My Chemical Freak: My Chemical Romance All The Time

A first hand take on the protest from protester Lady Jane.  Pictures property of Lady Jane also.

Picture the scene, its a sunny Saturday morning in London UK, and there underneath the impressive sight of Marble Arch are 150+ MCR fans, dressed in a variety of home made shirts, black parade gear, band shirts. There are banners, home made signs all with positive messages, chanting and singing.

I arrived at the protest at around 10.30am to already find a good amount of dedicated followers of all ages already singing, holding banners aloft, fighting for the cause. The banner on the wall stated “THIS BAND SAVES LIVES” now, this was what we were really here for.

The ‘gathering’ was very friendly and people seemed in real high spirits, songs were being sang, the mcrmy chants were heard on numerous occassions and ‘free hugs’ were plentiful.

In addition to the dedicated supporters, I believe that there were reporters from Channel 4, bbc television and NME and Kerrang magazine amongst others, so we were getting the press coverage that we hoped for.

What we weren’t expecting was a protest, protesting our protest. A small group of people in masks were situated on the opposite side of the road holding banners which read “MCR..LOL” and “My Chemical Romance encourages teenagers to commit suicide” and even one that read “10pm Suicide watch”

There was one question….why are we all at Marble Arch and not at the Daily Mail offices??? It seems after talking to one of the protest organisers that the ‘march’ to the offices was not going to happen, but the police had previously arranged with the organisers that we were able to go and protest in groups of 30 or so people at a time up till 2pm.

We took it upon ourselves to make our own way there, in the hope of a making a difference in the place where it mattered most, obviously stopping off for a Starbucks on route!

The sight that greeted us at the offices in Northcliffe House, Derry Street looked more like the protest that we expected, we had barriers, police presence and supporters chanting and holding banners aloft…the 70 or so people were in fine voice, and did a medley of MCR songs and even threw a few random tunes in for good luck, I believe that we may have even started taking requests if the opportunity arose.Whilst outside the offices there was no sign of anyone from the Daily Mail coming out to us. The only response that we got was a supply of bottled water for us all from the owners of the building.

We then all returned to the group at Marble Arch where more interviews were taking place with fans and organisers. There were lots of opportunites for group photographs with banners and singing still ever present. We seemed to have gained a few extra supporters in the shape of…wait a minute….the protests from across the street…not only were they now mingling with the 200+ MCR fans but I believe that they were partaking in a ‘conga’ and having a damn good time at that.

The whole day was amazing, people were friendly and really showed what being an MCR fan was all about. There was a sense of togetherness and solidarity that MCR fans are famous for. The whole day seemed to go by with no trouble…and in fact no need for police presence during the Marble Arch protest at all.

It was getting on for 4.30pm and nearing our time to leave, when ‘someone’ decided it would be a good idea to start handing out copies of the Daily Mail. Was this a plan to get a reaction from the fans? Who was it handing them out? we don’t know. A small number of fans did take the bait and starting tearing up the newspapers and even attempted to burn them to the chant of “F*ck the Daily Mail” As I said this was only a minority of overexcited individuals and their actions were brought to a stop by fellow protesters.

The Protest organisers did a good job of getting the protest off the ground, especially considering that they were faced with rumours of mass suicide and a last minute location change. It was noted however that a couple of the organisers seemed more interested in being followed by cameras and being interviewed at every opportunity instead of being on the front line with everyone else ‘fighting’ for the cause.

All in all it was an amazing day that if nothing else showed what fantastic dedicated fans MCR do have. It was a truly friendly, happy atmosphere. Did we achieve anything??? I think we did….we showed people that we are willing to fight for the truth, to fight for what we believe in. I really do not expect the Daily Mail to change their views, but other people just might, the newspaper published this in response to the news of the protest…..

“The Daily Mail’s coverage of the ‘Emo’ movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself.

In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner’s remarks and the parents’ comments. We also published two other articles, one of which explained the background to the Hannah tragedy in calm and un-sensational language.

The other was a first person opinion piece by a well-known writer, written from the perspective of a mother concerned for her children. We have also run two prominent page lead letters from an emo music fan and from a fan of My Chemical Romance defending their point of view.

Our music critic admires the music of the band and publicised the band’s UK tour last year. Since this protest was announced a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the internet, much of which confuses what the Daily Mail has actually published with the comments of website readers and ‘blogs’ over which we have no control and which have stirred up emotions.

We note it has been pointed out by others that all this provides wonderful publicity for Warners and their impending release of My Chemical Romance’s latest album.

The Daily Mail is a broad church and is always ready to listen to the views of readers. We do, however, suggest those who want to protest or comment read everything we have published and act on fact not rumour.”
No matter what…I was proud to call myself an MCR fan on that day…and always will be. The guys knew that the protest was taking place. Everyone there did the guys proud.

I would like to thank the organisers for all their hard work and the police for being so friendly and understanding. My thanks go out to all the fans for making the day so memorable, and for standing up for what they believe in. Most of all my thanks go to MCR, without them or their music…where would we be?

Lets not forget what started all this….the death of a 13 year old girl, a fellow fan, Hannah Bond. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

- Lady Jane

Lady Jane’s Myspace

Credit Mcrime