Marching On: My Chemical Romance

Mikey Way, bassist of My Chemical Romance, jokes that when he first arrived at the O2 Arena today even he had to ask “wait, who are we opening for?” such is the cavernous nature of one of the biggest live arenas in the UK. Regardless of modesty this sort of arena is starting to become second nature to a band ascending at a phenomenal rate since the release of their third album ‘The Black Parade’ just over a year ago. 

All of this seems impossible to imagine after the media barrage on them in August 2006 when the Daily Mail led the war on emo and the Reading Festival crowd decided to express their views with their own barrage, this time of bottles, as they played following Slayer. Mikey is the first to admit that it surprised even him. “I don’t know why we got booked above Slayer either, I mean it’s Slayer man, they’re iconic!”  The flak they received appears to have fuelled the beast though. “Magazines treated it like we’d done something good and people started noticing it, the Daily Mail wanted to kill us but they didn’t succeed!”

MCR have a modest presence about them, Mikey isn’t loud and brash about their meteoric rise choosing to focus on what’s to come. “The good thing about our band is that we always wanna keep shooting – the goal is to just keep going which, as simple as it sounds, is the aim. We want to keep doing it and get bigger and better.” Quite how much bigger and better is the next issue. With a headlining performance at Download and two sold out arena tours in the UK this year alone, it becomes apparent that a return to the scene of their Carling Weekend bottling, this time possibly topping the bill, would interest them. “There’s speculation and I don’t know if we’re actually gonna be invited or not or whether we’ll be on tour then, but I’d love to do Reading and Leeds. If the opportunity arose that’s a legendary festival, I’d be more than happy.” 

This subject brings a real excitement out of Way.  Although slightly shy and retiring as he cracks his fingers and eyeballs the carpet, his face lights up at what could be next for the relentless juggernaut of MCR. Their tour diary is starting to ease but Mikey insists although a rest will be nice he wouldn’t look for a hiatus from touring at this stage. “It doesn’t necessarily end (the touring cycle) just nothings been booked at the moment, we’re taking a little time off after six years straight and now is the time for a break. We’ve been fortunate and we feel like we’ve been universally accepted.”