It Might Get Loud

All three mega-minstrels - Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin, The Edge with U2 and Jack White with The White Stripes - are more than comfortable wringing out the power chords in vast arenas across the globe.

But their roots are a far humbler story.

White was born in dirt-poor Detroit and spent his formative years stuffing furniture by day and playing sweaty clubs by night to an audience in single figures.

Epsom-born Page almost gave up the guitar because he was so fed up with life touring in the back of a transit van while The Edge used a classroom let out by an obliging teacher to rehearse with the embryonic U2.

After years which have seen them conquer the highest peaks of the pop world, director Davis Guggenheim gathered the disparate trio - Page the silver fox, the earnest Edge and top-hatted Jack White -  to shoot the breeze and crank out a few riffs.

Highlights include Page instructing his respectful virtuosos the chord sequence from In My Time of Dying and archive footage of White, fingers bleeding, throttling screaming feedback out of his axe while on stage with The Raconteurs.

Zep fans will be fascinated by a visit to the stairwell at Headley Grange where Page recorded John Bonham's much-sampled drum track for When The Levee Breaks while U2 afficionadoes will sit back with admiration at the amount of effects pedals The Edge employs.

Sometimes it's like being trapped between three musos shooting the breeze in a Denmark Street guitar boutique but there's enough familiar material for fans to get a handle on, particularly when the superannuated plank-spankers reveal how a certain song evolved.

It's never less than a compelling watch as the trio of turbo-charged troubadours swap anecdotes (Page reveals he played guitar on the Goldfinger soundtrack) and there's touching professional acknowledgment of each other's strengths.

Play it again.

Tim Evans