FANGIRL Online Tour Diary: Following MCR around the UK
My Chemical Romance finished their UK tour almost two months ago and it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has passed. Already, those two weeks feel like a distant dream - travelling up and down the country with our MCR fan besties, singing along to songs that have shaped our lives, alongside the band who inspired so much of it. The concert blues have hit hard and don’t seem to be going away. There was something extra special about this tour and, from speaking to other fans, it seems I’m not the only one who feels this way.
I’ve been a fan for almost twenty years, ever since I first heard that infamous ‘G Note’ on the radio. Their music has introduced me to some of my closest friends, and we’ve had the pleasure of travelling around the world together following this band.
They also inspired me to pursue a career in the music industry. I now work as a freelance concert photographer, working on festival media teams and going on tours with talented bands and artists. MCR will never know how thankful I am for everything they’ve given me, but I’m grateful every day.
So when the UK tour was announced, I knew I wanted to experience it properly. This was my first time following a whole tour, and I had a few things on my bucket list - getting front row at least once and taking my little camera to capture all the best bits.
The night before the Liverpool show, I set off for Anfield with three friends, excited to see what the first night of the tour would bring. When we arrived, the queue had already begun to form, with around 30 or 40 people lined up and prepared to sleep on the streets overnight. As tempting as it was to join them, we decided that camping out wasn’t quite for us just yet. We headed back to our Airbnb, set our alarms for an early start and decided we’d get there first thing in the morning instead.
We got there at about 6am, but even arriving that early, my friends and I were still around fiftieth in line. It was going to be a long, boring day… or so I thought.
Before long, fans were handing out photocards, swapping bracelets and sharing paintings, handmade embroidery patches and stickers featuring their own artwork. The My Chem fandom has always been a talented bunch, and meeting so many artists generous enough to share their work was truly a blessing.
The day flew by. Fans had travelled from all over the world, and we spent hours chatting about our own fan memories. Some had been fans for twenty years, some had never seen the band live, and others had only discovered them in the past year.
We were particularly excited because tonight’s gig was at Anfield Stadium - the home of Liverpool Football Club, and the team Frank Iero supports. We all know that Frank writes the B-stage setlists, so we had everything crossed that he might pull out some surprises.
Once we were inside, I managed to get a barricade spot by the B-stage, and the band, of course, exceeded all expectations. I’d seen the Long Live the Black Parade gig last year at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, yet the whole show was even better than I’d remembered. I do think that having a fully standing floor section made the show even louder and British crowds are always on another level (I might be a little biased there though).
When the B-stage section began, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for that moment. We were so close! I’ve never felt adrenaline like it. They started with Vampire Money and as you can imagine, the entire crowd practically exploded. I remember looking around me, seeing the other fans surrounding the B-stage and I’ve never seen anything like it. People screaming along to every word, some fans even crying, totally overcome with emotion. We were finally here! It didn’t feel real and the rest of the gig feels like some hazy blur. It all went by so quickly.
I felt like I was on cloud nine leaving that gig. Our little fan bubble was still very much intact as we all just started rambling about the new lore that had been uncovered that night and thinking about what may or may not happen on the rest of the tour dates. And if you know anything about My Chemical Romance and their lore, you’ll know that’s like catnip to us fans.
The second stop was not-so-sunny Glasgow, where it rained all day. Funnily enough, my friends and I decided not to queue all day this time - and with the weather, things quickly went from bad to worse. Inside, we discovered they’d scrapped the B-stage, and shortly before the band came out, the entire venue lost power. The screens went black, the sound cut out and we were left in total darkness.
Ten minutes passed with no sign of the show starting, so, in true MCRmy fashion, we entertained ourselves. Someone started a huge “Welcome to the Black Parade” singalong, much to the amusement of security and crew. Then, in one of the funniest moments of the tour, a lone Scottish bagpiper wandered onto the stage and started playing… and playing… and playing. He was turning more purple by the second as crew members frantically tried to get everything back up and running behind him.
Eventually, Marianne appeared and the first notes of Draag National Anthem rang out. From there, the show went off without a hitch - including the live debut of Ambulance! I’d wanted to hear them play that song for years, so being among the first people to hear it live was incredibly special.
Then came London. Wembley Stadium.
We’d managed to get front row at Anfield, and being so close to the band while surrounded by thousands of fans was an incredible feeling. We wanted to experience it again, but this was Wembley, and we weren’t convinced arriving at 6am would be enough.
So we did something slightly unhinged. At 1am, we grabbed pillows and blankets and headed down to join the camping fans.
I never thought I’d camp out for a gig, but after having so much fun queueing in Liverpool - trading trinkets and spending the day with other fans - I wanted to do it all over again. And, thanks to an insane London heatwave, sleeping on the streets of Wembley was actually more comfortable than our sweltering Airbnb.
All three nights at Wembley felt like a dream - not just for us as fans, but for the band too. Gerard mentioned several times that headlining Wembley Stadium had always been an ambition of theirs, and now, here they were, with three sold out nights.And you could tell they’d gone all out. There were fireworks whizzing right over our heads during the breakdown of Famous Last Words, so many progressions to the Long Live storyline that pretty much confirmed it’s connection to the Danger Days lore and the introduction of the famous eyeball that also joined the dots between the MOAT storyline that happened in South America earlier this year. We decided to hang in the back for night 2, but at the end of the gig my friend turned to me and asked “Are we going straight to the queue?”, and so off we went to camp out a second time for the third and final night. Honestly, I regret nothing from camping out those two nights. I made so many friends and memories and I actually slept really well!And now we’re just days away from what looks like the final North American Long Live show. The Hollywood Bowl dates seem like they’re going to be totally different - they’re not included on the tour merch and haven’t been advertised as Long Live shows. I’m incredibly lucky that I’ll be there to see what happens, and of course, I’ll have my little camera with me.
It’s strange to think that something that felt so all-consuming just a few weeks ago is already becoming a memory. The concert blues have definitely hit hard, but I think that’s just a sign of how special this tour was. I’ll never forget those two weeks, the people I shared them with, or the feeling of being part of something so much bigger than just a series of concerts. Whatever happens next, I’m just grateful I got to be there.
