“I love music, music is what gets me up in the morning,” says PCYC guitar teacher Adrian Hadson, better known as ‘Ado.’

Ado has been sharing his love of music by teaching guitar at the PCYC for the past 15 years, but recently, along with fellow teachers and bandmates Mark Walsh and Richard Smith he’s been helping his students get out of the classroom and get real stage time.

Ado, Mark and Richard make up the rock trio Nocturnal. Lately, they’ve been inviting their young pupils from the PCYC band program to join them live on stage at local pub gigs.

“When we're doing gigs here in Orange, at the Vic for example, we’ve been getting kids performing, getting the students to come and play — one of Mark's students playing the drums or one of mine playing the guitar. I reckon it's invaluable experience because we're getting them out into the real world,” said Ado, who has himself been performing since he was 18 years old.

“I always thought that if I started that at a younger age, I would have benefited from it,” he said

 “So that's why we try and get them started as early as we can, especially when we see kids that are keen to pursue music, then we get them performing just like we do, playing real music in front of a real audience just like we have to.

The young band Ado mentors, Blindly Led Youth, even supported them at a recent gig, surprising punters with their talents.

Mark Walsh, who’s also a committee member of local music body JAM Orange, said giving young musicians live gig experience it is something they are hoping to see more of in the future.

“Typically, at the moment, the only opportunity for these kids to play is at the schools, the Con, but we want to get them into places that the general public are going to mill around and come across these performances,” he said.

“You can see footage up on the Nocturnal Facebook page of some of the rowdy reaction the kids are getting… it is something that spurs people on to continue playing and enjoying music. I was performing at a young age and I think that is what has kept me performing, because I got to perform young and the public gave me that positive encouragement.

“So that is what this is about, we all feel the same way about sharing that love with our students and giving them that opportunity.”

For Matilda Taylor, 13, the talented young drummer, vocalist and occasional guitarist for Blindly Led Youth, the opportunity has been eye-opening.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Matilda. “We were all a bit nervous, but we supported each other and said we'll be fine if we make a mistake — It’s our first gig! But it was really fun and I want to do it a lot!”