ENTERTAINMENT “WEDNESDAY. : November 28,'1990 Colin James wants "to make a record that will last" By NANCY LINGLEY Sun EDITOR “Fifteen years from now, I hope I’m doing what I'm doing now and still enjoying it,’ said ‘Colin James following his high- ‘power performance at. the :Castlegar and District :Community Complex _ last ‘ Thursday evening. What he does, and does well, ig play good, solid rock that is firmly rooted in the blues, © Backed by a four-piece band that includes drummer Darrell Mayes, bassist Dennis Marcenko, . keyboardist Rick Hopkins, and ‘saxophonist John Ferreira -who ‘provided that integral element tmecessary for the total blues ‘sound, James rocked the arena - with a selection of hits: from his two recordings, the self-titled Colin James and his latest effort, Sudden Stop. Under pressure from a small, but enthusiastic crowd, the barri- cades swayed in time to the music and the lyrics to Jame’s current top 10 single Just Came Back did come back, right across the foot- lights to the stage, from several hundred voices. Opening the show for Colin James and bis band was the group ‘Sparkling Apple from Surrey. The group, who has opened for Pat Benetar throughout western Canada, did a credible job on cover versions of everything from Steppenwolf to Johnny Cash doing the Who's Pinball Wizard. Honest. At 26, Colin James has been grabbing for the brass ring ever since 1984, when Stevie Ray Vaughn started him on the road that has led to virtually every major national Canadian enter- tainment award. Along the way he’s sup su Pp d such sup as Keith Richards, Steve Winwood, ZZ Top and Little Feat. : Colin James was off to England on Sunday to join Robert Plant for Colin James on stage a month’s tour of England, Sweden, and Germany, but first the group had to get to Kelowna for the show scheduled for the night following his Castlegar or drive,” offered James, as the band kicked back in the 3 “and would like to be working on it by next fall. : “ room and waited for their gear to be packed. James commented that the band had been on the road for five months touring around Canada and had just had two weeks off prior to. - h h this d B.C. F P to January is my window for that,’ he said. . i James said he felt that music seemed to go in 10 to 15 year cycles and he was currently listen- - ing to, and enjoying, a lot of Van tour that ended in Prince George on’. Saturday. He acknowledged that touring with other bands was a learning experience, but, “even though you learn something from all of them, you still have your own show," he said. : ~The young musician and song- writer is planning his next album: himself. He also bas plans to become a part of that cle, “] want to keep doing what I'm doing now - making records and having a ball,’ said Colin James of his future. “I want to be a better writer. I want to make a record that will last. ° “That's what's important to me.” SUN STAFF PHOTOS / Nancy Lingley Sparkling Apple opened the show for Colin James at the Castlegar and District Community Complex on Thursday "Clumsy people" reach towards more light and power By BARBARA TANDORY Sun STAFF WRITER it is no stage act for the group of about ten, most of whom are handicapped, as they practice and play in Norma Kilpatrick’s exper- imental community theatre. The Light and Power Theatre Company has completed today another season of theatre classes in Castlegar, but the light sustain- ing its efforts seemed a little dim- mer for lack of ‘ity sup- lem, especially by able-bodied port for the four-year-cld project pioneered by Kilpatrick, :a theatre » teacher in Nelson... «” “We need community support,” says Kilpatrick. “We need people . from the non-handicapped soci- ety.” Kilpatrick — who has brought the theatre group idea to Castlegar in June 1987 — has been operat- ing similar groups in Nelson and Trail, with a little more success. Participation has been a big prob- SUN STAFF PHOTO Barbaza Tandory Actors of the budding Castlegar Community Theatre strike up a Statue pose during rehersal. ~s es-at-the' cost of $40 for eight sea- local whom Kilpatrick would like to interest in her class- « sonal sessions, . .