My Life-changing Journey with My Chemical Romance

An amazing picture that depicts the characters and setting of The Black Parade

It's hard to imagine there was once a time when if anybody said to me, "do you know who My Chemical Romance are?", chances are I'd have given them a blank stare and said, "who!?", but before my ears had the pleasure of hearing Welcome to the Black Parade, that was the truth! Prior to 2006, I was mainly an indie and pop music fan, and I even used to listen to the official UK music charts, and, yet, it was thanks to a few rock bands actually getting a bit of mainstream success - mainly Green Day's American Idiot, MCR's WttBP, and Fall Out Boy's This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race - that I went on to become the rock music fan I am today. On October the 8th 2006, I was listening to the official music charts when a song called America, by a British indie rock band called Razorlight, got to number 1, and I was really happy because I love the band and the song (it's an amazing song - check it out!). Then, just one week later, I was again listening to the charts, getting to the point where they're just about to announce what's got to number 1, and Razorlight had got knocked off the top spot by My Chemical Romance's only ever UK number 1, Welcome to the Black Parade - at the time, I remember genuinely being a little bit sad that a song I loved had been knocked off the number 1 spot, but very soon was I changing my mind! It didn't take long for me to be hearing WttBP on numerous occasions - it was everywhere - and, before I knew it, I had fallen in love with this epic rock song, with its killer guitar section by Ray (you know the bit!), awesome piano intro before the song truly kicks off, and anthemic, sing-along chorus. I bought the WttBP single, kind of expecting my love to just be for the one song, but soon I was hearing Famous Last Words and thinking to myself, 'this band are great', and so I went and bought The Black Parade in early 2007, having barely purchased any 'proper' rock albums up until this point in my life. At first, I fell for songs like Cancer and Disenchanted, the former particularly striking a chord as I had lost my nan to this horrible disease just 2 years before this, and I had never heard such a stunning song (I rank it in my top 5 favourite songs ever), with its haunting piano, beautiful and brutally honest lyrics, and Gerard's signature vocals (and there's some great backing vocals towards the end). Never had I heard such a grandiose album, it seeming like I was discovering something new every time I gave it a listen, and there's not a single album in the world that I would rather listen to from start to finish; not only that, though, as it also has the biggest number of my favourite songs ever, as I would pick 5 songs from this album for a list of my 100 favourite songs - Cancer, Famous Last Words, Dead!, WttBP, and Disenchanted - and I certainly can't say that about any other album. An absolute classic, for me, an album that is constantly being listed by many as one of the best rock albums of the last decade, and it is my favourite album ever.

The time that then passed between The Black Parade and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys seemed like an eternity, and a lot happened in this time: they scrapped a whole bunch of material because of it "not feeling right, organic, or complete... created in the wrong place, at the wrong time" (this material would go on to be Conventional Weapons), they sadly parted ways with the awesome Bob Bryar, and a story getting released in a couple of UK tabloid newspapers that had fans appalled, upset, shocked, and dumbfounded! At the time of this story coming out, about the tragic death of Hannah Bond, I still wasn't a huge fan of My Chemical Romance - only knowing the one album - but, even then, I was clever enough to make up my own mind, knowing that I was enjoying the music, and surely that's all that matters? It was really a couple of years down the line where the news story really hit me, as whilst a news story existed that blamed MCR for the death of a teenage girl - MCR apparently link "death with glamour" and are a "suicide cult" band, with their lyrics being associated "with depression and self-harm" - I was starting to become friends with people who loved the band, finding out the band had saved people, or made them stronger, more confident, teaching them to be themselves. You only have to listen to many of Gerard's famous quotes/lyrics to know that he (and the band) wants you to "not be afraid to keep on living...", "be yourself, don't take anyone's shit...", "there is nothing worth taking your life over...", etc. Having at this point acquired a copy of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge - thanks to my best friend giving me his copy - and being surprised by my mum when she bought me a copy of Danger Days for Christmas 2010, I was discovering the band for myself, and realising that never in a million years could these newspaper stories have been any more ignorant if they had tried - were we even listening to the same band, did they even speak to any fans of the band, did they do any research, whatsoever, in order to make the story balanced? The unbelievable (although, what really is shocking nowadays? I mean, you can never believe everything you read) truth is that these newspapers printed stories that were out to shock people, completely one-sided, and just incredibly untrue, without the necessary knowledge to print a balanced story. The fact that within one of the stories they list Blink-182 as "emos" should tell you everything you need to know about the utter ignorance of these articles! I became friends with loads of people on Facebook, who loved MCR - and I'm still making friends who love this life-changing band, to this day - I even changed my middle name to "Killjoy" for a bit, and was really becoming a huge fan of these guys. I love Danger Days, instantly falling in love with songs like Bulletproof Heart, Summertime, and The Kids From Yesterday ("You only hear the music when your heart begins to break" is a line that hit even harder after the band split), and enjoying listening to the whole album all the way through, taking in its story of being yourself (not what people want you to be), sticking up for what you believe in, and I believe the album has a fantastic camaraderie feel - as it certainly brought me into an epic family: the Killjoys - saying you should have the backs of the people you love, sticking together even when times get hard, etc. This album will always mean a massive amount to me - little did we know that it would be MCR's last studio album - even if it isn't on the same level as The Black Parade.

