I've been doing stuff in front of an audience for about 50 years now (no sniggering at the back please). Started at primary school with country and scottish dancing displays and moved onto school plays and operas at secondary school. I was also one of the rare ones that used to volunteer for doing readings in assembly.

After school it was all pretty much saxophone based - starting with a prog rock band then concert bands, classical quartets, dance band, big band, ceilidh band, more rock, blues - all sorts of stuff. Audiences ranging from 1 (the barman in an otherwise empty pub) to a...