~-- — - . “We're not a theatre for the handicapped,” Kilpatrick main- tains but admits that most actors are'disabled people. The trend has been strengthened by funding con- ions. The theatre company’s major source of outside funding has been federal grant money under the Disabled Persons Participation program. i from the city of Castlegar and a number of community organiza- “tions, and the Castlegar school dis-' * !. trict has-provided, it with ‘class’ ‘space at Castlegar Primary school.; - This funding is minimal, how- ever, says Kilpatrick. “At the moment we exist largely on class fees.” Despite the difficulties, her charges are enthusiastic and eager. Louise Bate and Becki Nixon enjoyed acting out their life stories on their last tour to Vancouver in February and have been faithfully The di says P this was “seed and touring mohey,” the latter for the road tours which once a year highlight the group’s theatre season. The group has received some funding the two-hi weekly classes to polish their act for the next spring's tour. : Last week some of the group See POWER 3B ~ ALITTLE BRIGHTER: - Castlegar Volunteer Firefighters are still accepting new or near new TILL DEC. 10 “MAKING CHRISTMAS — ‘FOR SOMEONE ELSE | The Gastiégar Sun Dw Wednesday, November 28, 1990 The Castlegar Sun Page 3B Siecan Valley artist sends soft environmental warning | By BARBARA TANDORY Sun utaff writer ca . any . But be says he’s not “‘a very riented person,” i +. The conflict between painting’ nature and fighting to p it that he has preferred to make his bution to the J : has never entirely disappeared for New Denver painter causes by donating a print or Les Weisbrich, vut being an inter- nationally-acclaimed artist, and 63 years old, he has reconciled himself to his choice — art. “If I was a young man, I'd probably be knocking on doors or tearing down smokestacks,” he said in an interview while in Castlegar this month for a color theory workshop for Selkirk College’s Graphic Communications students. Once a successful commercial artist in Beverly Hills, Weisbrich has actually began to honor his commitment to art first a long time ago. In good conscience and with rewarding results, i Weisbrich says it was his duty and obligation to use his talent to the exclusion of other duties. “Nobody else will paint the way I do; nobody else sees it that way.” But Weisbrich has moved closer-to the subject of nature since — after some twenty years of running his graphic design stu- dio and lucrative contracts — he moved his wife, Darlene, and family to a 50-acre country retreat near New Denver. His lifestyle in ‘Canada for the past twenty years or so has been a far car from the posh life of Los Angeles and its movie studios, from the fast- paced, 16-hour days as creative director for Computer Image Corporation in Denver, Colo, and from the crazy antics of the glam- or business through which he whirled with Tom Smothers as his best business friend and pal. In Canada, be has found him- self at home with simplicity, but more than that, he had found his true artistic expression in pure art B. ‘Yet the artist, whose watercol- ors command up to $16,000 a piece —and there are others of _ which he'll only say they're “enormously high-priced” — readily admits to a yeaming in his soul that. all his life had moved ‘him towards social and political | activism. Today be talks wistfully about: ~ his environmental passion and — how it failed to produce great deeds. “l’m obviously awfully tied to the environment because that’s the subject I paint. I have always been very political in my life, but - I don’t think I ever changed any- thing.” 