Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap is a mostly fictitious heavy metal band, the subject of the 1984 rockumentary/mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. The film was accompanied by a soundtrack album of the same name. In the years since the film was made the actors who portrayed the band members have played concerts and released music under the Spinal Tap name, blurring the line between parody and reality.

The band members are portrayed by Michael McKean (as lead singer David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (as guitarist Nigel Tufnel), and Harry Shearer (as bassist Derek Smalls). They first appeared in a 1978 ABC comedy special, The TV Show. The same trio of actors would be reunited as the American folk music revival band The Folksmen in the 2003 mockumentary A Mighty Wind.

Background

Fans of Spinal Tap have assembled the "mostly fictional" details about the band based on the film, albums, concerts and related promotional material. This includes a list of the band's former members and a discography.

Spinal Tap has had a succession of drummers, all of whom they claim have died under odd circumstances: one in a "bizarre gardening accident"; another "choked on vomit," (although it was never determined whose vomit it was, as "you can't really dust for vomit"), and a third from apparent spontaneous human combustion onstage, leaving a small green "globule" on his drum throne.

Reunited

Spinal Tap "reunited" in 1992 for Break Like the Wind, an album produced in part by T-Bone Burnett, an accomplished musician and record producer. The album was accompanied by a promotional audition for a new drummer attended by Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction, Gina Schock of The Go-Go's, and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac, who auditioned in a fireproof suit. A promotional concert tour followed, which included an appearance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, where they performed "The Majesty Of Rock", a song they dedicated to Mercury and released as a single. The band also released the single "Bitch School."

On July 1, 1992, Tap crossed 5 time zones for three performances in St. John's, Newfoundland, Barrie, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia for Much Music and Molson's Great Canadian Party. For each performance of "Stonehenge", the miniature monument prop was delivered on stage in a courier envelope.

In 2000 the band launched a web site named "Tapster" where their song "Back from the Dead" was made available for download. Tapster was a parody of Napster, a peer-to-peer file sharing network. [1] [2]

In 2001, the band "reunited" for the nine-city "Back from the Dead Tour" that began on June 1st at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California. The tour included a show at Carnegie Hall in New York City and ended in Montreal in mid-July at the Just for Laughs festival. The opening act for some of these shows were The Folksmen, the folk trio seen in the film A Mighty Wind, and also performed by Guest, McKean and Shearer.

In 2007, Tap reunited again, this time to help combat global warming. "They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming." said Marty DeBergi. "Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing – that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler." This reunion also included the release of a new song called "Warmer Than Hell." The band played on the London leg of the SOS/Live Earth concert series. The band performed "Stonehenge", "Warmer Than Hell", and "Big Bottom" at Live Earth.

During "Stonehenge", their Stonehenge setup was (intentionally) miscued, with the two side pieces appearing on stage at the correct time, when Nigel Tufnel performs his mandolin solo, and the two dwarf dancers appear. But the top piece, which was lowered from the ceiling, did not appear until near the end of the song.

On "Big Bottom", keeping in line with the bass-only theme of the song, almost every bass guitarist who was present at the concert (including a few guitarists to play bass, ie. James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett of Metallica) came out on stage to play with Spinal Tap (almost 30 bassists in all).

Marti DiBergi directed a short film (entitled Spinal Tap) which was released on the Live Earth website on 27 April.^[1] The film reveals that Nigel Tufnel is now working as a farm hand looking after miniature horses. He plans to race them. David St Hubbins is currently working as a Hip-Hop producer and Derek Smalls is in rehab for being addicted to the Internet.

Other appearances

The band appeared as the musical guests on an episode of Saturday Night Live during the 1984-85 season. At the time, both Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest were SNL cast members.

Spinal Tap in the Simpsons episode "The Otto Show"

As part of the promotion surrounding Break Like the Wind, Spinal Tap was portrayed in "The Otto Show" episode of the animated series The Simpsons, a television show in which Shearer is one of the principal voice actors. In The Simpsons they are as comically inept as in the film. The Simpsons follows the approach of the original film by presenting the group as if they were a real group. After a lacklustre onstage performance (during which a riot breaks out), Spinal Tap are shown apparently killed in a tour bus accident, caused by Otto's erratic driving.

In 1993 "Nigel Tufnel" appeared in the rockumentary Joe Satriani: The Satch Tapes.

In 1994, The Return of Spinal Tap was released on video; most of this was live material from a 1992 performance at the Royal Albert Hall, but it also included some interviews and follow-up on the band members.

In 2000, while promoting Tapster.com, Spinal Tap appeared and performed on the short-lived series VH1 The List and appeared on the Late Show.

