Jimmy Conquers Stage Fright

The crowd left, in great numbers. Jimmy swung his guitar in a circular motion, so hard it partially broke against the crummy -dive's low ceiling. It reminded him of Townshend, who swung his axe once, in a similar place, and broke it by accident. This was L.A. Sometimes stars like the legendary guitarist just turned up, out of the blue! Applause rippled quietly, from a hand -full of people who appreciated Jimmy's antics.

His drummer instead of being ready to count in the next song, looked down the back of the audience. There were murmurs. Suddenly, Jimmy had an idea to revive his faltering gig. Removing his shirt, pouring lighter fluid on his trusty axe, he set fire to it. All the women lasered in on his 6- pack abbs. The men cheered at the pyromaniac, who, in a literal sense, set fire to their boring meaningless existences.

For a moment, he forgot his fear of the crowd. Instead of turning his back on them, he faced them until the novelty, of the bare torso and the burning guitar wore off. He got his spare guitar, tuned it, and resumed playing. The crowd went quiet. Feeling self conscious, he turned his back on them.

However; suddenly, as if a head of state were arriving, there were massive cheers. Not being able to see if anyone were there, he began playing the note- perfect Clapton covers that he was locally famous for. He had expected the crowd to lose interest but they didn’t. They were screaming and yelling as if they were celebrating a hero. His instinct told him they were cheering for someone else not him. He almost stopped playing when unbeknownst to him, a tall- dark man plugged his Stratocaster into the Marshall Amp.

Jimmy nearly jumped as he recognised the Stephen Ferris phrasing blasting out into an awe struck crowd. He turned around to see the local man, a super star in their town, who didn’t acknowledge him as his fingers were racing up and down his trusty axe.

Ferris was able to blow the crowd away for the rest of night. They were so mesmerized by his dazzling fingers racing up and down his guitar neck, tapping like Eddie, riffing like Hendricks, bending notes like Clapton, that they didn't notice Jimmy, who felt the freedom, so much that he no longer turned his back to them. He didn’t realise it until the last song when without warning Ferris left the stage.

Jimmy immediately felt uncomfortable. He resumed his previous position with his back to the audience. There were raucous jeers. It was then he realised what Ferris had done. He played another 3 songs facing the audience, including an encore which Ferris rejoined for.

The last song was Foxy Lady by Hendrix. At one point in the song the crowd sensed Jimmy’s body language which was poor. He hit a wrong note. He felt nervous. In that instant he doubted his ability. The crowd mirrored his nervousness, and began murmuring. He started to turn around to resume his previous position with his back to the audience. In a split second Ferris tapped him on the shoulder. This stopped him turning. Jimmy glanced at Ferris while both still playing. ‘Thank you,’he muttered.
‘You’re O.K,’ now, said Ferris.