Arron James Smith has been working around bands and artists of huge proportions as a stage manager for more than half his life, but nothing has been more special to him than his time working with none other than My Chemical Romance on the iconic Black Parade tour. “[it] was one of the highlights of my career.”
The lights are dim. The arena would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the illuminations of thousands of flip-up phone screens. The chants and screams are deafening, but not loud enough to hear the steady beeps of a heart rate monitor echoing through the speakers. A gurney is rolled out onto the stage; the screams grow louder upon the first glimpse of a pale Gerard Way peeking his head out of the blankets. He rises, tears off his hospital gown to reveal the classic black parade attire. The curtain behind him drops, and just as The End. reaches its musical climax, the rest of My Chemical Romance appears behind him. You know exactly what we’re on about here, don’t you? That’s right; it’s the iconic, the ground-breaking, the genre-defining The Black Parade World Tour. It’s hard to imagine this spectacle happened 13 long years ago, and even though their enormous performance in Mexico was released on DVD for fans to endlessly relive, it was an era we will never get back. But we can still remember.
Arron James Smith was never particularly a big fan of My Chemical Romance. Not until he went on tour with them, anyway. Emerging from a background of stage managing and sound engineering, Smith is used to working closely with big artists. Of all of them, Mark Ronson was his all-time favourite.
“A complete professional and one on the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure to ever meet. I have been lucky enough to tour with some great artists over my career such as Tracy Chapman, Manic Street Preachers, Morrissey and Underworld. While some have been amazing and some not so much, Mark [Ronson] takes the price as the best.”
Smith has been in this line of work for over 20 years now. He started in the industry as a kid, but got his real job in 2000. It was the British electronica band Kosheen, he remembers, as a system technician around the UK and Europe. He moved on to production and stage managing in 2009 when he went on tour with Calvin Harris. Upon first getting the special request of working as My Chemical Romance’s huge world tour, Smith did not hesitate for a second. The tour was going to last for 15 whole months and stretched over five different continents. It was going to be hard, hard work, he was told, but Smith doesn’t scare easily. He accepted with a smile. The Black Parade World tour remains as the biggest and longest tour My Chemical Romance ever did. Three legs in North America, one in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America, and a total of 147 shows, including festivals and condensed shows. A tour of this proportion certainly left its mark on the band. Former drummer Bob Bryar had to leave the tour for an extended period because of a persistent wrist pain that left him unable to perform. After marrying his partner Alicia, bassist Mikey Way also had to leave for a short while. Guitarist Frank Iero found out that a family member had succumbed to an illness, and had to take a short hiatus from the tour as well. Filling in for both of them were Matt Cortez, a close friend of the band, sometimes considered as “the sixth member”.
“The Black Parade Tour was one of the highlights of my career, the production was excellent.” he says.
Arron especially enamoured by the fact that The Black Parade was treated as a separate band to My Chemical Romance.
“So the running order used to be doors at 6:30, Thursday would come on at 7:00, The Black Parade at 9:00, and finally, MCR at 10:00.”
Smith has a persistent smile on his lips as he reminisces of the golden days of emo. He remembers a special anecdote as he talks about one of his first encounters with the band, and as a young British man, finding the ways of Americans sometimes slightly perplexing.
“I remember when I first started on the tour, and at that point I hadn't really toured with any young American bands, the band came up to me and asked me if I wanted anything from the ‘American embassy’. I was like ‘nah I’m all good’. Like, why would I need anything from the American embassy? I was very confused until about 30 minutes later when I see them wander in with a McDonalds in hand. I then realised that the American embassy was actually McDonalds. I did not make that mistake again and didn't miss a burger again!”
“Another time we had a short time to get between two festivals so took a private flight into Luton. This wasn’t something us and the band normally did, so no one could resist taking the piss out of the Backstreet Boys video of them in front of a private jet. There was a lot of arms being held out and spinning on the spot.” Smith laughs. “They were some real funny lads, those guys.”
The Black Parade Tour truly was a special time. Back then, My Chemical Romance were very much the leaders of the scene and remains as the main inspirations for thousands upon thousands of fans. On Halloween eve in 2019, thousands upon thousands of fans dreams came true when My Chemical Romance announced they were reuniting. It caused a viral pandemonium – 7 long years after their devastating break-up announcement, the emo legends are finally making their triumphant return. The band announced concert dates in Cornwall for The Eden Project, as well as three completely sold out shows at the Milton Keys Arena, but the world had other plans. A curveball was certainly thrown when the spread of COVID-19 has caused them to take drastic precautions and postponed the shows to a year from now. It’s typical the one year they decided to come back the world decided to disrespectfully decline, but one thing is for certain; we have waited 7 years – we can wait one more.
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