Sequel: My Teenage Romance ›
Status: Completed
Rock Star Father
Goodbye... Again!
After another lengthy, weird, amusing and enjoyable conversation they reached Carling Apollo Manchester. They filed out of the bus, (Gerard, Ray, Roxanne, Melissa, Carrie, Bob, Patrick, Mikey, Ruth, Matt, Celeste and finally Frank) and walked into the changing room they had been allotted. They threw their clothes and make-up down and trudged (or in Ruth, Celeste and Frank’s case, merrily jogged) back to the bus to transport guitar and bass guitar amplifiers and bits of Bob’s drum kit (complete with thousands of drumsticks!) from the bus to the stage. There they stayed for a sound check and rehearsal and the girls were amazed. It still remained “isn’t really my type of thing” for Melissa, and Roxanne was still not an immense fan of it, but Carrie liked them a bit more, after hearing a song properly and Ruth, Celeste (who were both obsessive fans already) and (the not-quite-obsessive) Patrick were completely blown away. They cheered after each song and had to restrain themselves from singing along so that the equipment, especially the microphones could be checked properly.
When the rehearsal was finished the ten of them made their way back to the changing room. Gerard strode into the tiny section that was cornered off and came out wearing his trademark skin-tight black trousers; black shirt and fake bullet-proof vest, and proceeded to bedaub himself with red eyeliner.
Next trudged Ray, who came out in a red shirt, black trousers and black fake bullet-proof vest exactly like Gerard’s.
Mikey was already wearing his ‘costume’, as was Frank, (a white shirt, black trousers, his trademark pale-pink studded belt and a plain red tie) who moved towards the mirror to draw on black eyeliner ‘X’s from his eyes to halfway down his cheeks. Extraordinarily, he managed to do so without poking himself in the eye, something Celeste marvelled at.
As Bob was also already dressed, Melissa went behind the corner, pulled the red curtain shut and walked out in a bright blue top with pink and red flowers on a green vine, black tasselled boots and a black suede tasselled skirt and put on lots of mascara, pink lip gloss and a tiny amount of blue eyeliner. Carrie changed into a bizarre 60s-ish blue plastic-y sparkly sleeveless top, matching trousers and a pair of simple black shoes, an outfit that Celeste thought was “the funkiest thing since ‘That ‘70s Show!’”.
Ruth strode in and appeared again in a darkish red strapped-sleeved top with blood red arcs embellishing it, black three-quarter-length trousers tucked into long black boots with silver studs on them, red-and-black striped wristbands and a small black pendant, and then began putting on heavy blood red eyeliner.
Finally Celeste walked (in and) out in a plain black corset top, black-and-white pinstriped trousers and black net sleeves, and squeezed in between Ruth and Frank to load her eyes with black and red eyeliner. She asked to borrow Mikey’s hair straighteners and was granted; she also borrowed a blue, red and dirty cream tie from Frank, who threw it at her. It hit her head rather than her catching it as she couldn’t be bothered to catch it. (Patrick did not change but proceeded to draw ‘tattoos’ on his arms with eyeliner.)
The next few minutes were spent in laid-back conversation and commenting on each other’s clothes.
“Okay, I’m gonna go get some beer and go get stoned, so see ya at the show!” Gerard muttered to the group.
Eventually the call came into the dressing room via a speaker in the ceiling: “My Chemical Romance- you’re on in five minutes.” And they jumped out of the dressing room and through the corridor; the band first, then Bob, who was beckoning to the other five to follow them. Running on stage and taking their places as the curtain flew up, they were greeted by cheering.
“HELLO MANCHESTER!!!!!” Gerard yelled into the microphone as whilst hidden from the crowd, Celeste scanned the crowd to see if she knew anyone. Thankfully, no-one was familiar.
Gerard introduced the opening song, ‘Headfirst For Halos’, during which Ruth and Celeste were doing a dance they had choreographed together consisting of claps, jumps, pretending to fly during the chorus, 70s disco dancing and a lot of randomness!