A minor character in the 2004 film Sons of Provo, a mockumentary about a fictitious Mormon boy-band, is named "N. Tufnel" in a hardly obscure tribute to Spinal Tap.

In 2006, "Nigel Tufnel" appeared in a Volkswagen TV commercial highlighting their offer of a free, exclusive First Act guitar with the purchase of qualifying automobiles. The guitar features knobs and inlays with the Volkswagen logo and pre-amps that allow it to be played through the car's stereo system.

Also in 2006, their song "Gimme Some Money" was used in a TV commercial for OPEN from American Express.

Also in 2006, their song "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" appeared in Red Octane's video game. At the end of the song, the drummer blows up with green goo shooting out of him. Guitar Hero II.

Also in 2006, their song "Christmas with the Devil" appeared in BBC One promo spots for the network's Christmas programmes.

In 2007, while accepting an award from the BBC Two programme The Culture Show, Christopher Guest broke into Nigel Tufnel, and considered what his wife and kids would make of the Mark Kermode shaped award. This sequence of the show has been added to YouTube.

On July 7, 2007 Spinal Tap played at Wembley Stadium in London [3] along with many major bands and groups as part of Live Earth, a Climate Change awareness concert. Their set included a new song written for the occasion, "Warmer Than Hell". During their final number, the song "Big Bottom", St. Hubbins and Tufnel both picked up basses. Spinal Tap was also joined by "every bass player in the known universe", including Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters); Robert Trujillo, Kirk Hammett, and James Hetfield (Metallica); Gordon Moakes (Bloc Party); and Adam Yauch (a.k.a. MCA), of Beastie Boys. They were also joined on back-up vocals by Annette O'Toole, Michael McKean's wife.

On August 27, 2007 Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer performed an acoustic set at "Concert for a Cause" in Hollywood, CA. Songs included: Hell Hole, Gimmie Some Money, Cups and Cakes, Flower People, Rainy Day Sun, Stonehenge and a final encore of All the Way Home. They mixed in selections of Folksmen songs (From "A Mighty Wind") that included: Old Joe's Place, Locoman, Blood on the Coal, Corn Wine, Start Me Up, Never Did No Wanderin' (w/Jane Lynch), Potato's in the Paddywagon & The Good Book Song (W/Jane Lynch, Nell Geisslinger and Annette O'Toole).

Contributors

Guitarists (with other band names)

• "Ricky from San Francisco" (1982)

Bassists

• Ronnie Pudding (1964-1967)
• Danny Jarman (1967)
• David Gilmour, Tim Renwick, Pino Palladino (Amnesty International performance in 1991)
• Cody Wheaton

Backing vocalists

• Lhasa Apso (1965-1966)
• Julie Scrubbs-Martin (1965-1966)

Harmonicists

• Little Danny Schindler (1965-1966)

Tambourine players

• Jeanine Pettibone (1982)

Horn players

• Jimmy Adams (1965-1966)
• Geoff Clovington (1965-1966)

Keyboardists

• Jan van der Kvelk (1965)
• Tony Brixton (1965-1966)
• Nick Wax (1965-1966)
• Dicky Laine (1965-1966)
• Denny Upham (1966-1968)
• Ross MacLochness (1974-1975)
• Viv Savage (1975-198?)
• "Caucasian" Jeffery Vanston (198?-Present)
• Jon Carin (Amnesty International performance in 1991)

Drummers

• John "Stumpy" Pepys (1964-1967) Died in a bizarre, unexplained gardening accident.
• Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs (1967-1974) Choked on vomit of unknown origin.
• Peter "James" Bond (1974-1977) Spontaneously combusted onstage.
• Mick Shrimpton (1977-1982) Onstage explosion
• Joe "Mama" Besser (1982) Quit the band, claiming he "couldn't take this 4/4 shit"; according to an MTV interview with Spinal Tap in November 1991, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
• Gary Wallis, Jody Linscott (Amnesty International performance in 1991) (Wallis pretended to explode at the end of the performance.)
• Richard "Ric" Shrimpton (1982-1999) Allegedly sold his dialysis machine for drugs, presumed dead
• Sammy "Stumpy" Bateman (2000) Died in a freak tricycle accident jumping over a pool of sharks.
• Mick Fleetwood (2000) The only one to survive unscathed.
• Scott "Skippy" Scuffleton (2001-2007) His iPhone exploded in his hands while downloading "The best of Celine Dion".
• Plus 14 other drummers at various times all of whom are dead.

