Call to arms

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New book documents city’s underground music scene, raises money for youth counselling organization.

CALL * Response just might be the loudest local book ever.

The 64-page hardcover coffee-table book features photos and stories about the past 30 years of the Winnipeg music scene with a strong focus on fans.

"When we were talking about the idea, we wanted to make it youth-focused more than just a chronicle of bands and more than just glory shots of bands," says Michael Sanders, a local photographer/graphic artist who edited Call * Response with Nathan Terin and John Toone. "I've always been fascinated by the diversity of the crowds in Winnipeg. I spend more time shooting the crowd throughout the show than the band; those are the photos that gave me the sense of energy the show had."

The book, Call * Response: Present, Past and Beyond, Volume One, is a fundraiser for Kids Help Phone, a free non-profit toll-free phone/web counselling service for children and youth. Terin has been holding annual fundraising shows for the organization since 2005 following the suicide of his 19-year-old cousin Steven in 2004.

Over the years, the shows have raised $28,000 to help keep the service running, and last October Terin was hired by the organization as its regional manager for community fundraising and corporate development, turning his passion into a full-time job.

"It's a personal drive -- I never once thought that the job was done," Terin says. "All you have to do is look around you and see how kids are doing. Being educated by Kids Help Phone staff, I knew what the costs were to keep it going, and it the amount of money I raised never satisfied me."

The idea for the Call * Response project was hatched when he was just a volunteer. He and Sanders initially discussed putting together a calendar before deciding a book was the way to go. They enlisted the services of Toone, who owns Alchemical Press, and Absurd Machine Studios, where Sanders works.

In August they issued a call for photos of and stories about the local music scene from anyone who was interested in contributing anything, from poems and posters to photos and lists of favourite shows.

They received 1,500 photos and 45 written submissions by the end of the October deadline, then faced the tough task of getting it down to a more manageable 70 photos and 20 written submissions from 36 different contributors covering the years 1980 to 2010.

It's not grouped chronologically; instead, esthetic considerations drove the project.

"We left it fairly wide open," Sanders says. "We knew it had to be centred around the interaction between youth and live music, and we didn't even know what that meant until everything came in. The idea was always evolving, right up to the day before it went to press."

"From a publishing perspective, going from absolutely nothing at the beginning of August to a finished book the end of October is amazing," Toone adds.

"I still don't remember the last two weeks of October, but we got a book done."

Along with colour and black-and-white photos, lists and memories are ticket stubs, lyrics, information about some local community groups and tributes to late Knockarounds frontman Martin Cote and Carpe Diem/Barrymores drummer Devin Mitchell, making it even more personal for Terin, who was good friends with both musicians.

"If you read the letter from Martin's sister, she talks about him working with street kids, and because the book is youth-oriented, it has a huge impact," he says.

The LP-sized book, printed on high-quality glossy paper, is being launched this weekend at three different events on Saturday at Into the Music, the West End Cultural Centre and the Royal Albert. The Into the Music show is a free daytime acoustic showcase featuring Ivan Reimer, Greg Rekus and the High Class Lowlifes; the eclectic roots/pop/indie-rock showcase at the WECC includes the Ripperz, the Bonaduces, the Undecided and the Rock Band; while the hardcore/punk-oriented Albert lineup features Comeback Kid, Rogue Nation, Still Fighting and the Bro-Mags, a tribute to influential New York group the Cro-Mags. Tickets are available at Into the Music, Music Trader and Ticketworkshop.

Every band is donating its time and talents, and all money raised from ticket sales is donated to Kids Help Phone.

Comeback Kid, whose September 2010 Garrick Centre concert is featured on the book's cover, agreed to play the show as a way of helping out on a community project that has a wide-reaching impact, guitarist Jeremy Hiebert says via email from Japan, where the group was touring last week in support of its latest album, Symptoms + Cures.

"I think it's very important to have something like Kids Help Phone available to kids who either feel like they have no one to go to or just need someone anonymous to confide in to get things off of their chest, whether it be bullying at school, thoughts of suicide, sexual abuse or anything else that is making life overwhelming," he says.

"Winnipeggers should get behind projects like these because organizations like this are at the forefront of helping people out at a young age, which will help keep people from hurting themselves and maybe others in the future. The sooner people get help the better."

That's the goal of the book's editors: to keep money flowing to allow the phone lines to remain open so help is always available for children and teenagers. They are hoping to raise $10,000 by selling 1,000 copies of the book; $10 of each book's $40 price tag goes to the charity. If demand warrants, another print run can take place.

Then it's on to Volume 2.

The editors are soliciting submissions at the callresponsebook.com site for contributions for the next volume, which they hope will attract even more attention than the first one, since people can now see a tangible product.

"At the back of the book, there is a disclaimer: we've barely scratched the surface of it. We know there's a lot more out there," Terin says.

Call * Response: Present, Past and Beyond, Volume One will be available Saturday at the launch venues, and then exclusively at Into the Music throughout February before getting wider distribution in March.

Copies will also be distributed to various social service agencies, youth drop-in centres, community centres and libraries.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

A call to all

Call * Response launch

entertainment schedule Saturday

Into the Music, 1 to 4 p.m.

Free

Acoustic performances by:

Ivan Reimer

Greg Rekus

High Class Lowlifes

West End Cultural Centre, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets $12 at Into the Music, Music Trader, Ticketworkshop.

The Ripperz

The Bonaduces

The Undecided

The Rock Band

The Royal Albert, 10:30 p.m.

Tickets $10 at Into the Music, Music Trader, Ticketworkshop.

Comeback Kid

Rogue Nation

Still Fighting

Bro-Mags (Cro-Mags tribute)

Ticket, book and poster

packages available at

Ticketworkshop.com.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 3, 2011 E12