Head-banging can give you cricked neck

Warning: Head-banging to Metallica, Motorhead or Megadeth could be hazardous to your health.

So concludes the first-ever study, published yesterday, of the fin-de-siecle dance style in which afficionados of heavy metal jerk their heads up and down to a fast and furious beat.

Declan Patton and Andrew McIntosh at Australia's School for Risk and Safety Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, attended hard rock and heavy metal concerts to observe head-banging techniques.