Anthem Records

Long before the rise of the modern independent music label, Torontos Anthem Records was pioneering the concept. It was partly out of necessity, but mostly the result of a small group of forward-thinking individuals determined to give artists the freedom to create the music they wanted to make, while at the same time cultivating a previously underse... rved audience for it. In many ways, this approach was the only clear path to success for Canadian musicians during the early 1970s, as the country slowly but steadily built a music business infrastructure aimed at stemming the tide of homegrown talent relocating to the United States or England. From the beginning, Anthem Records was a driving force behind this Canadian cultural revolution, and after nearly 40 years, the label remains as committed as ever to working with the best talent Canada has to offer, and proving conclusively that there are no borders when it comes to rock and roll. Of course, the Anthem Records story is inextricably linked to its primary act, Rush. As has been well documented, the Toronto power trio could not attract any Canadian record label interest during its formative years, prompting the band and its manager, Ray Danniels, to press Rushs 1973 debut single, a cover of Buddy Hollys Not Fade Away, under their own imprint, Moon Records. Rushs self-titled 1974 debut album also initially appeared on Moon Records in a 3,500-copy first pressing, until a groundswell of support in the U.S. brought the band to the attention of the Polygram Group, which offered to sign Rush to its Mercury Records subsidiary. That two-year deal began paying real dividends with the release of Rushs 1976 masterpiece 2112, and Danniels and his then-partner Vic Wilsons SRO Productions shrewdly leveraged that success by gaining sole ownership of Rushs body of work with the intention of licensing it internationally. Thus, in May 1977, Anthem Records was born, and a new distribution partnership with Capitol-EMI was signed the following year. Not surprisingly, the first band ...Read More