Steve Tilley, Edmonton Sun, Jun 4, 1998

If the crowd outside the Coliseum last night was any indication, fans of Shania Twain cross just about every style boundary there is. Who'd have thunk it?

Oh, sure, there were a handful of urban cowboys with their 45.4-litre hats and shiny new boots that have never so much as kicked a tumbleweed. Plus the odd try-a-Shania, decked out in big hair, tight pants and a shirt featuring the all-important exposed navel.

But for the most part, these were just plain folks. And, boy, were they excited.

"I'm going to give flowers to Shania," chirped four-year-old Bobbi Park, holding a small bouquet of paper-wrapped roses in one hand and her father Daniel's hand in the other as they toddled towards the entrance.

"And a kiss, too," she added, almost as an afterthought.

There was a lot of that kind of heartwarming sweetness about, and a lot of younger folk, too - grade-school kids with their families, teenage girls flush with that certain kind of excitement that comes before A Big Concert, and twentysomething couples in their finest Levi's.

Hundreds of people noshed on burgers and 'dogs, sucked on pop or beer and just generally had a relaxed, pleasant ol' time waiting for the doors to open so they could secure their seats and behold the Canadian queen of country.

"It's a pretty friendly crowd milling around," said city police Const. Bill Spinks, one of a handful of officers charged with the task of keeping the peace. And the peace was being easily kept.

Not being a Shania convert, I didn't know what to expect. About the most involved I'd ever got with Ms. Twain is when a male relative asked me to try and find a naked picture of her on the Internet.

It was an unsuccessful attempt, but I did get to meet the real thing last night. Sort of. OK, not really.

Bonnie Bryks, an employee with the city's planning and development department, was cajoled into being Shania for a day after winning a lookalike contest on CISN.

The radio station drove her around in a limo, escorted by police and everything, to meet and greet the populace before finally bringing her to the concert.

To me, driving a limo up to the Coliseum with a fake Shania inside seems sort of like teasing a dog with a piece of meat and then yanking it away just as Rover gets close enough to bite. Fun, in a mean sort of way.

"It's been the hardest thing I've ever done," said the shy mom-of-two as she nervously waited to be hauled in front of a TV camera.

Then she quickly added: "But we still had fun."

There was at least one real pre-show Twain spotting, when she took her dog for quick walk on the Coliseum's loading ramp. Even after warmup act Leahy hit the stage, a group of hardcore fans stayed glued to the chain link fence separating them from the tour buses in hopes of catching a glimpse.

But CISN's Michelle Morgan did what so many here wished they could have done - she spoke to the real Shania.

Live.

In person.

Morgan was simply sitting in on the sound check earlier yesterday when she spied a familiar looking figure sitting on the edge of the stage.

To avoid kicking herself for the rest of her life while wondering "what if?" Morgan went over and said hi to none other than Shania herself.

The two chatted briefly, and thus Morgan's brush with greatness was complete. Is she pretty in person? Disgustingly so, apparently. And tall?

"She's shorter than me!" said Morgan, who stands a little over five-foot-four.

Ah, but Shania was 100 feet tall last night, at least in the hearts of her fans. And she wasn't even wearing spurs.