Just imagine that you're up there completely naked, unbathed, with bed-head hair that's dyed pink, and it's cold. Then notice that the entire audience, is full of all your relatives and every one you ever went to school with...  That should do it!
 
(Hmm... He did say he wanted help with stage performance anxiety, not sure why anyone would want that... Maybe I misunderstood?)

Like someone once told me, 'just shut up and play.'

"A lot of words being typed here, but Drew has the short answer. Know your stuff."
 
definitely the key-also recognising you probably will make a mistake and being prepared when it happens.
I hate gigging and we have agreed if you get lost just dick around until the 1 comes around again.
I`ve been known to pre gig vomit regularly to the point that I stopped gigging but my doctor prescribed betablockers and I haven`t looked back.
definitely recommend them for performance anxiety as they appear to be non addictive,fairly benign physically and above all,legal.
apparently they are pretty popular with golfers and chess players??
cheers
 

Moshkito

Amine Belkhouche
...
The OP asked for books and reading materials. The short answer is to just tell him to do it enough times and he'll get more comfortable with it. That can certainly be true. But there are more nuanced approaches that can certainly help. Visualization anyone? That's my point. It doesn't have to be complicated, but there should be an awareness of these legitimate approaches.

 
Just goes to show you, how some folks can not tell the difference between the truth/falsity and a ducking book! You, immediately assume, that I have nothing to say because I am not famous and do not have a book or a Juillard BS degree behind me!
 
Just shows your how much you do not know about the subject, that you think some invisible author in Amazon with a degree from Merdestink U is more important. You do not know the difference between a good comment and helpful information about stage fright and stage directing, of which I have a lot of experience, and further, you can only think of putting someone down ... when you are not patient and able enough to read something and find out if it is good or not! or helpful or not!
 
Of course there is no right or wrong. Why? Simple ... it is an experiential thing and if you do not know what you are doing, you are not going to last in any business related to that art .. plain and simple!
 
These are issues that can only be taught with a "director" that has experience in these matters, and is not likely to be learned by reading a book ... you do not have the advantage of the outsider to see in, to help you. And this is one of the biggest issues with rock/jazz/classical music, in that these folks know their music, but the rest is dead ... and the music dies before the end. There are a thousand movies (specially French films!) about that ... but you would not be interested because you can only go for the top ten and the famous suckers that convinced you they are good, because you can not tell the difference!
 
See if you can watch a film called "The Tightrope", about Peter Brook and his group, and it has live music, also! I'm as close of a person to help you achieve this, as you will ever find, but your EGO will never accept it or admit it! And you will make sure that no one will believe me, because they also don't know any better, and further ... are not interested!
 
Everything I told you is a lie, including that, you idiot! ... when you know better, and can tell the difference let me know!

Well that escalated quickly. I apologize if I've offended you, it wasn't meant to come across that way. I wasn't trying to put you down, only trying to say that there are some useful things to be gained from performance psychology, that's all. I know a lot of amateur and professional performers, in all disciplines, not just music, who have benefited from such methods and I simply had a chance to shed light on the topic since the OP asked for reading materials in the hopes that he/she could get some ideas he/she could try out, that's all. You cannot learn anything about music by just reading about it, but knowledge and application should go hand in hand, and that's when the magic happens. Again, no harm was meant, just trying to clarify that neither your ideas nor my ideas should be dismissed. I only thought to put his alma mater in there because Julliard students have dealt with that enormous pressure to produce at very high levels since an early age. Read the guy's About page on the site, it's quite interesting. Just approach with an open mind and all will be well.
 

webbs hill studio
 
definitely the key-also recognising you probably will make a mistake and being prepared when it happens.
I hate gigging and we have agreed if you get lost just dick around until the 1 comes around again.

Agreed, making mistakes happens, but you have to try your best to keep going no matter what. I find it liberating when you're no longer afraid of making mistakes. You, ironically, make less mistakes.

"Agreed, making mistakes happens, but you have to try your best to keep going no matter what. I find it liberating when you're no longer afraid of making mistakes. You, ironically, make less mistakes."

that`s true,especially playing original music-the irony is the audience don`t know you have fharked up if you can hang in till the melody or the groove reappears-in hindsight,mistakes can lead to new and different interpretation of material.
cheers

The dream is playing this kind of music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmErwN02fX0
 
If you make a mistake, you can be sure 99.99% won't notice.

