As a guitar player for nearly eighteen years now, it's not a surprise that I am quite fond of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as music makers and guitar players. True virtuosos of their chosen instrument, it’s fascinating to see the difference in the styles of playing and performance such as Joe's regular G3 tours afford. For those of you who haven't heard of G3, Joe invites two other well known guitarists to play sets and then they all jam on a handful of songs together. Last night (June 26) saw Joe, Steve and Robert Fripp - he of King Crimson and the looped guitar effect known as frippertronics - ply (play?) their wares and best of all, I won aftershow passes for Dave and I to meet them all too.

Robert Fripp’s material is more of a chill-out gig than a warm-up act. His loops and delicate layers and loops remind me more of Jean-Michel Jarre's Waiting For Cousteau than another guitar effort and the light show matches it to boot as well. It's a shame that some of the audience can't see the skill and beauty in his music because it is so far removed from the more obvious virtuosity of Joe and Steve. At any length, his set is only twenty five minutes long and as the hecklers applaud his leaving, Steve appears with a triple-necked guitar and as Steve is wont to do, starts to show off.

Besides his obvious skills with guitar, Steve is a huge show man too, having trained with Zappa, Dave Lee Roth and Whitesnake, and it shows. If his fingers aren't burning the fretboard, he is using whatever on stage appendages are free (his tongue, other people's hands) to pinch harmonics and play chords, all in the name of fun, love and ago mania. An hour dashes by without us noticing. Not bad for a man with a cold brought on by the Brummie rain. Bravo, sir. Still waiting for you to play Kill The Guy With The Ball, though.

And then there's Joe. He looked a little off on the last tour, but with a cracking new album, he looks alive and very well this evening. Reworked old pieces and new ones go hand in hand as he plays for all he's worth and we watch in awe. The contrast in performance with Steve is marked. Joe's style has always been to let his playing do the talking. Sure he moves about on stage a bit, but his objective is not to wrench every inch of sexuality from his instrument and almost choke himself with his guitar lead as Steve does tonight. It's to let his guitar sing for him. Even backstage, he's as humble as his presence onstage suggests and it was great to meet and chat with him briefly. Alas, my dream G3 line-up of Joe, Nigel Tufnell (from Spinal Tap) and Mike Keneally look unlikely. At least Steve gave us news of a collboration with Sharon Isbin to come and the future release of a new album and the Fire Strings concerto he performed with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra a while back.

Whatever these guys do, they push back the boudaries of their musicality and introduce a lot of us to new ideas. I thank them for it and it was a privilege to meet them. Thanks also to Tony, Billy, Galen, ZZ and Mike to talk too. See you all next time round!