Some of us are blessed with great memories and piles of confidence..and some of us are not. I've struggled with the stand thing for ages, preffering for the most part to go without but write large print cheat sheets and lay em out on the floor around me. I've gotten away from that as I've found that as I go on it seems more of a distraction. Having said that, being able to bring some cheats along got me up there in the first place. So, go on bbc and use a stand if you like and to hell with the purists with the great memories and intolerant attitudes. What I've found is that I need a stand to hold capos, picks, slides, harps, tuner, etc., so I have a stand low, forward, but off to the side a bit (about 11 o'clock) and flat so it's not that visible from the audience, and that from time to time I'll put little reminders for the odd tune I'm trying for the first time for example.

I do agree it is best to try to ween yourself off of the lyric sheet thing eventually for communication reasons cited above. But if taking a stand up will get you up there go for it. sb