The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 21

THE VANCOUVER SUN, MONDAY, JUNE 1. 1998 C3 ENTERTAINMENT Timmins hits the road to honour its favourite child Naysayers' doubts are put to rest by Twain concert debut l( "There was a bit of a sense of betrayal, I guess. Part of the problem was that the rumours had been circulating for months that the very first show would be up here." But, he adds, the residents gradually accepted the practicalities and the politics that dictated the show had to go to Sudbury. The main reason was technical: The town's biggest arena seats only 2,000. and is not big enough for Twain's massive set-up, which require six semi-trailers to transport.

"There was talk of an outdoor show, but weather's always iffy up here this time of year." McLaughlin says the sense of betrayal was complicated by the fact that the town went out of its way last August to recognize the. local native's achievements. Highway 101, Timmins main east-west drag was, renamed Shania Twain Way. And there's a Hollywood Walk of Fame type park downtown with Twain's handprints set in cement. "People maybe thought Shania was thumbing her nose or something," McLaughlin says of the early response to the Sudbury venue.

"But people gradually started to remember she had always been respectful, she'd always proudly told everyone that she was from Timmins, and that it was a nice place." Actually, the Twain show comes as a pleasant diversion for the residents of the isolated community, McLaughlin adds. While the people have luxuriated in a much-warmer-than-. usual spring, one side effect has been record forest-fire levels in the northern wilderness. The town itself is apparently not threatened, but blazes have wiped out hundreds of cottages and fishing camps. "Until this show came' along, we were just waiting for the proverbial plague of locusts to make our summer complete." Bad feelings about the show being in Sudbury were put aside by the thousands infected by Shaniamania.

NORMAN PROVENCHER OTTAWA CITIZEN SUDBURY More than one in 20 of Timmins' 50,000 residents drove 300 kilometres south on Northern Ontario's dreaded Highway 144 last weekend. They went to Sudbury to see the town's favorite daughter perform her inaugural arena concerts on Friday and Sunday. When Twain announced her first arena tour a few months ago, she and her managers demanded that nearly 2,500 tickets for her Sudbury shows be set aside for Timmins residents. But surprisingly, Timmins ticket sales were slow to take off, especially compared to sales in Sudbury, where more than 11,000 sold in less than an hour. In the end, it took "three or four days" to sell out the Timmins tickets.

"The announcement came as a bit of a surprise," said Dave McLaughlin, organizer of one of the dozens of Shania Twain caravans out of Timmins. "And you should realize that the ticket price $42.50 plus tax and service charges is fairly steep by northern standards, especially when you consider a trip to Sudbury pretty much means you're going for the whole weekend, with hotel costs, food costs, probably taking the kids." In the end, though, Timmins residents "realized this was going to be pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime deal. And now you can't stop people talking about it." Although Timmins now appears to be fatally infected with Shaniamania, McLaughlin says there were pockets of resistance and some bitterness when it was first announced that the very first shows would go to Sudbury. may not be aware of, Oermann says. "I think one of the most significant things about Shania Twain is the fact that she is breaking rules.

Historically, Canadian country music performers and pop music performers for that matter have been perceived as imitative of United States counterparts," he says. "For the first time you have a performer who is not following, not imitating but is leading the genre. Everything she's done has turned a page and made something new." Doing it her way seems to have worked. Her second album, The Woman in Me, sold more than 12 million copies worldwide. Come On Over, released last year, has topped four million in sales.

Musically, Twain's style owes little to traditional country. But she distinguishes herself from her rock and pop counterparts by tapping into country's philosophy, Oermann says. "It's inclusionary, rather than exclusionary. Whereas rap, metal, most of the other sub-genres are like: 'We're this way and you're country's more like: 'Well, if you like us, welike you. If you're six come on in, if you're 60 come on "There's always this elasticity at the borders.

Given that pop is Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, Shania's certainly a heck of a lot more country than that." Much of Twain's charm and marketability springs from that welcoming, homespun attitude. Acknowledging the addition of her video for the hit single ANDREW FLYNN CANADIAN PRESS SUDBURY, Ont. Shania Twain had something to prove when she opened her first world tour on the weekend in the Northern Ontario mining town she once called home, Her polished, intimate show may have put to rest allegations, fostered mainly in country mu- sic's Nashville heartland, about her ability to perform live. But Twain's triumph is also a shot fired across the bow of the country establishment, says author and broadcaster Robert Oermann. "I would say from her standpoint you would have to count it as a personal vindication," Oermann said Saturday the day after Twain's opening night.

