Who is Spinal Tap?
If you need to be told what This Is Spinal Tap is, you're on the wrong website - head over to Coldplay's site or something. If you know what it is but need to be told to see it... you're now barred from visiting RockRadio.co.uk.
It's twenty-five years since Christopher Guest became Nigel Tufnel, Michael McKean became David St Hubbins and Harry Shearer became Derek Smalls, and the improv movie set around the collapse and possibly recovery of a British rock band was made.
Rob Reiner played Marty DiBergi, the director who followed Tap round the world and, like many rockumentary makers of the day, couldn't help trying to make his subjects out to be saints, seers and legends - even though it was clear to see they were anything but.
They took their influences from the world of rock self-indulgence around them, and over the years life has imitated art to the extent that almost everyone will admit to having had a Spinal Tap moment during their career. But here's how it started...
The names: Nigel Tufnel was created from a joke about Eric Clapton's name - take a dull British forename and add a part of London to it. David St Hubbins is named after Ted Nugent's singer David St Holmes (he says).
The people: St Hubbins' overbearing control-freak girlfriend Jeanine is modelled on the public perception of Beatles' wives Yoko Ono and Linda McCartney. The permanently-temporary drummer problem reflects Judas Priest's problem with keeping a skinbasher for any length of time in the 70s.
The moments: Tufnel playing guitar with his feet harks at Jimi Hendrix's teeth trick, while playing guitar with a violin refers to Jimmy Page playing using a violin bow. The band getting lost backstage at an arena laughs at what actually happened to Ozzy Osbourne and Eddie Van Halen, amongst others.
The looks: The band's psychedelic and pop eras are based on the real-life phases many British bands experienced. The band calling themselves the New Originals touches on Led Zepellin's early title, the New Yardbirds. Small's facial hair resembles the great Lemmy while his playing style mimics Saxon bassist Steve Dawson.
Perception is reality: Early versions of the movie had to carry a caption explaining Tap were not a real band. Despite this, Reiner says many viewers told him he should have picked a more famous act to follow.
But how they didn't dance: The famous Stonehenge scene, where the band expect and 18-foot replica to descend onto the stage, but an 18-inch one does instead, is thought to take the mickey out of Black Sabbath, who had a replica set designed in feet but built in meters, so it wouldn't fit in any venue. The story is great, but unlikely - the Spinal Tap scene was originally shot in 1982, while Sabbath didn't build their set until the following year.
Spinal Tap comeback - it's official!
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1 comments
the bear
15/03/09 at 11:12
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