Tommy Concrete and the Werewolves live at Studio 24 Edinburgh November 2014 album launch for This Can't Get Any Worse

It's always nice to have a gigantic intimidating skinhead in a Status Quo Blue for You shirt playing a solo on a beer bottle as you play your guitar. If this is an experience you are not familiar with then I suggest you try it out immediately. This was quite good, more often than not the wha-wha pedal controls your own facial expressions, occasionally it controls the facial expressions of audience members. In this instance, the wha-wha pedal was in charge of us both. In case you didn't already know, this particular old-school giant is Matt who plays bass for Mastiff and Shitball.

Some music causes tiny wee birds to dance about, other styles encourage vain effeminate chaps to suck their cheeks in and mill about in the dark. I've seen audiences appreciate bands by sitting crosslegged in front and looking wistfully, skinny guys sometimes stroke their beards with a hand on their heart, other times gym rat troglodytes do press ups and gorilla impressions. My favourite is when a handful of drunken screffs roll around the floor with the finesse of a soup sandwich.

I find it weird how places occur and re-occur in the barrage of experiences I have had in the name of rock 'n' roll. For example this picture here of Tommy Concrete and the Werewolves playing our album launch at Studio 24 Edinburgh is a significant moment for me. Man of the Hour recorded their first album Skull Orchard at Studio 24 and I did the vocals standing more or less where I am standing in this picture, we also wrote most of it there, as well as the follow ups Destroy the Machines of Slaughter & Wulver Arise, the latter also being recorded there. What I am getting at is that spot on the floor has occurred numerous times as a place I am standing when a bit of my own personal musical history has a tiny highlight. Perhaps many aeons ago in a past life my castle was built there and I am standing on the spot of my own Jewel Throne. Best metal moment was when myself and Matt Justice sat there one night with the club to ourselves and watched Iron Maiden Live After Death on the vid screen with the sound pumping out the pa. It was so good it almost made us forget that our pints were in plastic glasses.

Matt giving it some kneeling down action. You don't fucking see people kneeling down and headbanging anymore. Back in the early eighties when I was about nine or ten I used to go to a youth disco on a Saturday afternoon at the now demolished LA's nightclub. I was impressed by the older boys who must have been about fourteen and let's face pretty lame if they were going anywhere that nine year olds hung out at. Anyway some of these older kids were what we called back then 'heavies' or 'grebs' and they were all double denim, some of the cooler ones were even treble denim and always coated in patches of Motorhead, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and what not. When they used to headbang to the token two or three metal songs that the dj would play, they would always stand in a circle, sometimes kneeling down. Now, it has crossed my mind on more than one occasion that the concept of kneeling down to headbang, didn't fade out of vogue, it simply didn't exist anywhere in the world apart from the four or five heavies who were very likely lamers. Regardless, when I started headbanging I did it knelt down. I remember once headbanging on my knees in LA's one Saturday afternoon to Motorhead Ace of Spades and hearing a birds voice chastising me the whole song 'you'll break your neck doing that etc etc etc'. I didn't reply but in my mind I was thinking 'fuck of and leave me alone I don't give you shit for prancing about to Duran Duran'. I did in fact fuck my neck headbanging, but it was twenty five years later onstage at Bannermans Bar in Edinburgh at the launch gig for Manof the Hours second album Destroy the Machines of Slaughter. Slipped and ruptured disc, still hurts like fuck. But that's the commitment of metal.

Another one with Matt kneeling down. I don't think he is headbanging in this one, it looks like he is just pissed out his face and having a wee rest. If we were on the stage he wouldn't have been able to do that. This is a new plus point fordoing floor shows. Some folk have really pretentious reasons for floor shows 'we are anti ego, the band is no more important than the audience etc' I always thought that was a load shite. It's way more pretentious to purposefully not use a stage for no good reason when there is one. It is way more fun to be on the same level as the audience, I just don't think you need a stupid poncey reason. However, for older fans, who are more easily tired, this is a great new possibility to watch the band if no chairs are available. Just don't cross your legs! Only stinky hippies fucking watch gigs sat down with there legs crossed.

So me and Matt are giving it some old school heavies Saturday afternoon LA's youth disco kneeling down greb action as some more youthful people celebrate the music with a more spritely piggy back ride, in the background some screffs from Scumpulse  have a wee chat. All the while George provides a subsonic pulse for the multi generational experience. It is a shame that Branagh is not visable in the shot as he his playing the drums stood on his head as the ghost of Harry Houdini escapes from his arse in the form of a sinister purple mist. Matt is great in this one, although it is sort of a shame he his one of my oldest pals, not because he is a cunt, but because it would be amazing to have generated this sort of response in a stranger. If I didn't know him this photo would have been 'a moment', when in fact it was just par for the course.

I wasn't going to include this photo as it was blurred, then I noticed the entity lying on the ground holding a can, with a splurge of nasty flat cooking lager pouring out of it. I fucking love this sort of shit. Some places frown upon folk rolling around on their backs spilling shit bevvy about. It is a great and wonderful thing that Studio 24 provides a venue in which this can happen. I love it that our band provides the music for such an experience. It doesn't happen to me very often anymore, but way back when I first started drinking there were many experiences, lying on my back spilling lager yelling with the sound of punk and or metal surrounding me. Most of the time these experiences occurred in parks or the living rooms of friends whose parents were away. To me this is the ultimate way to experience the music I create. It's not for dancing, fighting, musing, posing, shagging or wanking. It's for rolling on the floor out of your face going 'ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' and spilling warm cooking lager. Nameless idiot on the floor, we salute you!