"There have been a lot of naysayers and a lot of doubting Thomases about her live-performance abilities: "I think by any measure you would have to say the girl can entertain." Oermann, a Nashville-based correspondent, chronicles the lives and contributions of country women since the beginning of the genre at the turn of the century. He calls Twain a "breakthrough" artist who broke the industry's rules for star-making by promoting herself through slickly produced video and marketing rather than working her way up through U.S. country bars and clubs. Her sold-out Sudbury debut, though downplayed in the U.S. music press as a safe warm-up for less friendly dates to come, has implications Twain herself INTERVIEW from CI SHANIA TWAIN: She's what country people are like today.

for everything." Though her music is virtually mainstream pop, Twain represents fundamental values that define country music, Oermann says. "More than anything else, country reflects the times in which it's created," he says. "Kids aren't raised on the farm any more, they're in shopping malls. Who better reflects those people's experience and what their lives are like than her? Like her or not, she's what's happening to people today. She's what country people are like today.

"And yet by any historical definition it's not You're Still the One to regular rotation on MTV (the first country artist to make the American music station's playlist), she expressed distress that other country artists don't get such recognition. "It's a great accomplishment, I'm very happy about it," Twain said in an interview last week. "I hate being restricted by the genres, it's a terrible feeling as an artist when you know the fans are open to what you're doing. You just want to sit back and say: 'Let the fans decide from I think it's got to be the most terrible sin to restrict the arts like that. "In my opinion there's room "Girl Power" slogan.

But Twain says tunes like Any Man of Mine and If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask aren't pan-feminist salvos. They're just personal songs. "I gained a lot of confidence in myself when I got the opportunity to write my own songs on The Woman In Me, and that came out in me as a strong, Even with a U.S. address, her Canadian roots run deep The Vancouver Sun 'M vi i i iti.How.i;H HARRISON FORD ANNE HECHE Ultras IN PAMDIH. THOrW G0IN 10 Nl A VACATION.

SIX DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS den shows'. "There was nowhere for me to play. Can you believe that?" she says, laughing. "I think people were disappointed but that's the reality of it. I'll go back and doa show in Timmins.

I can't forget about my roots." Which, of course, is a big part of Twain's charm. It's true that she married an Englishman (noted producer Mutt Lange), lives near Lake Placid and has been appropriated by the American music industry and media, who've dubbed her America's Sweetheart like a sort of latter-day Mary Pickford. But Twain still considers herself very much a Canadian. She still regales interviewers with tales of her summers as a i itfiiii. Africa's Elephant Kingdom: 12pm, powerful, independent woman.

But the purpose was just self-expression, not to send a message or speak for all women," she says. "It was never intended to be a slogan. Because so many women relate to it, it can feel like that was what I was trying to do. But it wasn't the intention. "It was just me being me." TITANIC 12:104:40 8:40 DEEP IMPACT 12:40 1:10 3:40 4:10 7:10 7:40 10:10 10:40 QUEST FOR CAMELOT 12:20 ALMOST HEROES 2:40 4:50 7:05 9:20 -1 Metrotown-Bumaby 434-7711 mx DEEP IMPACT 1:15 1 45 4 00 4:30 7:00 7:30 9:45 10:05 THE HORSE WHISPERER 1:004:308:00 PAUUE 1:35 QUEST FOR CAMELOT 1:10 ALMOST HEROES 1:30 3:50 7:40 10:00 GOOD WILL HUNTING 3:45 7:10 9:55 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Frequent coarse language; violence SLIDING DOORS 1:20 3:40 720 9:40 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Suggestive scenes; coarse language HE GOT GAME 4:107:059:50 ggg (Aug osaow 1 pu famous WEWORKFRIBW -Miss care.

63 9 1 1 rr HORSE WHISPERER 1:20 5:00 8:50 GODZILLA 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 3:00 3:30 4:30 5:10 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:30 10:00 10:3011:0011:20 BULWORTH 12:50 3:20 7:20 9:50 FLOATS 1:40 4:20 7:50 10:35 669-6000 Mai v5, forewoman of a reforestation crew in the Ontario bush and still gets care packages of Canuck candy and cereal from her family. "I still meet people today who don't know that I'm Canadian, which is funny. When I first went to Nashville at the beginning of the decade, I always talked about it," she says. still think of me American." would like to clear up. lnMi.i.

