Yes but what the amateur never finds out is that the music is about ten percent of the job.

Its stuff your Mum and devoted friends don't tell you. That's why every amateur act has these ghastly formulae like 'one fast one, one slow one' that they stick to through the gritted teeth of their audiences. Great fun, but no one will pay you for it, unless you're folk legend.

But how the different PA's should sound from where you're sitting, reading an audience; coping with travelling; returning rudeness with courtesy; dealing with agents; looking for work; sorting out your tax; buying not the instruments you want - but the ones that will do the job (even if you can't afford them , you can't afford not to buy them) and a thousand other things that are starting to fall from my mind as retirement starts to kick in.