5 A perfectionist in art, ‘Weisbrich is equally exacting of all his other efforts. “I carried that cross and I was ineffective,” he said. “If I can’t stop something i ately, I haven't achieved Pp ing rather than rd involvement with groups and committees. , “I'm rot good at dealing with committees of well-meaning peo- ple,” he said. “But I'm very con- cemed that if we don't start tak- ing care of this planet, we will not have any.” Weisbrich believes that the only way evnironmentalists will make a difference is to take a confrontational approach. But he says it needs not to be dogmatic. ‘I'm not ready to.give up my car or my frost-free refrigerator, ‘ and yet those things are terribly damaging.” In bis home area of the Slocan = Valley, progress has already entered , be says, noting that it’s no secret to New Denver area resi- dents that the recent road projects and changes in ferry transport are all part of a network for truck traf- fic to and from Celgar in Castlegar. ff “I’m very pro-tourist,” he says, “T think you can sanage tourists better than multi-million corpora- tions,” But he also says he's resigned to the industrial encroachment ‘into the once-pristine Slocan Valley. “I'm concemed with managing ‘ those realities It’s hardly a progress to me, but it’s already in lace.” Weisbrich’s most ambitious recent project was the major Shorelines of Canada series of paintings from sketches he made on a trip across Canada with his SUN STAFF PHOTO / Barbara Tandory wife Darlene. “I thought I had a message in the Shoreline series," he said. “We went across Canada in a very deliberate attempt to bring some attention to the quality of water. “ This summer he has produced a limited edition of a floral series - negotiating a major deal, “ a big from sketches made on the 1984 _his first obligation is to be an artist. ip. ; Weisbrich says he’s currently “As a painter, as on artist, my job is to record in any way possi- ble that world that presents itself. to me. It’s an enormous chore to me to accurately record what is presented,” deal,” with a distributor in Japan. Nature painting has given him “a bit of a soft platform” on the environment, be says. But he sees For Les Weisbrich painting nature takes precidence Columbia Fabrics and Drapes and Ms. Dee’s SPECTACULAR FALL & HOLIDAY FASHION SALE | ed We have just received a large exciting selection of: * Coats & Jackets : ¢ Dresses (day and party) ¢ Sweaters ¢ Skirts & Pants ¢ Loungewear ¢ Isotoner Gloves and Slippers Plus a wide new selection of Fall & Holiday Fabrics 20% Off Selected Fashions and Fabrics THIS WEEK UNTIL DEC. 1ST + Layaway Now for Christmas ¢ Enter our Christmas Draw to be held December 24. have joined as. FABRICS, FASHIONS AND DRAPERIES 1st Prize 250° Gift Certificate 2nd Prize 150” Gift Certificate 3rd Prize 100” Gift Certificate COLUMBIA FABRICS AND DRAPERIES 1369 CEDAR AVENUE, DOWNTOWN TRAIL Bring in this coupon and enter NAME. ADDRESS, over environmental protest, but high-priced art carries: subtle conservation message. ONIGER nd vision: 368-8261 - 364-2212 Sce Store for Details TELEPHONE #. Daily. Re 7 days a week CASTLEGAR ROTARY CLUB CHRISTMAS TREES ON SALE at the West Kootenay Power AG TREES aS CONGRATULATIONS on the launching of The Castlegar Sun ; ... expanding News Horizons... * Hight and 8 Power Continued from 2B travelled with Kilpatrick to a per- formance workshop in Kelowna. “It's not like any other obliga- tion,” says Kilpatrick, encouraging wider participation for the spring season. “Te’s fun,"she says. “And who- ever shops up is going to be in the big show.” Self-cxpression is the main point, stresses Kilpatrick. And Andrew Green, an organizer for the group, says he hopes that more people will join the weekly theatre practice at the Castlegar Primary gym as be bas done. £ *” Green, employed as a co-o! the °..“E want to find in this some nd for me,” he says. 2: The theatre group operates rouge of actors spreading the od news that ‘we ARB be we . yone interested in, the ‘pro- _jnvited, to contact Dee at» 46267 or Kilpatrick in KP-5550 ‘ In-Dash Auto-Reverse Cassette with FM/AM Tuner ‘Tuner Section @FM/AM Stereo Tuner Cassette Section @Auto-Reverse @Hard Permalloy Head @Tape Guard @Locking FastForward and Rewind Audio Section @Powe: Cutput: 85W x 2 of 7W x 4 (Max) (3.2W x 2 EIA Std) @Separate Bass and Treble @Loudness @Power Fader . Other © Display Illumination (Amber) @System Control/Auto Antenna Relay Conttol Terminal @CD Add-on Available with the CDX-FM5S/CD-FM1 ‘Chassis Size Code: Mr : TS-1001 10cm MAXXIAL® Door-Mount Dual-Cone Speaker @40 Watts Max. 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