Life on stage

I love music, it's kind of obvious and if you know me personally you know that I'm pretty much marinated in the stuff. I love finding new bands and new music and I adore watching bands live, the excitement of seeing them put all their efforts and energy into a live performance is really inspiring. Of course being a musician means I get to be on the other side, looking back at the audience whose eyes are fixed on the band and enjoying what they hear. The whole process of organising the venue, the promo, the social networking, the transport, booking time off work etc. are all forgotten when you walk on stage, such is the focus that being on stage gives you.

I get really nervous, at any gig, it could be to 10 people on a rainy Wednesday night or a big venue with a couple of thousand people in. The stress of making sure everything is in place is enormous and does add a hell of a lot of pressure plus I have to make sure all my equipment is working and in tune (one day I'll have my own tech....well I've been saying that for 20+ years).

The build up is exciting once the soundcheck is complete and sometimes there's even a chance of a cuppa before starting to get changed to go on stage. Once we've been summoned by the stage crew there is a short wait at the side of stage during which there's a lot of "how does my hair look?" and "does this shirt work with these trousers?"

Before too long it's the walk on stage and a quick glance at the set list to make sure I have the right patches selected on my amp and effects...click, click, click, click...then we're in! The rush reaches a new point now as, providing nothing's gone wrong, we are playing towards the zone, where the band and audience interact with each other, a positive audience response will always make a band play better. In my case I kind of start to relax half way through the set (good job that 'The Visitor' is always towards the end of the set). The feeling when people cheer is electric, it's the best word to describe it - When people like our music it's amazing and if you see or hear people singing our songs....well that's about the zenith of musical joy. It confirms that what us musicians do is good and people love hearing it, this is such an honour.

The whole rock & roll lifestyle thing has passed me by altogether and the most hardcore I ever get is having some ham sandwiches on the rider and asking for mustard as well. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in the seventies.