They put out the call and Winnipeggers responded. Now, three music-loving philanthropists are gearing up to celebrate the release of a book that will benefit Kids Help Phone.

Nathan Terin (Sidelined Productions, BE:Cause Industries), Mike Sanders (Absurd Machine Studios) and John Toone (Alchemical Press) are the editors and publishers of Call*Response: Present, Past and Beyond – Volume 1. It’s a 64-page, hardcover, LP-sized book celebrating the past 30 years of Winnipeg’s punk, metal and hardcore scenes.

All of the content – including unpublished photos of Propagandhi, Comeback Kid and Under Pressure, poster art, writing from Royal Albert artistic director Sam Smith, a list of Greg MacPherson’s favourite live shows and more – was submitted by local photographers, visual artists, musicians, writers, lyricists and fans.

Retailing at $40, at least $10 from the sale of each book will go to Kids Help Phone, which provides toll-free, 24-hour, bilingual and anonymous phone counselling to young people in Canada.

“Ultimately, we did it because we wanted to find a way to raise more money for Kids Help Phone,” said Mike Sanders, 30. “The best way to do that was make it a collaborative project that involved more than two or three people.

“We have 36 contributors,” he added. “We really wanted to come up with a project that was created by the community and that represented the community, so that it would be supported by the community.”

The trio put out the call for submissions late last summer and ended up receiving more than 1,500 photos and 50 written submissions from 65 different people.

When choosing the content, the goal was to tell a story inspired by the interaction between young people and live music in Winnipeg.

“Regardless of the decade or regardless of the generation, it’s always a youth-driven scene,” Sanders said. “It’s always driven by the energy youth bring to shows.

“And these kids haven’t changed. There are photos in the book from the early ‘80s right next to photos from just last year, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d swear they were from the same time.”

Terin, 32, who has been organizing benefit concerts for Kids Help Phone since 2005, has scheduled three concerts for this coming Saturday, Feb. 5 to celebrate the release of the book.

The first event takes place at Into the Music from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. with acoustic performances by Ivan Reimer, Greg Rekus (High Five Drive) and High Class Lowlifes. Admission is free.

The second event is at 7:30 p.m. at the West End Cultural Centre, with performances by The Ripperz, The Bonaduces, The Undecided and The Rock Band.

The day ends at the Royal Albert at 10:30 p.m. with performances by Comeback Kid, Rogue Nation, Still Fighting and Bro-Mags (a Cro-Mags tribute band).

Advance tickets for the WECC and Albert shows are available at Into the Music, Music Trader and www.ticketworkshop.com.

The trio are hoping to raise at least $10,000 for Kids Help Phone from the sale of the book.

They also hope to release three more volumes over the next 10 years.

Terin says they’re already accepting submissions, and anyone can submit, regardless of what kind of music you’re writing about or photographing, and regardless of your age.

“You don’t have to be a kid to submit to this book,” Terin said. “It’s about that experience of going to a live show.

“Just ‘cause you’ve got some grey hairs doesn’t mean you’re going to stop listening to music and remembering the good times – when it was your time in the mosh pit.”

For more info, visit www.callresponsebook.com.

Published in Volume 65, Number 18 of The Uniter (February 3, 2011)