[48] rock-sound.net [48] rock-sound.net

WORDS: Trevor Baker / PHOTOS: Nigel Crane
alking out of Wembley Park station towards the massive arc of the new stadium there’s a sad-looking middleaged man wearing flashing lights on his head. “Get your bunny ears,” he calls, “get your bunny ears here!” Further on, in front of Wembley Arena, a couple of the kids chasing each other through the fountain are already wearing them. For parents bringing their offspring to see My Chemical Romance it must be a reassuring sight. This is the band that were described as “dangerous” (by Brandon Flowers of The Killers), as “dark and weird” (by Kasabian), and as the leaders of a potential “cult of suicide” (by The Daily Mail), but it’s hard to look suicidal when you’re dressed as a glow-in-the-dark rabbit. If the same parents could come backstage and meet the band they’d be even more reassured. Mikey, the only member of My Chemical Romance who actually looks like he belongs in a cult,

is wobbling around on top of a large exercise ball in their bland dressing room. There’s no sign of virgin’s blood on the rider and when Gerard and drummer Bob arrive to start the interview their good manners would warm the hearts of any anxious mother. It’s nice to see because we’d started to have some doubts about this band. Last night they put on a fantastic show but when you watch Gerard send a crowd of 12,000 mad with a swish of his hand you wonder what it’s doing to him; has the power gone to his head? Even before we’re allowed to go into the band’s inner sanctum, we’re given a list of questions that we’re told they don’t want asked. We’re told that they don’t want to talk about their bottling at Reading Festival, they don’t want to talk about other bands slagging them off, and they don’t want to talk about their private lives. This is all fine, but couldn’t they have just told us this themselves should the questions come up? Things aren’t looking good.

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