Anyone who knows me will know that I have idolised Joe Satriani since I started playing guitar 20 years ago, when I first started playing “Surfing with the Alien” was out and he was just about to release “Flying In A Blue Dream”. I think my brother and I saw Joe 3 times on the “Flying...” tour, the first and most memorable for me was at the Birmingham Hummingbird, not sure what it is called these days but it used to be an intimate sticky floored venue where you were able to get very close to the action which is pretty exciting when you are 13 or 14 years old! Well I might not get quite as excitable 20 years on but I have to say it was a fantastic gig last night at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre. For a start just like all those years ago I was in the standing area near the stage and the Enmore is quite a small theatre so you’re never far from the stage.

“What is your purpose?” came blasting out over the P.A. as Joe walked onto stage, the unmistakable intro from “I Just Wanna Rock” (Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock), it is one of the cheesiest of Joe’s tracks but he had to open with it really, its a great high energy rock anthem to get things underway! I’m not going to list every song because I simply can’t remember them all but he did play a lot off the new album such as “Musterion”, “Andalusia” and “Diddle-y-a-Doo-Dat” which all sounded amazing but what had me really excited was Joe and Stu Hamm jamming on the old favourites just like those gigs at the Hummingbird and Hammersmith Apollo all those years ago! “Satch Boogie”, “Surfing With The Alien”, “Ice 9”, “Flying In A Blue Dream”, “One Big Rush”, “The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing” and epic version of “Always With Me Always With You” and some tracks from “The Extremist” album, “Summer Song”, “Cryin” and one that really suprised me “Time Machine” from the ‘93 release of the same title, it’s a great track I’m glad Joe has resurrected that one! There were also a few tracks from “Super Colossal” including “Crowd Chant” which made me laugh because of how seriously people tried to imitate Joe’s playing, have you ever heard a 6ft beer swilling rocker trying to sing Joe’s crazy whammy harmonics? It’s not a nice sound… I think Joe only wrote that song to amuse himself!

I should make a special note of Stu Hamm’s bass solo, Stu has been working with Joe Satriani for as long as I can remember and is a really fantastic bass player. His played a solo rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Going to California” which was awesome, unfortunately he then went into some crazy country thing that was all a bit too Benny Hill for my liking even though the crowd seemed to enjoy it! I think he was just having a bit of a laugh, I just prefer the technical stuff!

There were a couple of things that made this gig extra special. Firstly it was Joe’s birthday although this didn’t become apparent until after the gig, and secondly because I finally got to meet Joe and the band in an after show meet and greet!

So here is the proof me and Joe! Unfortunately he was being constantly hounded the whole time so I didn’t get to talk to him for more than about 10 seconds but I did get to chat to Stu Hamm for quite a while about his recent experience at a Birmingham City football match, Birmingham, England that is - my home town where I grew up. I also got a chance to have a quick chat with Tour Manager and Rhythm Guitarist (busy man!) Galen Henson who was really cool and the man with the most energy out of all of them, Drummer Jeff Campitelli. Jeff is a really great Drummer I was watching him play quite a lot because he seems to be into it as much as Joe, whereas you get the feeling Stu could play the whole set standing on his head and Galen tends to look a little bored at times (I would be playing the 2 chords from ‘Flying In A Blue Dream’ for 10 minutes while Joe shreds away!). This topped off a great gig, the sound wasn’t as crystal clear as I would have preferred but it was still pretty good and Joe still amazes me everytime I watch him play, aside from his incredible technique he has amazing feel and tone for a shredder and also seems to have a much more general appeal than say Steve Vai. If you are wondering whether to buy a ticket for Joe Satriani this time round don’t even hesitate this tour’s set list is too good to miss out on.

For those of you who are interested here is the entire Flickr set which some live video, more live photos and more pics of me hanging with Joe, Stu, Jeff and Galen.

Update: Regarding the rumours surrounding Joe Satriani and Sammy Hagar, Joe was happy to openly talk about it with someone backstage and said they have already written a few songs.

Let me introduce to you Kevin Nolan, a long time ago I went to Kidderminster College to do a performing arts course and my music A level. While I was there I had the great pleasure of playing, acting alongside and generally acting like a silly bugger with Kev. At the time he wielded a very nice Fender Precision Bass and was in high demand for bands and performances. The last time Kev and I managed to meet up was back in 2000 in London before I moved to Australia so I thought it was about time to find out what has been happening since then. A lot it seems, after college Kevin joined forces with his brother Robin in The Robin Nolan Trio, a gypsy jazz band, playing rhythm guitar. Since then they have been touring all over the world.

GN: How come you are based in Amsterdam?
The band moved from London to Amsterdam in 92 after finding that London was not very welcoming to street performers. Back then that’s prety much how the band made money. Amsterdam was much more hospitable.

GN: Does your brother let you do any solos?
No. But the point is that when i started to learn the guitar after putting down the bass i only learned how to play rhythm, so i’m not exactly up to standard with my solos.

GN: So what kind of touring schedule do you have these days, I remember you were telling me last time we met up in London that you had played in some pretty exotic locations!
I’ve travelled quite a lot since joining the band. Japan and Iceland being my favourites. But over the last 5 years we’ve had opportunities to play in the States quite a bit. It’s a big country with lots of money, so it’s possible to do some long extended tours over there.

GN: What guitars do you play in the trio?
I still play on the first guitar i ever got. It’s a 1999 Rob Aylward D-hole.

GN: How long has Robin been playing?
Robin first started to play guitar at age 6. He passed his classical grade 8 with distinction. He then went on to study jazz at Leeds college of music.

