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THE RUSH BACKSTAGE CLUB NEWSLETTER

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B ack in the early 1980s, Rush and their management team wanted to find a way to connect to the band's growing legion of fans. The solution? The creation of a fan club via a (snail) mailed newsletter. Enter the Rush Backstage Club of Toronto, as it was originally called. The early newsletters provided fans the world over with access to news on Rush, as well as reproductions of Neil Peart's tour book essays. Later, the periodically distributed newsletters began to also include tour itineraries, order forms for official Rush merchandise, photos of the band, and even some magazine articles about Rush.



As informative as the early newsletters were, something was still missing – a connection to the fan, and a way for Rush fans to connect to one another. To remedy the situation, the first newsletter of 1985 included a section called ’Pen Pals’; a listing of Rush fan’s names and addresses that allowed fans the ability to connect to one another through the mail. It wasn’t quite as efficient compared to the way fans connect today, but there was definitely a more elegant and personal touch of writing and mailing a letter to someone you didn’t know, but shared a common interest with.



With the very next newsletter, Neil Peart began to share the ‘The News’ on the band and also took to answering some fan questions. Not surprisingly, the Q&A section became incredibly popular in subsequent issues, with the list of questions steadily growing. As time went on, the newsletter began to shrink in size and was largely only distributed in connection with a new album or tour. Towards the end, the newsletter foreshadowed what the Rush Backstage Club is today – a Rush merchandise shop. Many newsletters were merely a listing of the latest Rush merchandise and a shrinking list of ‘Pen Pals’ members. Shortly after Rush released Test for Echo, the newsletter quietly came to an end as the growing popularity of the internet and Rush websites took its place.



With the help of some fellow Rush fans, I’ve been able to track down what I believe is a complete collection of the newsletters, which I’ve now made available on this page. In addition to the newsletters, there are some other items rarely seen before, including Lifetime Membership Certificates, a color catalog, and even notes sent to Rush fans who had questions about the band. All these items, and more, are now available for your viewing pleasure.



Very special thanks go out to Bob Nippert who graciously supplied me with his collection of newsletters for this page. Thanks also go out to Kelly Moretta, Joe Pesch, and Rob Silverberg for the contributions to this page as well. If you are aware of any additional issues (or corrections) to this collection, please drop me a line.



Enjoy the look back.