The following songs are covers of songs by one of my favourite guitarists…Joe Satriani. I particularly like his style as I think he has the ability to mix fire with feel. He can burn but he also writes beautiful ballads. This is one area that I've worked on a lot as I think that it's an area that lets a lot of guitarists down. Most people learn to thrash but not many take the time to work on natural vibrato (with the hand-not the trem), phrasing, bending to pitch and overall forgetting about the scales and thinking about the song. None of the songs are "parrot fashion". I go for the feel of the song and put a few of his key phrases in rather than try and do a carbon copy. I have written a small piece on each song saying what I used and how I got the sound. Please e-mail and let me know what you think of them.

1. Rubina (Satriani) - 5.42meg.zip This is an older track that has a very easy feel to start but builds and comes down again. Taken from his "Not of this Earth" album it shows his enigmatic style-he sounds like no other guitarist.

Gear used:
a. Line6 flextone II xl 2 x 12 combo using rectifier setting with Line6 custom cab setting and some compression and delay.
b. The £50 Squier strat with the Seymour Duncan hot-rails pickup in the bridge position.
c. Grolsch x 4!

2. Atomic Punk (Van Halen) - 2.72meg.zip 3. Eruption - 1.52meg.zip

Gear used:
Peavey 5150, line6 modulation Modeler, Peavey wolfgang.

More info: www.vh-unchained.com

4. The Bells Of Lal (Satriani) - 3.78meg.zip Taken from the "Flying in a Blue
Dream" album, this track is almost Santana like with great bass accompaniment from Stu Hamm.

Gear used:
a. Line6 combo as above with "Satriani" setting downloaded from Line6 web site - rectifier setting again with delay, chorus and compression.
b. Jackson PC3 guitar with Seymour Duncan pick-ups.
c. 3 glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon!

5. Keep The Bright Lights Burnin` (Black Rose) - 5.05meg.zip This demo was, in my opinion, our finest moment (the other guys may disagree). I played my best solos ever and the sound was immense with only the bass slightly subdued. Steve sang his socks off; the keyboards added a new texture and the songs were good.

I simply plug the amp into the soundcard, import a wav into Cakewalk and record on a track along side it. This is done in my dining room whilst I wait for my rice to boil! The end result will never win a Mercury music award but it gives you lot an idea of what I'm about. I'm telling you this so young budding rock stars may realise that it's this easy to record your stuff and let the world (or at least the band you wanna join) know you exist. Get yourself a cd-writer, do some artwork in a publishing software package and you can make your own cottage industry. The best part of this is that Billy Bullshit, the A and R guy at Megatastic records, doesn't get squat. Sadly, you may never get to cavort wildly on TOTP with boy or girl bands…but look at it this way…no-one is gonna remember you as a complete tosser when you're 40!

Have a listen and let me know what you think by e-mailing me or signing my guest book. It's only rock 'n roll but I happen to adore it!

You can find links to some of the above in my links section (shock/horror)