j. Ms- 4 C3 fS2 FINAL WEEK! 7:00 9:35 fr? Coarse language 2pm 7pm daily ji lrn CINFPtCX ODION RICHPORT CINFPIFX ODION SCOTT 72 C1NIPUX ODFON PARK A TtLFORD CINtPlf ODFON CLEAR BROOK RfAlTO WHITE ROCK PKHS 4CUPTWI S.vvW I AVAILABLt AT THE 00 HOPE Granville HE Thu suggestive DEEP (I4A) CITY Wed language; GENERAL ALMOST Granville THE Esplanade THE Tue DEEP Tue CITY ALMOST Tue Richmond THE CITY ALMOST I GOT GAME Moo-Wed 1:10 4:05 7:10 9:55 1:104:059:55 I4A Frequent coarse language; scenes; violence PAUUE 1:40 GENERAL TITANIC 3 45 7:45 I4A Violence, coarse language IMPACT 1:004.157:009:45 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse language Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun: 1 pm 4pm daily Alaska: Into the Daap (3D): 5pm daily. Double Feature: Africa Elephant Kingdom and Thrill Ride. GINGERBREAD MAN 7:15 9:35 Violence Coarse Language OF ANGELS Mon.Tue.Thu 1 3:55 7:25 10:05 1:20 3:55 10:05 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Coarse suggestive scenes; nudity QUEST FOR CAMELOT 1:504:25 uairy at vpm, or noose any twoconsecutive shows. Films showtimes subject to change without notice.

nT May frighten young children HEROES 1:303:35 7:35 10:15 PARENTAL GUIDANCE Violence, coarse language Coqurtlam 464-6600 Georgia For Information or Charga-By-Phorwcali: A AT CANADA PLACE 1 "Sandra Bullock Delivers i't 669-4442 HORSE WHISPERER 1:001:304:305:008.008.20 2 Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Touchstone Pictures Win double passes to the Special Advance Preview on Monday, June 8, 7:00 pm at Capitol 6 Cinemas. Subject to Classification THE HORSE WHISPERER 8:008:45 TITANIC 7:40 DEEP IMPACT 7:059:40 CITY OF ANGELS 7:159:45 QUEST FOR CAMELOT 6:55 ALMOST HEROES 7:109:30 Surrey 581-1716 GODZILLA Mon.Wed.Thu 6:50 7:20 9:45 10:10 Tue 12:45 120 3:40 4:15 6:50 7:20 9:45 10:10 THE HORSE WHISPERER Mon.Wed.Thu 8:00 Tue 1:00 4:30 8:00 DEEP IMPACT Mon.Wed.Thu 7:10 9:55 7:109:55 983-2762 Chesterfield 30 HORSE WHISPERER Mon.Wed.Thu 8:00 1 1:00 1 :30 4:30 5:00 8.00 8:30 PAUUE Tue 1:05 TITANIC Mon.Wed.Thu 3:40 8:15 IMPACT Mon.Wed.Thu 7:009:40 A Superlative Performance 1:103:557:009:40 OF ANGELS 7:159:50 QUEST FOR CAMELOT Tue 1:504:00 HEROES Mon.Wed.Thu 7:109:30 1203:507:109:30 Lanrjley 533-4551 It could bt Sandra Bullocks first Oscar' Nomination." "Emotionally On Target. 'Hope Floats' is distinguished by its acting" IMieifrHMillCS 'KxKh1mc IViures Hot.tnc' ROCK 101 FAMOUS PLAYERS To enter phone the Hotline number by noon on June 1. Centre GODZILLA Mon.Wed.Thu 7:00 7:20 9:50 10: 10 Tue 12:45 1:20 3:45 4:15 7:00 7:20 9:50 10:10 THE HORSE WHISPERER Mon.Wed.Thu 8:00 Tue 1:004:208:00 DEEP IMPACT Mon.Wed.Thu 7: 1 5 9:55 iTue 1:104:007:159:55 FEAR LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS Mon.Wed.Thu 7:109:45 Tue 120 4:10 7:10 9:45 (I4A) Coarse Suggestive language QUEST FOR CAMELOT Tue 12:30 ALMOST HEROES Mon.Wed.Thu 6:50 9:00 iTue 2 30 4-30 6:50 9 00 273-7173 HORSE WHISPERER 1:104:308:00 GODZILLA PAUUE 1:30 DEEP IMPACT 1:254:157:109:45 OF ANGELS 7:309:55 QUEST FOR CAMELOT 1:454:10 HEROES 3:30 5:45 7:45 10:10 HOPE FLOATS FESTIVAL CINEMAS NOW PLAYING! FEAR LOATHING IN LAS VtGASV 7:00 i 9:40 plus Tue 4:10 MA VIE EN ROSE 7:20 9:20 plus Tue 4:00 THE SPANISH PRISONER Mon: 9:30 Tue: 4: 15. 7:05 9:30 THE BUTCHER BOY Sf 7:10 4.9:35 Plus Tue 4:20 CINfPLFX OOION OAKRIDGI CINFPtlX ODION If COQUITLAM CINFPIFX ODION STATION SQ.

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No purchase necessary. Mrtj In Dtomu. SOUNO CHICK THEATRf DIRECTORIES FOR IMOWTIMES E3 SLIDING DOORS 7:15 8.9:25 plus Tue 4 05 Mi.