Wow--that's pretty bizarre bill/sables! (Sounds like legally challengeable discrimination by association, or something, depending what country you're in).

I think there are considerable parallels between drinking and driving, and drinking and performing. (I used to do both, now do neither.) Not meaning this as a judgmental thing, because I am not an absolutist on either issue. I think both drivers and professional or amateur performing musicians should act like mature adults not reckless teenagers on their first taste of pushing boundaries.

See if this sounds like something you've heard: "I can play (drive) better when I've had a few beers than most people can, I'm a professional."

That might even be true, but few would argue that you're at your best. I've come to believe that if you're serious about the music, or staying alive on the highway, you want to be at your best, not merely better than some other people of dubious talents. Largely because music, like driving, is NOT a competitive activity--it's a spiritual communication between you and your muse, and the audience if there is one.

I used to have strategies, back in the drinking days, to do the best I could under the circumstances. One was not to start on the booze till later in the evening, or alternate with near-beer or ginger ale. If I wanted to play the fiddle, or sing "Rocky Road to Dublin", I should do it early in the evening because later on as I got more of a buzz on, fiddle intonation would elude me more and more, as would the lyrics of the latter. After awhile, it occurred to me that if I couldn't play fiddle worth a shit when shit-faced, my other instruments were probably not getting what they deserved out of me either.

I've noticed that at a decent Celtic session, the real players generally drink just enough to wet their whistles, and not necessarily alcohol, despite the availability of sometimes-free Guinness. It's a demanding musical form and cultural myths to the contrary, great Celtic ensembles are close to or at classical level of technique, which does not come without sacrificing self-indulgence. You don't see a symphony orchestra drinking onstage.

Smoking pot, although fun, is a problem too. Singers who can't remember lyrics are not highly sought after.

Willie-O