Many Years ago a group of us started up a new Folk Band.We practiced hard and decided it was time to go public with it and offered our services free to a small Folk Club who kindly accepted.We were all very nervous, but were calmed by the fact that there would only be a few people there so we had nothing to worry about.Imagine our surprise and horror when we arrived at the venue to find the Outside Broadcast Van of the BBC there to record us.One of the producers knew some of the members of the band and thought it would make a good programme.To say we were nervous would have been an understatement and I can say that I have never concentrated so much on my playing as I did that night and this may be the key to this subject.During the playing of one tune I actually left my body and watched myself playing.(I faced myself)
This broke my concentration and I made a big mistake whilst playing and snapped back into my body.It has never happened again,even under extreme circumstances.It was a dreadful night with everything being spoilt by a mistake of some sort.Except for one tune that really went well."Thank goodness", I thought, "this is great".With that the microphone which was above my head swung round and crashed to the floor.Oh the joys of performing.
Al