It seems to me this is being made much more complicated than it should be. I've played literally 1000's of gigs and I was always nervous before a show. It didn't matter if it was a club, theater, festival or arena. I was always excited and nervous. It's a natural reaction in performing. I can remember my hands shaking as I played the first song of the night and literally struggling to hold the pick and fret the chords. It ALWAYS went away before the first song ended.
 
Here's a tip I can give you based on a personal experience. My band was opening for a big time rock band in an arena. Our drummer had never played such a big gig, but the rest of us didn't really think about it. The first song required a 2 measure drum beat intro. We were announced, and stood there in dim light waiting the count in and intro. After a couple of seconds I turned and looked at the drummer and he was in a full blown vapor lock. I stepped toward him and said "Jonny...its just us in the house jamming...look at me and lets go" He blinked and started the count in and off we went. He didn't take his eyes off me for the first 3 songs. Every time I turned around he was staring straight at me. He relaxed after a few songs and began to really enjoy the experience.
 
The tip? Don't look at the crowd at first. Look at your band mates and smile. This is supposed to be fun. You'll be fine.

Randy P
I've played literally 1000's of gigs and I was always nervous before a show.
 
I stepped toward him and said "Jonny...its just us in the house jamming...look at me and lets go" He blinked and started the count in and off we went. He didn't take his eyes off me for the first 3 songs. Every time I turned around he was staring straight at me. He relaxed after a few songs and began to really enjoy the experience.

You were experienced enough in this scenario to suggest visualization to your drummer. Creating an environment in his mind that he associated with a comfort zone seemed to have worked and he was able to ease into the performance. A couple of other replies in this thread also suggested something along the lines of creating a comfort zone in your mind to achieve the same goal. Visualization is no doubt a powerful tool. It does feel like the game is mostly mental once we're up there in front of people.
 
http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/are-great-performers-as-cool-and-collected-on-stage-as-they-appear/
 
Now we don't have to be on the level of the great performers (or pros in general) but we certainly can take a page out of their books. I know I do whenever I'm watching a Dave Pensado video. For instance, we can always teach ourselves guitar but a good guitar teacher helps take a lot of the guesswork out of guitar, just like an expert in performance can help take a lot of the guesswork out of performance. All they've done is create something methodical out of what experienced performers, like Randy P, know intuitively. And it can certainly help save time being aware of that. Anyway, this has been an interesting discussion and there is a lot of literature on the subject. magic570, I wish you luck on that performance. Let us know how it goes.

Amine Belkhouche
 
I think the point of my message has been lost. Performance psychology has become a very serious discipline over the past 20-30 years. One shouldn't simply dismiss the research and propose a one-size-fits-all solution, especially since, as you say, we are dealing with a person. That is not to say there isn't something intangible when dealing with music. But I would assume most good teachers, especially ones at Julliard, know that. But there are also some very real benefits to be had from the research of performance psychologists. It's both art and science. Good instructors never just teach you the notes and the music, at least not the ones I've come across. They encourage you to find the history behind the piece, the life of the composer. They encourage you to find your connection with the music and of course they teach you the tools to better express your connection with that music. In the end, it does come down to how hard the student wants to work, and that's something you can't teach. But to say that we cannot work on the mind in similar ways we work on our fingers, our diaphragms, our postures etc... is not true. There is no secret, there is no absolute truth. But there are certainly many aspects of performance practices that performance psychology has been able to contribute to.
 
The OP asked for books and reading materials. The short answer is to just tell him to do it enough times and he'll get more comfortable with it. That can certainly be true. But there are more nuanced approaches that can certainly help. Visualization anyone? That's my point. It doesn't have to be complicated, but there should be an awareness of these legitimate approaches.

+1 to some of that for sure 
 
The OP wants a book , here's a good book to read …worked for me
 
http://www.shaktigawain.com/products/books/creative-visualization
 
some excerpts
 
http://shaktigawain.wwwhubs.com/gawain2.htm 
 
Kenny