Way​

02 - Best I Can​

03 - What You're Doing​

04 - Anthem​

05 - Beneath, Between And Behind​

06 - In The End​

07 - Fly By Night​

08 - Working Man​

09 - Drum Solo​

10 - In The Mood​

11 - Need Some Love​

12 - Bad Boy​

Notes:​

• This is one of only three known shows recorded from the Fly By Night tour.
• Old bootleg releases of this recording reference the date to be 15 May 1975 (no performance on this date), but official tour listings seem to date it for 7 April 1975. The alleged May 15 date is possibly when this recording aired on the radio.
• Originally recorded and broadcast by WMMS FM radio in 1975.
• My purely speculative theory is that By-Tor And The Snow Dog was indeed performed preceding Working Man, but omitted from the radio broadcast. I suggest By-Tor was omitted by comparing this setlist with the other two FBN tour recordings, and hearing one of several clear cuts in the tape between Fly By Night and Working Man. Since this is a recording of the radio broadcast, and the master tape was never found unlike with the two Agora '74 recordings, there is no way to be certain of By-Tor's omission. However, I do find it hard to believe that By-Tor would have been a choice of omission from a headlining setlist on this tour.

Preview:​

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[rocky chains]

Thank you for hosting this site and linking Rush fanatics seeking more to such carefully curated, researched, and presented live recordings.

This highly interesting show has been around for a while. I had a copy on cassette acquired back to the 1980s, but it doesn't sound as good as what's posted here. What a treat to hear one of the few live recordings of B,B,&B and Fly By Night with the brief quiet middle section before the ending refrain. And also, a full Working Man entering the peak of it's glory period before getting chopped on the 2112 Tour, what a trio of musicians! Geddy is rattling around with those noisy Rickenbacker strings, and Neil and Alex are just nuts in Working Man.

With the recent unearthing of the Northampton soundboard tape from March 1975, I would concur that it's likely that By-Tor was performed at this show. It was not a number that was added later in the tour (see June in Toronto). Also, as shown by the Northampton tape - the cut here in Bad Boy - early in Alex's unaccompanied solo - is a drastic one, leaving unheard the spacey echo noodling that happened in Northampton only a few weeks before.

I am one of those strange fellows who pines away for Caress of Steel tour tapes, but I must say - we need more tapes from the FBN tour as well!! I wonder if the band recorded themselves in these early days, ever. I would assume that for some of the significant gigs, like Massey Hall in June 1975 and January 1976, they at least set up a good tape deck for some documentation.

Long live live Rush.

 

[By-Tor X-1]

I've talked with a few people about the omission of By-Tor on this show, and while not everyone feels the same way I do, I highly doubt they cut the song from this show. If they needed to shorten the set, it wouldn't be By-Tor, in my opinion. There's a cut before Working Man as well, a further indication. From what we speculate, WMMS possibly cut Garden Road from the original broadcast for the August 26 Agora show (and I think Bad Boy as well?) to fit in a certain time frame. This is not unheard of with broadcasts (read about the Yes soundboard recording for December 11, 1974) That, or the fan who taped the broadcast missed these songs. Garden Road was not heard until the rebroadcast in 2000. Since they lost the master tape for this Agora show, we'll never know for sure about By-Tor unless an audience tape pops up.

I agree, new FBN tour tapes are nearly as valuable as new COS tour tapes. The tour is very undocumented, and there's no telling what other interesting setlist variations there were.

My goal for 2024 is to hopefully increase social media presence and trying to bring more awareness to this stuff, hopefully meeting people with uncirculated audio and video, from not just the 70s, but the 80s and 90s too. Currently we already have a few new master tapes in the works, audio and video.

I don't believe Rush themselves recorded any FBN or COS gigs, based on the stories from Ian Grandy, their sound guy at the time. I don't doubt though that Massey Hall in January 1976 was recorded by a fan. Same for the June 1976 Massey Hall shows. In fact I heard a story that one of those June shows did exist on an audience tape, but was assuredly long lost, sadly. Though there are still plenty opportunities, especially with big venues like this. Plenty people recorded concerts and just haven't shared them online yet, for one reason or another.

 

[fbonham]

Thanks a lot. Great job!