GN: What inspired him to play gypsy jazz?
He was taken to a festival “THE” festival for gypsy music in Samois-Sur-Seine near Paris. This was in 1990. Our father had always played the music of Django Reinhardt when we were children, but i think that when Rob witnessed it being played he fell in love with the passionate style.

GN: How many CD’s have the Robin Nolan Trio released to date? Go on do some plugging!
I think we have around 8 titles www.robinnolan.com check them out.

GN: So is this the trio a full time job?
It’s been backwards and forwards. Sometimes we have months booked up, and sometimes the opposite. I’ve just moved to the states and not only do i continue to play with the Robin Nolan Trio, but I’ve also joined the John Jorgenson Quintet. This means that I’m lucky enough to make a living from playing.

Thanks for taking the time talking to me Kevin, hopefully we will catch up when you tour Australia. Check out The Robin Nolan Trio site or the MySpace page.

I first picked up the guitar in 1988 at the age of 12, and at the time I was just getting into rock and metal. The first tab book was Iron Maiden’s ‘Seventh Son of a Seventh Son’ which my dad bought me as a present one day and I thought it had the most amazing guitar playing ever, I still love that album and I still think the guitar playing on it is great but something happened which changed the way I thought and played… my friend lent me a video called ”Live Without a Net” a live concert of Van Halen in their 1986 Sammy Hagar early days. At this point I had heard ”OU812” and thought it was quite good. This video introduced me to some earlier Van Halen material and gave me some of the best guitar lessons I’ve ever had. I studied Eddie’s playing for hours and hours, learned vibrato and the tapping part of eruption by the end of the year and was well on my way to becoming a EVH clone, I didn’t even realise at this point that David Lee Roth was anything other than a solo artist with the guy out of crossroads! Anyway I soon looked up the old Van Halen but I was 12, the new stuff sounded pretty good to me and “Eat ‘em And Smile” was one of my favourite albums.

As I got older the early Van Halen soon became my favourite era and with the recent news of a Van Halen reunion tour with Diamond Dave announced there could be no better time for the release of a book like Everybody Wants Some - The Van Halen Saga. I was really excited when the book arrived I immediately played Van Halen 1 in iTunes to get me in the mood. I knew that there had been a lot of disruption in the band over the years and I knew that DLR was a bit of an egomaniac but it is really interesting to actually get a background of what really happened from year to year. Its amazing that they are still alive considering how much Jack Daniels and beer was consumed (Eddie I’m looking at you...) mind you Sammy has apparently become a bit of a Tequila monster in recent years!

The book written by Ian Christe chronicles the lives of Van Halen from the beginning and I’m talking straight off the boat from Holland kind of beginning. There is so much to cram into one book that it understandbly moves along at a pretty fast pace, personally I could have read the unedited version happily! The first section starts off in the early Whisky a go go years as the guys worked the club circuits continually in LA and built a solid foundation of support, it then moves along to the Van Hagar era and the ups of downs of touring with an alcoholic guitarist in full flight and then moves through the Cherone erm, well not era, detour, and then through the last few years of rumour and speculation up to the present day just before the tour was officially announced.

I don’t need to go into detail you know the ups and downs of Van Halen, the squabbling between Roth and Hagar and more recently Eddie and Hagar and poor Michael Anthony… I feel sorry for the guy he always got the raw end of the deal and now he’s been replaced by a 16 year old! Well okay it is no ordinary 16 year old is it, Wolfgang Van Halen is set to be a star of the future according to his dad apparently they have been writing material in 5150 for years!

Even if you aren’t a Van Halen fan, if you ever liked “Runnin’ with the devil”, “Unchained”, “Panama” or even “Poundcake” you have to have to read this book, I’m recommending it to all my friends, I enjoyed it as much as “Motley Crue - The Dirt”! If it wasn’t true it would be a great fictional story and thats what makes it so good, Van Halen has been going for nearly 30 years and its a true rock ‘n’ roll story of excess and debauchery, one of the longest running soap operas in rock history!

I guarantee you’ll be listening to “eruption” within minutes of opening the book!

Oh and Paul and Marty seem to be pretty handy speaking Japanese too!

After seeing the John Butler Trio on Saturday night at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney I thought it was about time to do a feature on John Butler, he is an incredible guitarist and throughout the gig showed his talent for Banjo, lapsteel and distorted Ukele with a bit of Wah Wah thrown in… I think thats the first time I’ve seen that!

The video I have embedded is a lesson from John on warm up techniques that he recorded for Guitar World Magazine and although it is all using open tunings most of the techniques can be reapplied to standard tuning.

The amount of energy that the John Butler Trio put into a performance is amazing, it certainly sounds much more like a 5 or 6 piece band. For those who have never heard of him I strongly recommend you check him out. Here is a video performance of Ocean to get you in the mood.

I just got delivery of my Nerdy Shirts “The Guitar Hero” T-Shirt pictured left, such an awesome idea. Take the legendary “guitar hero” and whack a Guitar Hero Controller in his hands, note it is the limited edition right handed version played upside with buttons reversed

I just noticed this over at Favored Nations’ website, an mp3 of an interview with Tommy Emmanuel, one of my favourite guitarists.

“To hear Tommy Emmanuel discuss his latest CD “THE MYSTERY”, his technique, touring, and more, check out the Green Arrow Radio program hosted by Mister G. at WHUS radio in Connecticut. Click here for Green Arrow Radio’s website:

To hear the Tommy interview click here. “

In a very Wonka-esque move Steve Vai is currently giving 2500 buyer’s of his new limited-edition deluxe Digipak version of Sound Theories Vol. I & II the chance to meet him by inserting a satin backstage pass inside the Digipak for his Sound Theories tour. For info on how to pre-order the digipak go to Vai.com.