An image taken live through an old Sony CCD-TR-77 plugged into a prehistoric Creative Video Blaster CT6000

My name is Stewart. I grew up in St-Jerome at the foothills of the Laurentian Mountains just north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Now live on a little island, Ile Perrot, off the western tip (actually south west of the island of Montreal). Then again the whole concept of east-west is totally screwed up in Montreal. For example, when driving north on the Decarie Expressway in the evening in the month of July you'll see none other than the Sun setting straight ahead. What? The Sun sets in the north? Well it seems our founding Fathers were a little mixed up when it came to cardinal directions. Think of the "Who's "substitute" ."North side of my town was facing east & the east is facing south".

In my early teens I was smitten by the rock music bug. My first love was the Beatles and then the other British first-wave bands. Before long I badgered my mother into buying an electric guitar for my 14th birthday. The rest is history. I went from an A student to barely passing my grades.

First guitar & national amp

When I started playing guitar my biggest influences were the Stones, Kinks and Yardbirds. My first real band (real because we got paid) was called "The Sheep Dogs". The original Sheep Dogs consisted of Andre Thomas on vocals, Jacques Legault on bass, Serge Chevrette on drums, Real Latendresse on rhythm guitar & me on lead. Real was replaced by Daniel Poirier and then he was replaced by Marc Delorme.

Our repertoire was about 50% Stones and the rest RnB. The lineup was 2 guitars, bass, drums and vocalist. We became the house band at a dance hall called "la Salle Ratelle" in St-Jerome. We played Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights to crowds of 400+ kids. We opened up for the likes of Les Atomes, Les Sultans, Les Sinners, Les Merseys, Les 409, les Lutins etc. There was quite a scene going on in Quebec. In St-Jerome alone there were well over a dozen working groups, it was sort of a little Liverpool.

Then being influenced by The Who, Cream & Hendrix I decided to form a power trio. Over the next the next six years we were known as "The Eyes of Love,

",

"Chain Lightning"," Uncle Tom" and finally "Isaac Bicker". The members included Serge "Sonny" Girard on drums, Firstly Jean-Marc Prevost, then Karl Desforges and finally Benoit Toupin on bass. The high point of this group was opening up for Brownsville Station, Mahogany Rush and also playing in a maximum-security prison. During these years we did lots of blues, Hendrix and Cream.

The blues really went to my head. I then got hooked up with a character calling himself "Robin Harp" who, you guessed it played blues harp. The high point of this group was backing up Chicago’s Eddie the chief Clearwater . After working on the road with Mr.Harp I decided that this was not the life I had dreamt of so I quit playing in bands for 5 years. I finally started up again with a new wave act named "The Toons".

The Toons featured a classical pianist, Sue Hlasny on lead vocals, bass player, Dominic Dicarlo, who had a PHD in theology, film maker, Dan Babineau, on drums( not pictured) and myself. After the Toons, I did some gigs with a stand up comedian named Dr. Charles. The band would improvise background music to the Dr’s stories. For last years upteen years I had been in "Second Wind". We worked mostly in the West Island and Hudson. All things come to an end and currently I am no longer involved with them. Click here for the SECOND WIND PAGE.

In order to pay the bills and make a yearly trip to Paris, I work in IT. This is another story.

Recently I have been in contact with both Karl Desforges and Serge Girard but we haven't yet booked the Royal Albert Hall.

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