This Toronto based Rock band are becoming vastly popular throughout the local club scene. Stone Angel came out of the remnants of a Neil McNeil High School Rock band ȁGrass Candy”. Grass Candy on March 23rd/07 entered the battle of the bands at Toronto’s famous club renowned for having The Rolling Stones –The El Mocambo. Grass Candy won first place out of 15 Rock bands throughout Southern Ontario. Grass Candy featured Jesse Ruttan on lead vocals and guitars, Joel Sweet on Bass guitar and Robbie Holtam on drums. The growing musical development Jesse and Joel were experiencing as budding young players; they both soon realized Robbie could not keep up. Their story is similar to Canadian Rock Legends Rush with John Rutsey as the band’s first drummer who because of personal reasons couldn’t continue. Jesse and Joel put the buzz out that they were leaving Grass Candy to venture into a new music project. Various drummers were auditioned yet no one came close to what they were looking for.
Jesse and Joel approached Rey Morillo to sub since they were lined up to play the Toronto Beaches Jazz festival and needed an adaptable versatile drummer. Rey Morillo is a local musician and famous for his work with Curtis Lee, Alice Cooper’s “welcome to my nightmare” band known as The Lincolns, Survival, Vampire Club, Stone Angel and well known under ground punk band “Cardboard Brains” featuring John Paul Young on Vocals. Rey decided to help Jesse and Joel for their upcoming Jazz festival gig. They booked a music store in Toronto called Love Music to rehearse. Matt White owner of Love Music couldn’t believe these three musicians never jammed before. Rehearsing at this local music store became more of a performance since customers; parents of music students and the students themselves couldn’t believe the power of this trio. Animosity soon developed since the students taking lessons at Love Music wanted this band as teachers instead of their regular music teachers. Jesse, Joel and Rey didn’t want extra headaches since they only wanted to get ready for a show. They found an automotive glass warehouse run by two Iraqi businessmen and struck up a deal to use their facilities at night to rehearse. Stone Angel’s inner circle referred to the band as The Band with The Iraqi flag as a backdrop. Jesse, Joel and Rey were trying to come up with a name for this new project. Rey suggested Stone Angel since he had a band in the mid eighties, which was a famous touring Canadian Rock Band. Stone Angel was born again. Borrowing from many various sources Rey soon invested money into Stone Angel buying Amps and a PA system for shows and rehearsing. The first show at a new club called Sound Wave Audio was booked for September 15th/07. The club was under construction but promised it would be ready for the show. The band showed up to find the club was far from
completion and still under construction. To make matters worse when Stone Angel took to the stage they soon found out the PA system was not working. The band played their first show without vocals but the reaction from the crowd was amazing since they realized the great musicianship of Stone Angel and what troopers they were to carry on under these deplorable conditions. The booking agent Ramy Arida for the club was embarrassed and quit the club that night to join Stone Angel.
At The beginning of October Stone Angel started recording their first debut CD. They also started testing the waters by showing up at live open jams throughout the club circuit in Toronto. Their first club was Rock N’ Roll Heaven where Johnny Crow from Rock Radio Station HTZ 97.7 FM hosted this jam. This DJ proclaimed Stone Angel the future of Canadian music. They also played Scallywags, which is hosted by Tony “Wild T” Spinger who is known for his guitar work with David Bowie. Tony was so impressed that he jammed most of the night with Stone Angel. The next bar they played was The Black Swan, which is
hosted by Jon Long of the giant Canadian music store franchise family Long & McQuade. Jon was so impressed he is now fully promoting Stone Angel. Radio Station DJ Al Joynes of the mighty Q-107 Rock Radio station is also behind Stone Angel and will be producing their videos in the future. The next big step came when the band decided to attend The 2007 Taxi Music Road Rally in Los Angeles. Taxi could not guarantee they would get a chance to perform as a band since their open mic night is strictly acoustic. The band contacted the legendary Whisky A-Go-Go on Sunset Blvd and spoke with Sean the booking agent. Sean on hearing Stone Angel at their www.myspace.com/stoneangelband site decided Stone Angel would not only play The Whisky but also Headline the show. The band was booked in on Thursday 8th November/07 to headline the Whisky. Leaving Toronto on Thursday 8th November/07 and flying into Los Angeles to play their first show at the Whisky that same night gave Stone Angel no chance to rest. With the time zone difference between Toronto and Los Angeles, Stone Angel hit the stage at Midnight LA time while their bodies were still functioning at 3:00 AM Toronto time. This band going on over 30 hours with no sleep not only headlined the Whisky but as the folks in the audience and the Whisky staff said quote, “They Killed”. Sean at The Whisky proclaimed he knew Stone Angel’s potential since they were being applauded during sound check –something he’s never seen before.
The Whisky was so impressed that Sean asked for another show before Stone Angel left Los Angeles but with scheduling very tight this never came to be. The band received screams when they exited The Whisky on Sunset Blvd. Strangers who were at the show couldn’t stop complementing this new young rock act.
Stone Angel is back in Toronto and promoting and performing their debut CD. Rock radio station Y-108 will be featuring Stone Angel on their Get Hammered show on Wednesday 16th July/08 at 11:30PM. Stone Angel will also be performing at Youth Day 2008. Not a bad accomplishment when considering Jesse and Joel are still fairly young high school students and Stone Angel were only formed last August 2007.
