The Rustix (active 1967 to 1972) was an R&B/blue-eyed soul band based in Rochester that was one of the first rock bands signed by Motown subsidiary Rare Earth Records. The Rustix recorded two albums and generated the hit songs “Come On People,” “When I Get Home,” “Hard to Handle,” “Free Again,” and “Can’t You Hear the Music Play?” The band drew big crowds at the Varsity Inn in Rochester and also at the Brighton Bowl on East Avenue, where the owner offered to a build a new club to accommodate the band’s growing fan base, naming it Club 45. Their fame grew as they played summers in Lake George and recorded their first single on Cadet records.
In 1969, to support their “Bedlam” album — recorded on Motown label’s for white bands called Rare Earth — they toured the country and opened for the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, The Rascals, The Four Tops, Grand Funk Railroad, and Emerson Lake & Palmer. The album reached the Top 100 Billboard List. The band reunited in 1979 for an anniversary concert and they now will reunite again for the 2016 induction ceremony. The members being inducted on April 24th will be: Chuck Brucato, George Cocchini, Ron Collins, David Colon Jr. and Vince Strenk as well as posthumous inductions for late members, Bob D’Andrea, Al Galich and Bob Soehner.