End of era with Pump's passing

Club reigned as city's most important venue for live rock

The Province
Sunday, July 13, 1997
By Tom Harrison

People who don't smoke don't drink and they're cheap, too.''

For years, this quote from Joe McLean, blown up and framed in glass, hung on a brick wall of the Town Pump. It referred to the end of the Pump's experiment with a smoking ban and was put up as a reminder of a hard lesson learned.

The smoking ban lasted for only a few months in 1991 but it made the Town Pump the first club in Canada to try such a policy and made national headlines. As McLean, then one of its owners, so eloquently noted, it didn't make the club any money, however, and after weeks of terrible business the ban went down and the quote went up.

It's a brief era in the Town Pump's almost 15-year history that Bob Burrows would prefer to forget, even if it does illustrate one of the strangest of its many phases.

Burrows, who is one of the current owners, shut down the Pump in May, bringing to an end its reign as Vancouver's most important rock club.

It's reopening as Sonar, a dance club, is no less symbolic for what it says about entertainment trends and the state of live music. In the week since the dramatically renovated room has been open, Sonar has been pulling in the crowds and making money the way the Pump never did in its dying days. Yet Burrows got into the business by booking live rock 'n' roll and has a close attachment to the Town Pump.

"I was the one who started booking bands there,'' he says. In 1983, the Town Pump was a Gastown restaurant that usually featured a house band doing current hits. For a while, owner Alan Achilles brought in Top 40 cover bands but when this didn't work, Burrows booked original rock into the 420-capacity room.

"At the time, I was working with Simon Gunn and Frank Weipert and we were booking bands like that rockabilly band from Scotland -- the Shakin' Pyramids -- and The B-Sides and David Raven and they all were making a lot of money, but no one was coming for the Top 40 bands,'' he said.

WEALTH OF ACTS

The Town Pump provided a venue for an emerging post-punk/new wave community and a wealth of diverse touring acts. It became a stepping-stone for local acts that had graduated from the smaller Railway or Savoy and were on their way to the Commodore Ballroom. Headlining the Pump on a weekend also was a mark of status. It meant the act had built its own following, often by playing to a near- empty house on a Tuesday, or sharing a bill with three other acts on a Wednesday.

"The Town Pump probably paid out more money to local bands than any club in town, including the Commodore,'' Burrows says. "If you could draw, you could make five grand a night. I remember giving Art Bergmann $4,000. I think that was more money than he'd seen in his life.''

The Town Pump became the place for such battles of the bands as Spotlight '85 and later the annual Demo Listen Derby and an important room to showcase for record labels and the business.

But Achilles' other ventures were not doing well and threatened to drag the Pump under. After a time in receivership, the 68 Water St. address was bought by Ray McLean, who turned the management over to sons Dan and Joe in 1988.

That began a new era, post-Expo 86, of good local acts and an astounding array of U.S. and international recording acts.

"My big focus was the local bands,'' Burrows says. "At one time, there were 10-15 local bands who could sell the place out any time.''

He can think of only one these days -- the Matthew Good Band -- and notes that there aren't many touring bands that are worth booking either.

Yet there was a time when the important bands coming out of Seattle had played the Pump well before Seattle began its grunge era. Nirvana played there; Pearl Jam's first Vancouver date also was at the Pump. The list can be extended to No Doubt, Counting Crows, The Wallflowers and many others for whom the venue was a springboard.

"One day, John Teti (a Sonar partner) and I were reading a Rolling Stone that had an issue listing a poll of the 100 best live acts and just about every one one of them had played the Pump,'' says Burrows.

A highlight reel might include a drunken shambles of a night by The Replacements, a stunning display of guitar mastery by the doomed Danny Gatton, the revelatory musicianship of the Dave Thomas Band or the regular excellence of David Lindley.

For my part, I've got plenty of good recollections of playing there with my band Bruno Gerussi's Medallion (later Little Games) and a not-so-good recollection of singing Sweet Jane, drunk and off key, with local musicians at the 1995 Medicine Ball charity for the Children's Hospital.

MEMORIES SAVORED

For his part, Burrows enjoys memories of the early appearances of Fishbone and Red Hot Chili Peppers but "the highlights always were the Beat Farmers shows.

"Meeting people who were on their way down was much more interesting than meeting the ones on the way up. Donovan, Hank Ballard, Albert Collins -- Albert was a really cool guy. Etta James -- she scared the hell out of me.

"The best years were probably '93-'94-'95,'' he says. "

But, as music tastes and economic forces began to take away from the live music business, the Town Pump became vulnerable to a love/hate relationship that had developed. The club attitude could be arrogant, even bullying at times, not only to patrons but to the talent. It also was in bad need of renovation.

"I knew I had to make a change,'' Burrows says. "I didn't know what it was going to be but I knew a change was coming or the club wasn't going to be around any longer.''

The club is still there but the Pump is gone . . . along with Joe McLean's opinion of non-smokers.

TIMELINE

1983: The Town Pump is a Gastown restaurant that starts booking live acts in the evenings. Owner Alan Achilles tries to make a go of it with Top 40 cover bands; his plan flops, so booking agent Bob Burrows gets the nod to bring in original rock.

1985: By the mid-'80s, the Pump's a hit and becomes the site for such battle-of-the-band performances as Spotlight '85 and the annual Demo Listen Derby.

1986: Expo 86 is the turning point for the Pump, followed by a string of successful shows that emphasize local acts.

1988: After a brief period in receivership, the Pump is sold to Ray McLean, who turns management over to his sons Dan and Joe.

1990-91: Seattle invades the Pump with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and grunge.

1991: The Pump becomes the first rock club in Canada to adopt a no-smoking rule. This lasts only a few -- highly unprofitable -- months

1993-95: The Pump's busiest years. Bands include Counting Crows, Wallflowers, No Doubt, Stone Temple Pilots and more.

1996: Business starts to fade.

May 1997: The Town Pump draws its last draught.

July 1997: The Pump reopens as Club Sonar, Vancouver's first large-scale, state-of-the-art electronica club.