News Digest

An ace idea: Motorhead fans want heavy metal element named after Lemmy

Motorhead fans are calling for a newly discovered heavy metal to be named after the band’s frontman Lemmy. Thousands have signed a petition urging the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry to recommend “one of the four new discovered Heavy Metals in the Periodic table is named Lemmium”. Fan John Wright, who began the campaign, said it was fitting because Lemmy was a “force of nature and the very essence of heavy metal”.

He was one of the reasons I started playing music and I think it’s a great idea!

Fan Trevor Chmilowsky, of Winnipeg, Canada

The wild-living rocker, whose real name is Ian Kilmister, died on 28 December at the age of 70 - two days after being diagnosed with an “extremely aggressive cancer”. So far, the change.org petition to remember him has gathered more than 22,000 signatures. "It ensures that Lemmy’s legacy lives on for ever,“ said one supporter, Reinhardt Mymhardt, from Pretoria, South Africa. However, some have pointed out that Lemmy himself may not have liked the idea. DH, from London, pointed to the rocker’s comments from 2010 when he said: "We were not heavy metal, we were a rock'n'roll band. Still are.”