You know, I love Joe's music. His ideas are amazing, his playing looks effortless, although having tried it, it's obvious it's only easy for him, and his skill is legendary. Our whole neighbourhood is full of Satch-a-bees.

As for this Coldplay business, though, I don't think it's right. As a songwriter and fair musician, I pride myself in being able to track influences in musicians, having contemporary musicians' music based on what they've listened to, and their playing based on what they like.

The problem I have with this stealing song business is that I don't see the influence. Even though a full 13 bars of the song are very similar, the influence isn't there, because before that particular riff the whole feel of the song is different, and right after that riff, and actually within the 13 bar riff as well, the guitar style is nowhere near Satch's.

If you listen to Coldplay's song, you'll find influences of Flock of Seagulls, Sting, and I think Matchbox 20, but the idea of them stealing from Satch just doesn't fit.

My suggestion is that Joe has made his point about them being similar in that particular riff, and his statements have brought that to light, both fantastic advertising for him AND Coldplay.

Now, he should accept the reality that two good musical minds can sometimes come up with a similar sounding portion of a tune.

Both tunes are great in my mind, by the way. And watching the video for Coldplay, it's easier to see why it's not probable that the song idea was stolen. The whole syncopation, picking style, and flavour of the songs are totally different.