It’s an adult now!
Downtown Venue Celebrates 18 Years and Prepares for Future Challenges
Mike Warkentin



Most of us moved through our teens like Frankenstein’s monster, lumbering about the world semi-conscious and more than a little confused.

Then we hit 18 and everything got... more confusing.

The transition to adulthood looks a bit smoother for at least one landmark in the Winnipeg music community.

On Nov. 25 the West End Cultural Centre will be celebrating its 18th birthday, and the venue at the corner of Sherbrook Street and Ellice Avenue is hoping to leave the traumatic years behind and move confidently into adulthood.

All coming-of-age parties require a wicked shaker, and the WECC plans to celebrate in style, putting on a show featuring some of the best and brightest of the local music scene. Scheduled to play at the celebration are local roots act Nathan; John K. Samson (of The Weakerthans) and his partner, Christine Fellows; and alt-popsters The Western States.

“We’re totally honoured to be asked because it’s probably the first venue I went to when I moved here to see music,” says Keri Latimer, singer/songwriter/guitarist for Nathan. “It’s housed a lot of greats through the years, so we’re proud to be a part of it.”

Latimer is also excited to be on the same bill as Fellows, with whom she formed the band Special Fancy back in the mid-’90s. She says a few SF numbers are on the setlist in honour of the special occasion.

“Its support for the community in general, for musicians and people who are looking to see good music, it’s amazing,” she says of the venue. “I think it’s a rare thing. They’re not just in it for money. It’s a good way to see music if you’re a poor, starving musician — I volunteered there for a while.”

The WECC itself was also once poor and starving, so to speak.

Opened in 1987, the hall was a non-profit community arts organization that took up residence in a 79-year-old building that once housed a church. Founders felt there was a void in Winnipeg’s arts community and sought to fill that space by creating a place where artists could play and people could listen at reasonable cost to both.

On Oct. 23, 1987, Spirit of the West performed the first show in the venue, and a string of other artists followed. With room for 300 people, the hall became a place in which fledgling artists might try their hands and where undiscovered talents, under-the-radar artists and bands on the rise were welcome. Over the years, the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Arlo Guthrie, Lyle Lovett, Sarah Harmer, The Weakerthans and a host of others have played the WECC.

In 2003, however, the venue was nearly forced to shut its doors for good. In the wake of 9/11 and the tragic fire that killed 100 fans at a Great White concert in Rhode Island, the WECC was denied liability insurance by the company with which it had previously dealt. Citing the inner-city location, safety concerns associated with live music and the age of the building, the company declined to cover the venue.

Then came what general manager Nan Colledge calls “the month from hell.”

In late May 2003, a member of a band was shot in the eye with a pellet gun while standing outside the WECC. The next weekend, a murder occurred behind the building. These incidents, added to the facility’s debt and the constant car break-ins which plagued the area, made it look as if the final curtain was about to come down.

Things turned around when a local businessman brokered a deal with several insurance companies. Then the WECC contracted security guards to patrol Sherbrook Street and managed to engineer an impressive financial turnaround. By the end of 2004, the West End had retired its debt and actually posted a $25,000 profit.

That’s encouraging, but the venue still isn’t out of the woods. Its west wall is crumbling, and the building is old and leaky and dilapidated. At 97, the old church is not long for this world.

“It might get us to 20 years but it might not get us much beyond that,” Colledge says, adding that the safety of the facility is constantly monitored by structural engineers.

“We’ve completed Phase 1 of our redevelopment last year, which was to clear the land behind us, and then as we move ahead we will be starting a capital campaign to redesign the building,” she explains.

Colledge says the revamped West End will cost about $1.5 million and will hold 400 people. She says the space will include a main theatre and a smaller one for coffee-house shows and community projects. The new building is also going to be environmentally friendly with geothermal heat and reused bricks. Washrooms will be larger and there will be a lobby area. Of course, it will still be run primarily by volunteers — who number about 150 and donate about 8,000 hours of time per year.

Dominic Lloyd is the artistic director challenged with the task of filling the hall and programming acts that are right in line with the WECC’s philosophy.

“The organization has a mandate to bring music out of the ordinary here and to provide people with an opportunity to see artists that they might not see other places in Winnipeg, and I think I have been kind of keeping in that tradition,” he says.

Lloyd plans to bring in the same mix of bands — from guitarist Alvin (Youngblood) Heart to noise rockers Death From Above 1979 to bluesman Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials — and he believes it’s this mix that makes the venue so special. He recalls seeing both The Irish Descendants and Mad Caddies play the West End during his first week on the job, and you can bet the programming will continue to be a spicy mix.

This past year has been a good one for the WECC, and Colledge says the organization expects to post a modest profit once again. But just because the venue is in the black doesn’t mean its battles are over — just take a look at the state of Rainbow Stage.

That said, there’s still cause to drink to a healthier and more stable WECC on Nov. 25.

“I think we have come of age absolutely,” Colledge says. “I don’t see a smooth ride ahead because we have this very ambitious redevelopment project which is going to take up a huge amount of time and energy to achieve. I think if we can achieve that it’s going to be so significant for this neighbourhood and the music scene in Winnipeg.”

Lloyd agrees, adding that the building will always retain its original feel, , however it looks.

“We’ll never stop being the place where people will be able to say, ‘Oh I remember seeing them way back when at the West End.’”

Cheers to that, and many more returns.