by ANDREW LEVY
Last updated at 08:45 09 May 2008
A girl of 13 killed herself after becoming obsessed with a fashion which links death with glamour, an inquest heard.
Hannah Bond hanged herself from her bunk bed with a tie after becoming an "Emo".
Emo fans wear dark clothes, practise self-harm and listen to "suicide cult" rock bands.
'Everything to live for': school student Hannah Bond hanged herself not long after showing her father the cuts on her wrists as part of her 'emo initiation'
Two weeks before her death, she started following U.S. band My Chemical Romance.
One of their songs contains the lyrics: "Although you're dead and gone, believe me your memory will go on."
Hannah, described as a model pupil, had started cutting her wrists but told her father it was part of an initiation into the Emo fashion.
Heartbroken: Ray and Heather Bond told the court their daughter had told them emo was 'just a fashion'
Coroner Roger Sykes said yesterday that Hannah's death was "not glamorous, just simply a tragic loss of a young life".
Hannah's mother Heather told the inquest she had researched the trend since her daughter's death.
"There are websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves," she said.
"She called Emo a fashion and I thought it was normal."
She added: "Hannah was a normal girl. She had loads of friends. She could be a bit moody but I thought it was just because she was a teenager."
Hannah's father Ray, a karate teacher, said: "Two weeks before, I saw the cuts. I asked her about them and she said it was an Emo initiation.
"She promised me she would never do it again."
Hannah gave her name as Living Disaster on her page on social networking website Bebo.
The page is decorated with a picture of an Emo girl with bloody wrists after slashing herself.
Another picture shows a child's exercise book scrawled with the words: "Dear Diary, today I give up. . ."
The inquest in Maidstone, Kent, heard Hannah had been with her boyfriend at a friend's house on the evening of September 22 last year.
She had been angry when she was told she was not allowed to sleep over and when she got home in East Peckham she went straight to her room, saying: "I want to kill myself."
The inquest was told Hannah had not used drugs or alcohol before her death but Vanessa Everett, her head teacher at Mascalls School, said self-harm had become commonplace among other Emo fans.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Sykes said: "The Emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
The Emo phenomenon began in the U.S. in the 1980s. It is a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide.
Followers wear tight jeans with studded belts and wristbands. Their hair is dyed black and worn in long fringes to obscure their faces.
Emo - from the word emotional - is a reference to the angst-filled lyrics and melancholy themes of the rock music central to the culture.
One of the foremost of these "suicide cult" bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey.
Their first single, Welcome to the Black Parade, from the album The Black Parade, was released in 2006 and became a huge hit, going to number one in Britain.
The concept album follows the story of a character called The Patient, who dies of cancer.
The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die.
[ako lang nag-italicize nyan for emphasis]
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grabe. pakabasa ko nito gusto kong magmura. parang kumukulo yung dugo ko. tanga! tanga talaga yung nagsulat nito. di man lang xa nagresearch. bobo. bwiset. grrrrr. ayoko na. nasira na araw ko.
gago talaga nagsulat nyan.
para patunayan kong mali yung sinasabi niya. please pakinggan niyo ito.
Gerard Way: Anti-Violence Speech (0:25 - 1:40)
tapos mali pa yung lyrics na nilagay nung author, dapat "your memory will carry on.."
gago talaga. hindi journalism ang tawag dito. dapat kung journalist ka, pinapakita mo yung both sides of the story.. at sa news hindi pwede ang opinions, facts dapat. buti sana kung editorial ito.. baka irespeto ko pa yung mga opinyon nya kung mapatunayan niyang "My Chemical Romance glamourized suicide"..
first, music is not to blame. i don't think a mere song could push someone to kill herself. i feel really sorry for this girl, but maybe she had some other issues that pushed her to kill herself.
there were some funny comments to this article like
Time to blame My Chemical Romance instead of Marilyn Manson now?
- Beth, South West, 8/5/2008 0:54
Seems that none of My Chemical Romance have committed suicide.
- Carrie, Italy, 8/5/2008 4:43
Parents LOOK AFTER your babies.
- Jimpy, Lincs, 8/5/2008 1:14
i feel bad because i'm a fan (that is different from "i feel bad that i'm a fan").. i don't want this notion about us. we don't support MCR by hurting ourselves. suicide is the exact opposite of what the band is trying to say. ever since "revenge" (2nd album), the band, especially the frontman Gerard Way has always been AGAINST these "emo acts". Gerard went through this struggle himself. he was an alcoholic, a suicidal.. he was wasted. he felt that he had to drink to be in the band.. he had to immerse himself in pills and booze to go on that stage and play for a band ironically called my "chemical" romance. during the times when he saw death as an escape route, he called someone to talk him through it. after that, he got clean and sober.. and never played drunk again just like he always did. as he said in an interview.. "i'll never touch a drink again.. the moment i do, i'll lose everything i've got." their album "The Black Parade" is an album celebrating life... with lyrics like "i am not afraid to keep on living.." and "go and try, you'll never break me".
the band members' claim was that being in the band saved their lives... for gerard way, it had saved him twice. first, from the depression he felt after 9/11. it was the first time he said "fuck art! i am drawing fro companies and not helping anyone..". he was working in new york and saw planes crash to the towers.. and the falling bodies. he didn't know anyone in the building, but he felt this empathy for the people who have lost. he was about to pitch a series called "The Breakfast Monkey" to Cartoon Network... he had talks with the executives etc... but it was this empathy that made him quit doing art. he wrote "skylines and turnstiles" as an expression of what he felt after the 9/11 tragedy.. and called up people he haven't seen in years namely ray toro (lead guitarist) and matt pellisier (former drummer).. he started a band.. later named by his brother mikey way (bassist) as my chemical romance.. and the rest, as they say, is history. the second time it saved him was when he was really depressed .. and he needed something to live for. revenge was out for only a few weeks when gerard hit rock bottom. as i have written, he was into pills and booze.. but the worst was coccaine. the band became his reason for living.
why all this storytelling? well, that is to say that MCR's goal is to save lives. personally, i can't say that MCR saved my life.. i haven't really been in a state where i needed to be saved.. but they have inspired me a lot. evident in this entry, huh?
how can a band with such message be called a "suicide cult"?
i spent all morning writing this entry, researching, and chatting with my co-MCR fans about this article.
MCRmy in London plus members of the MCR Buzznet community planned a march to protest against the depiction of the band in this ridiculous article. the march, set to begin at Hyde Park's West Pond in central London, takes place on the afternoon of may 31. they are expecting about a thousand people to join. the fans are doing all giving all their efforts to make the march successful.. quoting one of them:
"It annoys me the amount of people on here who are taking the time to say that MCR are a crap band - this isn't actually about MCR, it's about the Daily Mail using a band as a scapegoat so they can sell some newspapers and scare parents all over the country. I read the articles, and they were ridiculous. At one point the mother admits that her daughter actually said to her 'I feel like killing myself' and her reply was 'don't be so silly, we'll talk about it tomorrow' - hours later the girl was dead! She cut herself and her father accepted that it was a fashion statement! MCR didn't kill this girl, she was crying out to her parents for help and they didn't pay attention. I think a lot of people should join this march, not just MCR fans, but anyone who wants the truth about issues such as youth suicide reported in a responsible manner by the media."
we (fans) are very anxious to speak out.
my chemical romance also gave a statement about the article.
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sabi ko naman sa homepage ko, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. kaya kung ayaw niyo sa MCR.. o kung naririndi na kayo sa mga kaadikan ko sa kanila.. then you better leave. :D
