Oh, wow - first time in front of an audience was in high school days, in 1963 or 1964. Our band was "The Sandy Rock Singers" which consisted of Lee, Mark, Larry and Stitch. Lee and Larry were the twin sons of the guy who did the Nestles commercials with his puppet "Farfel" (remember N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best...chocolate)?, I was Mark, and Stitch was this great relaxed, kind of roundish banjo player who looked like a grownup balding man even though he was around 15.
Our debut was at a Long Beach, Long Island NY "beach club," which is a seaside country club. We followed a very tight rock 'n roll band (whose musicians were a bit older and much more experienced than we were) in the outdoor dance pavillion. The teenage audience was really worked up from dancing rock 'n' roll. Suddenly "The Sandy Rock Singers" were announced...we went onstage with our acoustic instruments. As soon as we started playing, the kids in the audience were disappointed that the electric stuff had ended, and they started drifting out. We began playing, and then more drifted out (we weren't too great yet). But a handful remained, and dead center was this gorgeous, svelte 16-year old godess, red hair down to her waist, bikini...starting up at....ME!!! She was positively idolizing me, the guy with the guitar on the stage singing "Take a Stick of Bamboo," "Mighty Day (Seawall in Galveston)," and other Kingston Trio and PPM type folk hits. We may have lost the war, but who gave a damn with the gorgeous Barbara T. transformed into my groupie???

Mark