I went to Reading Festival on Friday. I went for two main reasons…

1. My daughter wanted to see 30 Seconds to Mars and I knew they may not be touring for a long time after Reading/Leeds.

2. My Chemical Romance were headlining.

It was wet, muddy and mainly boring until The Offspring came on. I enjoyed The Blackout (saw them supporting MCR in Feb) but the rest of the bands on the mainstage were not my cup of tea at all. I don’t think any of them ‘sang’; BMTH screeched and shouted, Deftones were good musically but the singer droned. I felt quite dreary by the end of their set.

By this time we were leaning against the middle barrier and level with the left hand video screen so not a bad position. We were very glad to lean – older people don’t like to stand for so long :-)

The Offspring were as I expected, professional, tight and I enjoyed their songs although there were a couple I wished they’d played. Then it was a case of waiting for 30 Seconds to Mars. We watched their stage getting set up with the huge Triad and enjoyed the (censored) video of Hurricane on the screen. Unfortunately our view of the stage started to get obscured by tall people standing right in front of us as the area filled up.

Concerts and festivals should have everyone in order of height so us shorties can get to see the stage :-)

I ended up giving my teen daughter (who is actually the same height as me) a piggy-back for some songs so she could see. I hadn’t quite realised how big a fan she was until I heard her sing along more or less word perfect with every song they played. Personally I was glad to have seen them and did enjoy myself but I felt it was more Jared Leto and his backing group than a cohesive band.

Then it was the time we’d been counting down for all day – 10pm.

Daughter dragged me down nearer the front so we could at least have an unobscured view of the video screen, although if we jumped up we could see the stage. I was so glad she did. The atmosphere in the crowd was great, everyone around us were singing along, jumping up and down or waving their hands in the air. The band came on with Na Na Na and that was it.

I have always been a rock fan. I spent my teenage years listening to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Van Halen and so on. I went to concerts at places like Manchester Apollo and even conned my mum into letting me go on the coach to Monsters Of Rock at Donnington a few times. Of all the bands it was Judas Priest who I loved the most. I always maintained that thier Screaming for Vengeance gig at Manchester Apollo was the best one I ever went to, with Queensryche’s Mindcrime tour being a very close second. I had the Priest t-shirts, every album (including the really early ones) and posters on my wall. No other band has captured my ears & heart quite like them.

Until My Chemical Romance.

My first recollection of them is I’m Not Okay on Kerrang TV. I bought the first ever issue of Kerrang all those years ago and was made up to find out there was a music channel on Sky. I loved the song & video, I can’t recall whether I bought The Black Parade first but I had that and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on my mp3 player for a while. At this point I just enjoyed their music.

It was at some point during early 2010 that I really began listening to the lyrics and discovering just who they were as people. I got hold of Bullets and Life on the Murder Scene and realised how much I really loved this band. I was gutted to miss their small tour in October and eagerly anticipated the release of Danger Days. I was in Asda first thing on release day and texted my poor daughter at school to tell her how great the album was.

I loved the messages behind their songs. I now listen to some other bands’ lyrics and find them mundane because I used to the intricacies of MCR words. As soon as I found out they were touring again in 2011 I told daughter I would be taking her to her very first concert. It was my first ‘rock’ concert for years (Bryan Adams and Robert Plant don’t really count) and the vibe was just how I remembered it from my teen years.

From there on I was hooked completely. I am not ashamed to admit I fangirl a little over them. I admire them for overcoming their problems, I applaud them for daring to be different, I love them for telling us all messages of hope and encouragement.

I never thought that, at my age, I would be such a fan of a band like I was as a teenager. But this group of men have given me back something of my younger years. The excitement of gigs, the emotions of great lyrics resounding through me (yeah Priest weren’t exactly renowned for deep lyrics) and the feeling of wonderful music making me tap my feet or, even in the middle of Sainsbury’s, dance!

I was breathless during Friday’s gig and not because of my asthma. The adrenaline, the emotion – I cried during Kids From Yesterday – everything affected me on so many levels. If I had the money and the energy I would have tried to blag tickets to Leeds Saturday night.

I am sad knowing that it’s probably going to be a year at least before they tour again but excited that at some point next year there will be a new album. In the meantime they play constantly over the stereo while I am in my office working and I have my memories to play over and over in my head.

Thank you My Chemical Romance for helping me rediscover my total love of music.