John Tanner attempted to commit suicide after listening to BLACK SABBATH. Jim Hardy battered a school friend to death during a Satanic ritual, using the music of his favourite heavy metal bands as inspiration. Sixteen year old Michael Waller killed himself because he though Ozzy Osbourne’s Suicide Solution was the answer to his problems and in a recent trial the band Judas Priest and CBS Records were accused of causing the death of two teenagers as a result of hidden messages on their album Stained Class.  Were they pushed over the edge by the music or were there more important factors at work?

Ever since Elvis Presley first shook his hips, Christian Fundamentalists have denounced rock ‘n’ roll as the devil’s music, but today the accusations levelled at rock go further. Powerful Christian and secular organisations and claiming that rock music in general, and heavy metal in particular, is an evil force pushing the youth of America into suicide, sexual violence, drug abuse and Satanism. Even John Denver has been accused of promoting drug abuse in his lyrics. And people are listening.

Presented by music journalist Steven Wells, Dancing With The Devil examines those claims and looks at their implications. WELLS talks to the musicians, the lawyers, the kids, the record companies and the campaigners and asks: is rock music a 90’s major public health hazard?

Recommended by Time Out magazine as 'compulsive viewing'.
Winner of Prix de la Critique & Mention D'Honneur, Jury International des Journalistes Critics Prize, Prix Danube.