10 Fascinating Backstories Behind Famous Rock Band's Names

Irvine Welsh is a Scottish author who is perhaps best known for his 1993 novel Trainspotting, which is all about the joys of taking heroin. It got turned into a film in 1996, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor, which became a firm favourite of lovers of edgy cinema.

Outside of the drug-fuelled adventures of Rent Boy, Spud, and the rest, Welsh has written a number of other stories, including one that inspired the name of one of the biggest rock bands of the 21st century.

My Chemical Romance were famously formed when Gerard Way witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks and completely changing his outlook on life. His brother Mikey, who would become the band's bass player, was working in a Barnes & Noble at the time, where he came across one of Welsh's books called Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.

Mikey was surprised that no one had used the phrase "Chemical Romance" in a band name before, so decided he should be the first. The rest of the band agreed, and that was that.

Thank God they didn't call themselves "Three Tales" instead.