Hey, I just want to thank everyone who gave me a reply, it has really really helped me to form ideas. I'd also like to say a huge thankyou for all your encouraging messages, because I have actually been really struggling to write this essay- I didn't really know where to start (the brief is really vague, that doesn't help) and obviously I want to do the band justice, and just as importantly, you guys as fans justice.

I'm planning to do more work on Heavy metal as a genre, because it generally gets as bad a press in academic music journals etc as it does in the mainstream media, perhaps worse, which I've found really annoying, as people who are meant to be a serious authority on popular music shouldn't be so narrow minded- the idea still prevails that it 'isn't real music' and those few who have written about it favourably are very much rooted in the late 80s MTV stuff.

Anyway, big big hugs all round and I'll get back to everyone when I've finished it- but now I have to go start packing for going back to Uni.  xx