Peter - try Windeze or a similar tablet for express relief from the pain of trapped wind. Alternatively don't eat curry, cabbage or sprouts before a gig, and lay off the fizzy drinks.

     Great point Peter , that may be one of my biggest problems with  " stage fright " . That combined with playing in front of peers , other drummers and musicians .  
     I've never had the experience of playing in a stadium or mega forum . Most of my playing has been to audiences from  50 to 300 . I have played in front of thousands at drum corp finals . That can be a bit unnerving too , but it's not exactly the same thing we're talking about .
       I've played in public on and off for over 30 years since I was in my early teens . The only case of paralyzing "stage fright " acurred just a few years back at a small local blues club jam night . My lead guitars and I got paired with a bass player and this nut case singer . We decided on our 3 tune allotment . After the first number went great , this guy started doing something totally off the wall . carrying on like we had played with him for years and had the slightest idea what the hell he was doing .  The bass and lead player are panicked , asking each other , " what's he doing , what key , ect ?" . Even trying to get him to give use a hint . He just ignored us and kept going on like he was
Howlin Wolf himself and how dare we not know where he was going with this production !
     Well this was in front of a packed house of 70 % musicians . I waited for what seemed like an hour ( maybe a long minute ) to figure out where he was going with this " act " . Finally , I stood up and walked off the stage like it was planned and the guy was on his own in some crazy solo . Before I made it to the back of the room , the other two guys were right behind me.  

   I wasn't going to mention the guys name , but hell , he put us in the lurch . So , if your ever at a blues jam and they pair you with this clown , be fore warned , he's got a screw loose .  He was last known as
 Moses Johnson .
So if you read this Moses , your a ****. :-/

I think for me, the first 3 or 4 shows that i did, i had those "butterflies". For the most part, i pretty much didn't look into the crowd, or kept my eyes closed! lol. it didn't take that long for me to get over it. But i do have to say that when my band did our cd release party back in august, my stomach was one big butterfly, lol. but i think that it had alot to do with anxiety and just plain adrenalin.

For me, it's been kind of like playing ability in general.  The more you do it, the better you get.  It used to be having a bad night would freak me out emotionally.  Eventually, however, I realized that getting freaked out didn't help anything.  Not surprisingly, I started having fewer bad nights.  

Now, although I always feel a twinge of apprehension as a gig starts, I don't let it get to me.  Took me years to get to that point, though.

you can try to look at it the way i do. you'll probally never see any of those people again. and if you do then maybe you can take they're critisizm