Gerard Way will make his live debut as a solo artist at this year's
Reading and Leeds festivals, following My Chemical Romance's split last
year.
Word of Way's first concerts follows the announcement that
he is preparing his first solo album. Earlier this month, he revealed he
has signed to Warner Bros Records for a full-length that is "near
completion".
"You should expect to hear things in the near future." he said. "I am excited. It's starting again."
A snippet of a song has since appeared on
Way's official website,
full of distortion, shrieking electric guitars and ferocious drums. It
climbs to a cacophonous climax, with vocals hidden in a mash of noise
My
Chemical Romance never formally explained their split, stating on their
blog, "Like all great things, it has come time for it to end." In a
massive, 2,200-word post on Twitlonger, Way insisted "there was no
divorce, argument, failure, accident, villain, or knife in the back".
But he recalled a New Jersey concert in 2012, where he found himself
"acting" on stage. "I never act onstage, even when it appears that I am,
even when I’m hamming it up or delivering a soliloquy," he wrote.
"[But] suddenly, I have become highly self-aware, almost as if waking
from a dream"
Since My Chemical Romance's five members went their separate ways, Way
has stayed busy making comics and even directing an episode of the
cartoon The Aquabats! Super Show! "I am continuing full-steam into
comics [and] art," he wrote on his blog. But it's interesting that he
has chosen to make his live return at Reading/Leeds – a site of both
triumph and failure. While My Chemical Romance headlined there in 2011
(with help from special guest Brian May), they were bottled off stage at
their first appearance in 2006.
On Wednesday, Reading and Leeds also announced more than 50 other
artists for this year's festivals, which take place 22-24 August. These
include We Are Scientists, the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Sigma,
Schoolboy Q and Dominique Young Unique
source
