I know this is going to probably meet with a lot of disagreement and disapproval, but... have a drink or two.

I used to suffer from crippling stage fright, and sometimes I still do. But it often came down to this: to play a stilted awkward, potentially disastrous stage-fright-ridden gig in which I would frequently forget a verse, or play completely wrong chords due to worry; or to play a gig that was a bit rough around the edges cos I was maybe a little tipsy. The latter was always preferable.

I'm not saying go onstage drunk of course...

one thing that does wonders before going onstage, which is something I learned from amateur dramatics, is to do some really loud shouting and stomping before going on. Give yourself a tremendous cheer. If I'm somewhere where this would seem faintly insane to the audience, I'll get round it by giving the preceding act the biggest round of applause ever. But generally, I find some whooping and hollering before playing really gets you in the zone.

If you're really nervous then take a music stand with the lyrics on. There's no shame in it. Or tape the words to the top of your guitar.

Talk to the audience before hand. Take things slow. You don't need to start a song until your'e ready to. You don't need to start a verse until you're ready to.

But record yourself at home. Listen to your recordings until you culdn't forget the words if you tried.

And if all else fails, play with other people. Most non-musicians don't realize quite how much harder and intense playing solo really is: a lot of guys in bands who've never tried it don't either. It is indeed not an easy thing to do. Even Nick Drake, who was an incredible guitarist, played some quite iffy gigs, because he was never comfortable playing in public (and by all accounts should really have been put on the live circuit with a band). I've seen gigs where players of the calibre of Bert Jansch and John Kirkpatrick have made mistakes. No-one's cared, because they didn't make a meal of it: it was no big thing. And they're right, it isn't.