Heavy Metal followers aim to hijack UK census
Reported by Cameron Pirie
Published: March 16, 2011. © Rock AAA.
A Facebook group has already attracted almost 35,000 followers in a drive to get “Heavy Metal” recognition as a faith in the upcoming census.
With forms currently being delivered to every house-hold in the UK for the ten yearly census of the population, the page administrators are convinced that they can garner enough support from the countries metal-heads to make a significant impact.
The idea has sprung from the astonishing results of the 2001 census when 390,127 people (0.8% of the population) in the UK filled in their forms stating Jedi as their favoured faith in a grassroots protest against the inclusion of the question about religious beliefs.
The group urges followers to make Heavy Metal a recognised religious faith using quotes from Ozzy Osbourne and a personal endorsement by Saxon frontman Biff Byford:
“Are you a defender of the faith? Do you throw the horns more often than you put your hands together? Then join our campaign to let the UK Census and the whole world know it.
“Rock’n’roll is my religion and my law…”
(You Can’t Kill Rock & Roll, Ozzy Osbourne, 1981)
“In the census of 2001, over 390,000 people stated that their religion was ‘Jedi’ on their census forms, making the fictional Stars Wars creed the fourth-biggest religion in the UK.
“With your help, we want to give metal the recognition it deserves by getting it acknowledged as a religion in the UK!
“Metal was created here so it must be in the gene pool in the UK, I think!” says Biff.
“In the early 80s there was a huge number of great bands and we were all part of the same club, whatever we called ourselves, whether it was heavy rock, rock’n’roll or heavy metal, it made no difference. There was just this huge following of over a million people in the UK and now it’s happening all over again! Getting heavy metal recognised as a religion is a great bit of rebellion, isn’t it? This really is going to be a very cool thing.”
“Pledge your allegiance to the cause by joining our Facebook group!”
You can sign-up as a denizen of noise here – UK census forms are due to be filled in by 27 March
Reported by Cameron Pirie
Published: March 16, 2011. © Rock AAA.
A Facebook group has already attracted almost 35,000 followers in a drive to get “Heavy Metal” recognition as a faith in the upcoming census.
With forms currently being delivered to every house-hold in the UK for the ten yearly census of the population, the page administrators are convinced that they can garner enough support from the countries metal-heads to make a significant impact.
The idea has sprung from the astonishing results of the 2001 census when 390,127 people (0.8% of the population) in the UK filled in their forms stating Jedi as their favoured faith in a grassroots protest against the inclusion of the question about religious beliefs.
The group urges followers to make Heavy Metal a recognised religious faith using quotes from Ozzy Osbourne and a personal endorsement by Saxon frontman Biff Byford:
“Are you a defender of the faith? Do you throw the horns more often than you put your hands together? Then join our campaign to let the UK Census and the whole world know it.
“Rock’n’roll is my religion and my law…”
(You Can’t Kill Rock & Roll, Ozzy Osbourne, 1981)
“In the census of 2001, over 390,000 people stated that their religion was ‘Jedi’ on their census forms, making the fictional Stars Wars creed the fourth-biggest religion in the UK.
“With your help, we want to give metal the recognition it deserves by getting it acknowledged as a religion in the UK!
“Metal was created here so it must be in the gene pool in the UK, I think!” says Biff.
“In the early 80s there was a huge number of great bands and we were all part of the same club, whatever we called ourselves, whether it was heavy rock, rock’n’roll or heavy metal, it made no difference. There was just this huge following of over a million people in the UK and now it’s happening all over again! Getting heavy metal recognised as a religion is a great bit of rebellion, isn’t it? This really is going to be a very cool thing.”
“Pledge your allegiance to the cause by joining our Facebook group!”
You can sign-up as a denizen of noise here – UK census forms are due to be filled in by 27 March
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