Next came a speech from Gerard about “those idiots in the media” which by saying how they are really popular yet not fakes led onto the announcement of the upcoming tour with Green Day and then introduced ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ where everyone in the mellower parts were just mingling round the stage (or in the case of the five girls and Patrick, swaying gently) but jumping up and rocking out during the faster, more hard rock parts!
‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ came next; Frank completely abandoned his backing vocalist and rhythm guitarist duties and stage-dived partway through! This made the song go more like:
“What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems?
I've told you time and time again you sing the words but don't know what it means
To be a joke and look, another line without a hook
I held you close as we both shook for the last time.”
Jumping back onto the stage just before the speaking parts in that song had arrived Frank grinned at Ruth and Celeste who rolled their eyes back at him. He put his guitar back on, ready to get back to work and was just in time for his cue to knock over his microphone stand repeatedly, annoying the roadie immeasurably!
‘Cemetery Drive’ was a very emotional song, Ruth looked extremely moved and Celeste was almost in tears by the end of it. Carrie asked what was wrong then started teasing her, but stopped when Celeste threatened to make her crowd-surf by pushing her into the mosh-pit.
This was followed by ‘Our Lady Of Sorrows’ where even Melissa found her inner rock goddess! (Unfortunately she then smothered her with a fluffy pillow.) Ruth and Celeste sang along the entire time whilst Roxanne and Carrie jumped up and down during the verses!
Carrying on with this type of song was ‘Bury Me In Black’ where everyone was truly rocking out with jumping up and swift head movements.
They ended the show with a somewhat mellower tune, ‘Desert Song’, before which Celeste (hidden from view) demanded (through Ray) that the crowd swayed properly with their lighters and mobile phones in the air.
“We hold in our hearts the sword and the faith
Swelled up from the rain, clouds move like a wraith
Well after all, we'll lie another day
And through it all, we'll find some other way
To carry on through cartilage and fluid
And did you come to stare or wash away the blood?”
This was another emotional song and Ruth and Patrick sang along, Roxanne, Carrie and Melissa joined in with the line “morgue, morgue, morgue, morgue!” but did not know any more of it. Celeste joined in with most parts, but got so emotional during some bits that she choked on tears of amazedness and admiration that she had to abort.
At the end of the gig they progressed back to the dressing room then out to the front entrance where Roxanne, Carrie, Melissa, Patrick and Ruth were collected by their parents and said their final goodbye to Celeste. It was a tearful event for all, full of promises to keep in touch via phone calls, texts, emails and letters. When all five of them had left Celeste walked slowly towards and into the huge tour bus where the band had returned from packing up equipment and instruments and were hanging round various parts of the bus.
When the rehearsal was finished the ten of them made their way back to the changing room. Gerard strode into the tiny section that was cornered off and came out wearing his trademark skin-tight black trousers; black shirt and fake bullet-proof vest, and proceeded to bedaub himself with red eyeliner.
Next trudged Ray, who came out in a red shirt, black trousers and black fake bullet-proof vest exactly like Gerard’s.
Mikey was already wearing his ‘costume’, as was Frank, (a white shirt, black trousers, his trademark pale-pink studded belt and a plain red tie) who moved towards the mirror to draw on black eyeliner ‘X’s from his eyes to halfway down his cheeks. Extraordinarily, he managed to do so without poking himself in the eye, something Celeste marvelled at.
As Bob was also already dressed, Melissa went behind the corner, pulled the red curtain shut and walked out in a bright blue top with pink and red flowers on a green vine, black tasselled boots and a black suede tasselled skirt and put on lots of mascara, pink lip gloss and a tiny amount of blue eyeliner. Carrie changed into a bizarre 60s-ish blue plastic-y sparkly sleeveless top, matching trousers and a pair of simple black shoes, an outfit that Celeste thought was “the funkiest thing since ‘That ‘70s Show!’”.
Ruth strode in and appeared again in a darkish red strapped-sleeved top with blood red arcs embellishing it, black three-quarter-length trousers tucked into long black boots with silver studs on them, red-and-black striped wristbands and a small black pendant, and then began putting on heavy blood red eyeliner.
