Active: 1973-75.

Short lived Dublin based label launched by a guy from the North named John Weir. Publicity and music publishing was handled by Patrick O'Flaherty, former road manager of the Mothers of Invention(!). The label relocated to Coleraine in August 1974 with distribution deals with Solomon & Peres in the north and Release Records in the south.

The "First Thrust" sampler was a collection of acoustic recordings done at a Dublin studio between February and August 1973. A follow-up sampler of electric blues to be titled "Second Thrust" was planned but never came to pass. Among those earmarked for inclusion on this second volume was the highly rated but alas unrecorded Dave Prim Band from Kilkenny.

Solo releases by several of the artists on First Thurst were planned including New Zealand folkie Chris Thompson, Dublin ragtime guitarist Johnny Norris and Belfast singer songwriter Alan Halsey. Thrust claimed at the time to be negotiating with John Fahey's Takoma label for the US release of these planned LPs. None ever came out.

Another aborted release was a split LP of poetry readings by Brendan Kennelly and Peter Fallon (of Tara Telephone).

Roger Doyle's debut LP got as far as being assigned a catalogue number (THR 3) and a printed cover but it too was cancelled. See the full Roger Doyle entry for details of how this finally came out as a self-released LP in 1975.

An LP by country rock/cabaret act The Shauneens did emerge in 1975 (in a nice John T Davis cover) on the Thurst Budget imprint. The catalogue number THRB 1003 suggests there were others.

More info needed about this label please!