By Tom Harrison, The Province May 9, 2012
Larry Hennessey calls up on his computer a song that few people have heard since it was recorded nearly 50 years ago.
It’s by The Look, is called “The Truth,” was the first track on a quarter inch spool of tape that was produced by Robin Spurgin at his Vancouver Recording Studio (or sometimes known as Psi-Chord) and now is a found piece of the city’s lost rock history.
It’s also strange to leap that 50-year gap between recording with material that now is regarded as quaint and antique and seeing the frequencies on a computer screen.
Despite its age, “The Truth” sounds good: bright acoustic guitars, thumping bass, a discernible sense of The Who’s dynamics and Spurgin’s sharp-eared technique.
This is what Hennessey does. He and Jamie Anstey are Regenerator Records.
Since 2007, Regenerator has rescued Vancouver’s rock past from near death and sends it into the future.
In this case, “The Truth” will be on a planned “homage to Robin Spurgin” that Anstey is planning for Regenerator. It will be a compilation of Vancouver bands that Spurgin produced but have been little heard.
“Jamie is a walking encyclopedia of Vancouver rock and roll,” notes Hennessey admiringly. Hennessey sits within a cramped North Van basement studio, crammed with a collection of box cameras and vintage microphones. Stacked up everywhere are old tape recorders and boxes of tapes containing rare gems such as by The Look or the pre-Collectors when the group called itself The Torch Group. A tape truly presumed lost, somehow Anstey found it and now reverently refers to The Torch Group demos as “the holy grail.”
In another small room are rows of Regenerator releases: The Poppy Family, Chad Allan, The Chessmen, David Sinclair, the Cool Aid Benefit album.
Hennessey not only remasters these old tapes, he is the businessman of Regenerator, paying bills or handling shipping. For most people, though, he is one half of the duo Larry and Willy, the morning team on The Jack FM radio.
Anstey, who pilots eBay sales for a record store in Port Coquitlam, Apollo, does the research and makes the contacts.
“We’re both good at stuff and so it just gets done,” Anstey claims, if modestly. “We both have day jobs and we’re both busy, so we get together when we can.”
Anstey has 30 projects he wants to complete but Regenerator aims for three releases a year, time permitting. One of those three, besides the Spurgin tribute and an as-yet-to be-finished Terry Jacks retrospective with new tracks, is a collection bequeathed by Stan Cayer.
Cayer is one of the mavericks of early Vancouver rock, a producer, booking agent and, early on, a recording act. Hennessey runs “Three Wild Women,” a rockabillyish number Cayer recorded at 18 years old in Nashville in 1963 with the city’s top sessionmen. It’s top flight but in the pre CanCon days wasn’t a hit. Cayer went on to have his own label, SGM, featuring many of the bands he booked and subsequently produced. Anstey was given box after box of SGM Records during a move that introduced him to Cayer and impressed him greatly. Cayer remains a character even if he long ago left the music business.
As he sits listening to “Three Wild Women” and bobbing his head in appreciation, Hennessey, 51, explains that “I’m fascinated by the recording process. I’ve been involved in music all the way along . . . besides the radio thing.”
Anstey, 33, met Hennessey while he worked at Neptoon Records. Neptoon had compiled recordings by The Nocturnals and Hennessey was helping the record store to put it together. Although Anstey and Hennessey had crossed paths before, they started talking in earnest. Through Neptoon, Anstey had learned a lot about Vancouver’s music history as well as retailing. Hennessey knew how to restore old recordings. They had a similar question, as Hennessey remembers, “Why am I doing this for other people when I can be doing this for myself?”
Thus Regenerator. Its first salvage was a tape of Chad Allan and The Reflections performing live at a teen dance party in Manitoba before “Shakin’ All Over” became a hit for the Reflections, re-christened the Guess Who, in 1964. The tape had been stored by Allan, who now lived in Vancouver, was in good condition (tape deteriorates and often has to be “baked” to gain back resiliency) and was released as a double vinyl issue or as a single CD.
Regenerator is unique. To date all of its releases have a Vancouver association, even Allan. There is another reissue label in Canada but Pacemaker is more haphazard and random. Regenerator is filling in pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle at a time when Canadian acceptance of its musical past is high and modern communication allows Regenerator to reach an audience worldwide.
“We couldn’t do this without the Internet,” stresses Hennessey. “It’s been amazing. We’ve shipped hundreds of albums by us alone all over the world.
“It’s been a lot of work.” he continues. “It’s started to be more successful than I thought it would be.
“We’re not making money. It’s a labour of love for us.”
tharrison@theprovince.com
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