Some people call him Satch, to others he is known as "that Moby look-a-like who Coldplay ripped off", but who is the real Joe Satriani? Here's what I've just learned from Wikipedia:

Joe "call me Satchafunkilus" Satriani was born on 15 July 1956 in Westbury, New York. A better teacher than he was a solo artist, Satriani influences are a who’s who of the greatest guitarists in rock history, including Hendrix, Page and Joe Satriani. Coldplay’s Chris Martin doesn’t make the list.

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So this is Christmas. This time of year has two musical certainties: the first is that you're guaranteed to hear the same '80s and '90s seasonal songs, continuously, absolutely everywhere you go - of course, if you listen to Magic 105.4 this phenomenon isn't limited to the Christmas period; it's like Groundhog Day there.

The second certainty is that the Christmas number-one will be the most recent X Factor winner with a cover version of a song you didn't even like when it was originally released. The last single to top the yuletide charts that wasn't either a cover version or a song sung by the winner of a talent competition was the 2000 classic "Can We Fix It?" by Bob the Builder. I think that this fact alone proves that competitions such as the X Factor are stifling true creative genius.

This year will be slightly different, however, as the X Factor winner will be covering a creditable song, Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". Yes, I realise that Mr Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" was in itself a cover of Leonard Cohen's original, but I guarantee that the X Factor winner's version will essentially be a facsimile of the Buckley version, as every cover of that song has been post-1994; compare John Cale's 1991 cover with Allison Crowe's 2003 version, or Kate Voegele's or Imogen Heap's (yes, I watch too many American teen dramas).

As an added twist, Buckley's version is currently making an assault on the charts and, at No 34, it is nicely poised to get popular attention in time for Christmas following a massive increase in downloads after the BBC used the song to advertise its iPlayer service.

If you are inclined to buy your music, rather than illegally download it (remember, piracy is a crime, you wouldn't steal a car, would you?) I'd like to recommend that you download Buckley's version instead of the X Factor cover, after all, why have hamburger when you can have steak, why have Dairylea when you can have Roquefort, why have generic baked beans when you can have Heinz Baked Beanz? Can you tell this was written before I ate my lunch?

For more on "Hallelujah", read Elisa Bray's article in The Independent today, it's much more interesting than this. Also, for Buckley fans, his version of The Smith's "I Know It's Over" is just beautiful.

Monday saw the launch of (RED) Wire, a new weekly online music magazine that aims to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa. A handful of the world's biggest artists are collaborating on the project which, inevitably, is being spearheaded by the philanthropist Bono, who I've been told was in a band, or something, once.

Here’s the deal: you get access to the magazine's exclusive content for a donation of £4 per month and for every five subscribers to the magazine one person with HIV will receive the antiretroviral drugs necessary to keep them alive.

Now, I realise that times are hard, so if that isn’t enough to get you to part with your hard earned £4, the music is excellent. To promote the website launch (RED) WIRE have made a number of tracks available to stream via MSN Music, these are the highlights:

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