(From left to right) Mikey Way, Frank Iero, Gerard Way, and Ray Toro - my heroes - during a Danger Days photo shoot

To some, this may seem a strange thing to say, but a massive part of why these guys changed my life is the fans of the band. My Facebook friend count would grow on a regular basis as I became friends with even more MCR fans, becoming close with a whole bunch of them - some were from 'The Lurkers of the MCRmy' Facebook page, some liked to call themselves 'Killjoys', but, one thing was definite, we were all part of the MCRmy: an unbreakable, passionate, and unrivalled fan group! I'm Facebook friends with fans of Elliot Minor, Green Day, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Fall Out Boy, etc., and these fans are fantastic, but nothing can compare to the MCRmy, home to some of the most amazing, beautiful, caring, kindhearted, and loyal people I've ever met in my life, and I genuinely can't imagine my life without them. One day, I will meet a bunch of them, and I have no doubts about that, whatsoever! I bought myself a copy of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love and it felt great to own all 4 studio albums that MCR had made up until this point - expecting there would be many more albums to come in the future, as they had said they were working on album number 5. I remember listening to Bullets for the first time, whilst lying in bed, struck by just how 'in your face' it was - a really raw, powerhouse of an album - and how it was so far away from Danger Days, and yet they still both sound like MCR. I'm skipping ahead a bit here, but MCR's greatest hits album, May Death Never Stop You, shows just how varied, talented, and unbelievable these guys are, going from hard-hitting punk rock songs through to pop rock songs with perfect production, and every anthemic step in-between. In late 2012 we got told that we would get to hear the unreleased material, Conventional Weapons, that MCR had recorded prior to Danger Days, and, if I'm honest, I'm glad this didn't become the basis of an album! The songs are by no means 'bad' - I really like Ambulance, Boy Divison, and The World Is Ugly, and The Light Behind Your Eyes is one of the most stunning songs I've ever heard - but I feel that this direction would've ended up creating MCR's worst album. Still, it was good to hear 10 unreleased MCR songs whilst we waited for the next album, but then we got the news that nobody in the MCRmy will ever forget: on the 22nd of March 2013, we got a brief message on MCR's official website, saying that they were splitting up! The message was short and impersonal - not something we would've ever expected from MCR - and it was heartbreaking and shocking to be hearing this news! I remember I was up late on that Friday night - the news came through in the early hours of Saturday morning in the British time zone - and I saw one my Facebook friends post about MCR splitting up, and I instantly dismissed it, not wanting to believe it was true. I took a moment, and then commented on the friend's status, saying something like, "No way!!! Where did you hear this!?", and when they replied with, "It's on the official website", I knew it was true, and my heart sank! Had I gone to bed at an earlier time that night - I was going out with my grandad in the morning, so I should've been asleep - maybe I wouldn't have heard the news until Saturday morning, maybe even later; it's sometimes weird the way things happen. The statuses started flooding in on my news feed, I knew I would never be alone in this situation, and there were even people that I started chatting to on that very night, people who I now call 'good friends'. This seemed like the ultimate test of everything that MCR had taught the MCRmy: were we strong enough to not let this destroy us? Would we be able to "carry on"? Would we continue to be ourselves, believe in ourselves? The answers are a resounding 'yes', as never before have I seen so many people be there for each other, with support, care, love, and, looking back, I'm proud of the MCRmy for the way we handled it! Of course we were all heartbroken, shed tears, felt like doing nothing for a little while (Gerard's unforgettable vigil didn't help with this, as it knocked me off my feet, tearing me up just days after the split, but it was the much needed, beautiful, detailed written piece that the MCRmy needed to hear), but we made it through, and I - and I'm sure the whole of the MCRmy, too - am a stronger person for having gone through something I didn't expect to happen for many more years. MCR decided to throw themselves a funeral, releasing a new single on the 17th of February 2014, Fake Your Death, and a greatest hits collection, May Death Never Stop You, on the 25th of March 2014. Fake Your Death is a brilliant, heartbreaking song, with such honesty in the lyrics, and some of the lyrics, like "even lights can fade away", and "I choose defeat, I walk away", seemed to show what was going through the minds of the band members at the time of writing this song, whether they realised it or not. "Just look at all that pain" would sum up what the MCRmy had been going through. In my eyes, it's the perfect 'goodbye song' - not that I am saying goodbye, because MCR live on forever in my heart and mind - just what I expected to hear, and a song that I will love for the rest of my life.

When I listen to May Death Never Stop You, and/or watch the DVD that came with the package, I now choose to smile instead of being sad. I choose to enjoy the songs, remember the perfect journey I've been on, remember all the amazing things the band have taught me, and think of the people I've met along the way. I'm a better, stronger, more confident person because of MCR - they taught me that it's fine to be myself, even if that isn't cool, and believe in myself - and that's why I'll now always look back and smile, remembering the fondness I have for this band. I envy anybody who's been on this journey for a longer time than me - anybody who got into the band around the time of Bullets, or Three Cheers - but, speaking for myself, I can still easily say that my journey has been life-changing. MCR are proof that you never know when a band are going to split up, so go see bands live when you have the chance - that's been my attitude ever since the split, because of how I never saw MCR live, as I always assumed there'd be more time - enjoy the songs and albums as much as you can, and don't ever be anything other than proud for liking what you like! Gerard, Frank, Ray, and Mikey (and Bob and Matt!), I thank you for being the most inspirational, stunning, and life-changing band I've ever come across in my life! Do I have other bands in my life that mean a hell of a lot to me? Yes. Will other bands come into my life, who I end up absolutely loving? Yeah, most likely. Will there ever be another My Chemical Romance? No, not in a million years! So long and goodnight! <3