UPDATE - 6/24@9:20PM: Here's an interview with Keith and Kevin Purdy from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (thanks Mars). As I'd mentioned below, these 2 extraordinary Rush fans were instrumental in getting Rush their star:
... "I think a lot of us were annoyed that they haven't been inducted in the (Rock and Roll) Hall of Fame," Kevin Purdy said Thursday. "So when we learned that fans could nominate artists for the Walk of Fame, we were like, ‘We have to make this happen.' "
The Purdys reached out in 2008 to Donna Halper, who is credited with giving Rush its first U.S. radio exposure in 1974 when she was music director at a Cleveland rock station. Now a Boston-area communication professor and radio consultant, Halper said the Purdys did "90 percent of the legwork" in creating a presentation for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which oversees the Walk of Fame. ...
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Tomorrow morning at 11:30AM PST in Los Angeles, CA Rush's Hollywood Walk of Fame Star - the 2,412th star awarded - will be unveiled at 6752 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Musician's Institute. It was a little over 2 years ago when we first learned that Rush would be receiving this honor. The campaign to get Rush their star was spearheaded by longtime Rush friend Donna Halper - who is credited with discovering the band while working at WMMS-FM in Cleveland back in 1974 - and Rush fans extraordinaire Keith and Kevin Purdy. Donna Halper along with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan will be on hand at the ceremony to introduce the band. From yesterday's Boston Globe:
When Canadian rockers Rush get a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame Friday, Donna Halper will be there. And well she should be. Halper, who teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge, is widely credited with breaking the band in the US when she was the music director at Cleveland's WMMS-FM in 1974. To its credit, Rush - bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer Neil Peart - never forgot Halper's help and invited her to introduce them at the ceremony in LA. (The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan also will be there at the band’s request.) "I've been in broadcasting for close to 40 years, and they're one of the few people who've kept in touch," Halper told us yesterday. "They've made some money and lost some hair, but they're the same people today they were then. ... For once, the good guys win." Halper, who makes an appearance in the new documentary, "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage," says it's a shame the power trio is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "Critics have a lot of contempt for Rush, for reasons I don't understand," said the Dorchester native. "People say they're a cult band - they're a thinking person's cult band ... I got an e-mail from a bishop who's a Rush fan - a bishop!"
Blabbermouth.net is also reporting that the Mann Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood will host 3 special screenings (at 2PM, 5PM and 8PM) of the documentary tomorrow in honor of Rush getting their star just blocks away from the theater.
If you are attending the ceremony please give us your report along with any pics and/or video you can get.
Related Posts:
[Rush Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony confirmed for June 25th]
[Rush Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony to take place June 25th]
[New special edition Rush Starman statue now available]
[Rush to receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame]
[Rush Star Hollywood Walk of Fame Project]
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