Rush With Lindy Young -> Hadrian with Lindy Young & Joe Perna
January-September 1969
"For one show Alex managed to convince his friend Nancy Young to borrow her brother's Gibson Firebird guitar. Her brother Lindy came along for the November [1968] Coff-In show. Everyone was quite impressed as Lindy began fooling around on the piano. He met Alex, Geddy and John and eventually started hanging out with Rush and their friends...
"On Christmas Day 1968 Alex phoned Lindy Young and asked him to join Rush as keyboard player. He agreed and they rehearsed at Geddy's house every day during the holiday break...The four-piece Rush debuted the first week of January 1969 at the Coff-In. The show featured cover versions of songs by Traffic, Willie Dixon and Ten Years After. The band was beginning to evolve with Lindy's electric piano and vocals, according to John Rutsey. 'Lindy was a real good musician. In addition to keyboards, vocals and guitar, he played harmonica and drums on the side. He was a fine musician and the band evolved musically with his addition. We were really trying some different things for the time. We were getting into early Grateful Dead and things of that sort.'
"Throughout February 1969 Lindy began playing more guitar and singing with Rush. 'You Don't Love Me' by John Mayall which Rush covered, featured lead vocals from Lindy. The band were on a roll into March and April. They were the main band at the Coff-In and Alex was really coming into his own on guitar. The future seemed bright even at this early stage. Bright that is, until John convinced the others that Geddy's spotlight should be turned off. So in May Geddy was kicked out of the band. Alex, John and Lindy got Joe Perna to play bass and sing and the name Rush was changed to Hadrian.
"In June Geddy founded a rhythm 'n' blues band called Ogilvie. He was actually having more success with his band than Hadrian. Gedd will never forget going to a Hadrian gig to help Lindy out with the words, since he now had to sing lead on most of the songs. He went to the Willowdale church instead of going to see the last Toronto performance of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. [webmaster note: the date of Hendrix's last Toronto performance was May 3, 1969]
"During July Ogilvie changed their name to Judd. Ray Danniels was also booking shows for Judd, but unlike Hadrian, Judd were getting lots of work. In that same month Lindy quit Hadrian and joined Judd. Hadrian's last gig was at the Willowdale United Church. Joe Perna didn't play all that well, so when Lindy left they disbanded.
"Geddy and his band Judd continued working hard right through the summer, while Alex and John were in limbo. They didn't know what to do. Finally in September Judd broke up. John phoned Gedd and asked him to reform Rush. Gedd agreed. Lindy was beginning studies at Seneca College so he didn't rejoin. He was also tired of performing; while he liked playing at parties, he was not as serious as the others, and they were now very serious." - Visions
Hadrian in 1969: L-R: Joe Perna, a 15 year-old Alex Lifeson, John Rutsey, and Lindy Young