Bill Tuckey from Independent.co.uk is reporting:

Standing in the palm court of a large central London hotel, to the accompaniment of a lightly plinking piano, Biff Byford, lead singer of 1980s heavy metal behemoths SAXON, is preaching to convert the non- ferrous among us to his cause. "Heavy metal is a tribal music and everyone is a member of the tribe," he explains. "The audience is very, very loyal… especially the Germans. It's not like pop music, where if the next song isn't good enough then forget about it; with our music, people will allow you to be shit sometimes, and that's one of the great things."

A wistful look passes across the features of a man memorably described by one critic as "the dray horse of heavy metal". "The music's not about love," he adds, warming to his theme. "Our songs are more about Richard the Lionheart, steel trains and thunder. But when you do click with a big audience, it can be quite an experience, a massive connection… I suppose you could say it is a religious experience in a way."

For a former miner from Skelmanthorpe, Yorkshire, who started his musical career touring in a tripe van, it's a surprisingly wide-eyed admission. But an apt one, too, considering his latest job.

For Biff Byford now glories in the title of Official World Metal Peace Ambassador; he's the face of a campaign to persuade fans to claim heavy metal as their religion in the 2011 Census. So far, 28,000 have signed up to the Facebook site, and the organisers ' hope that many more will follow – creating the kind of hoo-ha that followed when 390,000 Star Wars fans declared their religion to be Jedi in 2001.

Read more here.