Artists and Bands

Jennifer Batten is arguably the only female rock based virtuoso guitarist to have achieved world wide prominence. From the heady days of the 1980's, when she toured with the then undisputed biggest superstar in music Michael Jackson, through to her many tours with Jeff Beck, she has transcended the usual stigma against female rock players and carved herself a unique niche.

The name Paul Gilbert conjures up images of death defying shred and an almost unmatched technical ferocity, yet there's much more to this most genial of guitarists than pure guitar wizardry. Whilst Paul is undoubtably one of the most fearsomely gifted guitarists ever to draw breath, he also combines an advanced compositional ability with a great pop sensibilty - quite simply the man is a great songwriter, something often ovelooked.

Jas Morris was a late entry in the first Guitar Idol competition and although he was too late to make much of an impression on the voting public his combination of melodic and eloquent lead playing, stylistic versatility, groove and sheer compositional ability meant that as soon as he was heard by the pro panel of judges his place at the final was assured. On the day of the Grand Live Final at The London International Music Show Jas had the daunting task of opening the show... and he performed superbly. 

Ronni Le Tekro may be an unfamiliar name to some of you, but to those in the know he has been raved about for nigh on 25 years. Ronni hit international recognition in the mid 80's with Norwegian melodic rockers TNT. Possessing a truly unique style, he combined blazing speed and accuracy with a genuinely unique melodic approach - and this combined with some of the greatest riffs known to humanity means that any and all guitarists into rock/metal/shred who have yet to sample his delights should make it a priority to check him out post haste!

Ron Coolen is a passionate fan of the legendary Jason Becker. He has recently set up the Jason Becker Charity to help raise money for Jason. Many famous artists have donated memorabila for an ebay auction and Ron is running the New York Marathon on the 2nd November 2008 to raise money and awareness for Jason. Here is a fantastic interview that Ron recently had with Jason. We hope that it inspires you enough to maybe donate to this most worthy of causes...

US guitarist John Denner is a true musical phenomenon: a man born without a right hand who has nevertheless overcome adversity and mastered advanced rock techniques that would make many fully able-bodied guitarists weep with envy! Howard Stern - famed US ‘Shock Jock’ DJ and occasional film star - was so taken with John that he’s seemingly taken up the role of being almost a one man promotional organisation dedicated to spreading the message about John’s miraculous story and playing to a world wide audience.

Here is a list of the 12 finalists in order of play, with selected comments from the 7 judges on the actual day. For the sake of people’s feelings and/or egos, we have not put the final scores for each finalist. We do however mention the Top 3 places and their scores out of a possible 140 points!

Brazilian Kiko Loureiro recently played a Masterclass at London's The Institute of Contemporary Music, and the Guitar Institute's master of ‘world guitar' Tolis Zavaliaris was on hand on 11^th March 2008 to ask a few pertinent questions to this exciting new guitar star. Kiko is a genuinely fresh new addition to the ranks of virtuoso metal based guitarists, bringing an eclectic mix of influences that reflect his South American heritage - and these combined with a world class command of the modern rock guitar idiom results in a genuinely cutting edge axeman.

Back in the mid 1990's Symphony X surfaced from the fertile breeding ground for virtuoso rock and shred/metal guitarists that is New Jersey, USA. One of those very rare bands whose signature sound and approach was pretty much fully formed from day one, Symphony X emerged with a stunning blend of precision metal riffing, soaring melodies and show stopping solo passages from guitarist Michael Romeo and keyboardist Mike Pinella that provided the previously unchallenged Dream Theater with a viable contender for the throne of the ultimate prog metal band.