Finally Celeste walked (in and) out in a plain black corset top, black-and-white pinstriped trousers and black net sleeves, and squeezed in between Ruth and Frank to load her eyes with black and red eyeliner. She asked to borrow Mikey’s hair straighteners and was granted; she also borrowed a blue, red and dirty cream tie from Frank, who threw it at her. It hit her head rather than her catching it as she couldn’t be bothered to catch it. (Patrick did not change but proceeded to draw ‘tattoos’ on his arms with eyeliner.)
The next few minutes were spent in laid-back conversation and commenting on each other’s clothes.
“Okay, I’m gonna go get some beer and go get stoned, so see ya at the show!” Gerard muttered to the group.
Eventually the call came into the dressing room via a speaker in the ceiling: “My Chemical Romance- you’re on in five minutes.” And they jumped out of the dressing room and through the corridor; the band first, then Bob, who was beckoning to the other five to follow them. Running on stage and taking their places as the curtain flew up, they were greeted by cheering.
“HELLO MANCHESTER!!!!!” Gerard yelled into the microphone as whilst hidden from the crowd, Celeste scanned the crowd to see if she knew anyone. Thankfully, no-one was familiar.
Gerard introduced the opening song, ‘Headfirst For Halos’, during which Ruth and Celeste were doing a dance they had choreographed together consisting of claps, jumps, pretending to fly during the chorus, 70s disco dancing and a lot of randomness!
Next came a speech from Gerard about “those idiots in the media” which by saying how they are really popular yet not fakes led onto the announcement of the upcoming tour with Green Day and then introduced ‘Vampires Will Never Hurt You’ where everyone in the mellower parts were just mingling round the stage (or in the case of the five girls and Patrick, swaying gently) but jumping up and rocking out during the faster, more hard rock parts!
‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ came next; Frank completely abandoned his backing vocalist and rhythm guitarist duties and stage-dived partway through! This made the song go more like:
“What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems?
I've told you time and time again you sing the words but don't know what it means
To be a joke and look, another line without a hook
I held you close as we both shook for the last time.”
Jumping back onto the stage just before the speaking parts in that song had arrived Frank grinned at Ruth and Celeste who rolled their eyes back at him. He put his guitar back on, ready to get back to work and was just in time for his cue to knock over his microphone stand repeatedly, annoying the roadie immeasurably!
‘Cemetery Drive’ was a very emotional song, Ruth looked extremely moved and Celeste was almost in tears by the end of it. Carrie asked what was wrong then started teasing her, but stopped when Celeste threatened to make her crowd-surf by pushing her into the mosh-pit.
This was followed by ‘Our Lady Of Sorrows’ where even Melissa found her inner rock goddess! (Unfortunately she then smothered her with a fluffy pillow.) Ruth and Celeste sang along the entire time whilst Roxanne and Carrie jumped up and down during the verses!
Carrying on with this type of song was ‘Bury Me In Black’ where everyone was truly rocking out with jumping up and swift head movements.
They ended the show with a somewhat mellower tune, ‘Desert Song’, before which Celeste (hidden from view) demanded (through Ray) that the crowd swayed properly with their lighters and mobile phones in the air.
“We hold in our hearts the sword and the faith
Swelled up from the rain, clouds move like a wraith
Well after all, we'll lie another day
And through it all, we'll find some other way
To carry on through cartilage and fluid
And did you come to stare or wash away the blood?”
This was another emotional song and Ruth and Patrick sang along, Roxanne, Carrie and Melissa joined in with the line “morgue, morgue, morgue, morgue!” but did not know any more of it. Celeste joined in with most parts, but got so emotional during some bits that she choked on tears of amazedness and admiration that she had to abort.
At the end of the gig they progressed back to the dressing room then out to the front entrance where Roxanne, Carrie, Melissa, Patrick and Ruth were collected by their parents and said their final goodbye to Celeste. It was a tearful event for all, full of promises to keep in touch via phone calls, texts, emails and letters. When all five of them had left Celeste walked slowly towards and into the huge tour bus where the band had returned from packing up equipment and instruments and were hanging round various parts of the bus.