Discography

Main article: Spinal Tap discography

Studio albums

• Spinal Tap Sings "(Listen to the) Flower People" and Other Favourites, 1967
• Brainhammer, 1970
• Nerve Damage, 1971
• Blood to Let, 1972
• Intravenus de Milo, 1974
• The Sun Never Sweats, 1975
• Bent for the Rent, 1976
• Tap Dancing, 1976
• Rock 'N Roll Creation, 1977
• Shark Sandwich, 1980
• Smell the Glove, 1982

Live albums

• Silent But Deadly, 1969
• Jap Habit, 1975

Compilations

• Heavy Metal Memories, 1983

Singles

• Gimme Some Money, 1965
• (Listen to the) Flower People, 1967
• Breakfast of Evil, 1969
• Silent But Deadly, 1969
• Big Bottom, 1970
• Swallow My Love, 1970
• Nerve Damage, 1971
• Blood to Let, 1972
• Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight, 1974
• Stonehenge, 1975
• Nice 'N Stinky, 1975
• Heavy Duty, 1976
• Bent for the Rent, 1976
• Tap Dancing, 1976
• Rock 'N Roll Creation, 1977
• Sex Farm, 1980
• No Place Like Nowhere, 1980
• Hell Hole, 1982
• Lick My Love Pump,(Part one of an unreleased rock trilogy)
• Christmas With the Devil, 1984
• The Majesty of Rock, 1992
• Bitch School, 1992
• Back from the Dead, 2000 (available only from the now defunct tapster.com)
• Warmer Than Hell, 2007

Bootlegs and unreleased material

Actual discography

• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
• Hear N' Aid (1980s)
• Break Like the Wind (1992)
• "Bitch School"/"Springtime" (single, 1992)
• Back From the Dead (single, 2003)

References by Spinal Tap

• The "n" with an Umlaut exists in the minor Jacaltec language of Guatemala and the Malagasy tongue, where it represents a velar nasal consonant. This mark and the dotless I that precedes it are included as a parody of the heavy metal umlaut.
• Soft Machine's 1972 album "5", The Damned's "Black Album", Metallica's 1991 eponymous album, Utopia's "Oblivion", AC/DC's Back in Black, King Crimson's Earthbound, Jay-Z's The Black Album and Prince's The Black Album are examples of (almost) all-black album covers.
• A number of Spinal Tap's songs cover identical subjects to renowned songs by other bands. For example, "Gimme Some Money" is similar to the Beatles' "Money (That's What I Want)" (and its appearance in This Is Spinal Tap is a parody of the Beatles' famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show) and "Big Bottom" is similar to Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls." The subtext is that Spinal Tap is so unoriginal they do not just imitate other bands' sounds, but their subject matter as well. "Big Bottom" features three bass guitars.
• "Electric Banana" (mentioned in the film) is a pseudonym used by The Pretty Things in the late 1960s. It may also be a reference to Donovan's "Mellow Yellow", which contains the lyric "electrical banana."
• "All The Way Home", the first song Nigel and David wrote together appears to be a homage to one of Lennon and McCartney's earliest efforts "One After 9 0 9".

References to Spinal Tap

• In July 2006, Microsoft.com featured a promo for Windows Media Player 11 that said to "Turn it up to 11" and pictured the WMP 11 Play button surrounded by numbers and tick marks, making it into a dial that ends at 11.
• The Homestar Runner website includes a reference to "Quite Exciting This Computer Magic!", a phrase used in a tour bus scene from This Is Spinal Tap where keyboard player Viv Savage is playing a video game; also, in the new toon Welcome Back, Homestar is seen wearing a green skeleton shirt similar to the one Nigel Tufnel wore throughout the film.
• Beck included the lyric, "Boyz / Turning jams up to eleven" on "Boyz", a song recorded for the 2000 compilation, At Home With the Groovebox.
• In an episode of Gilmore Girls, Lauren Graham says to Alexis Bledel, "That's like accepting the position as the drummer in Spinal Tap," in reference to Alexis going out on the patio at her grandmother's house.
• In an interview with The Observer, Noel Gallagher said his brother Liam (both of British rock band, Oasis), "...had seen the film This Is Spinal Tap, loved it and thought they were a real band."
• The British band Supergrass uses a line from "All The Way Home", the first song Nigel and David wrote together, in "Evening Of The Day". The original line is "If she's not on the five-nineteen, Then I'm gonna know what sorrow means." while in the Supergrass song it's "If she's not on that three fifteen, Then I'm gonna know what sorrow means." The Rialto song "Monday Morning 5:19" might also be a reference to this same song; the line there is "It's Monday Morning 5:19, and I'm still wondering where she's been."
• Spinal Tap's "none more black" quote inspired the name of the punk band of the same name.
• Swedish band Blindside has a song titled "Pretty Nights" that includes the lyrics "Who touched the volume knob / Has it always been this loud ... Does this one go to eleven?"
• L95, a member of the Southern Resident killer whale community, has been given the adoption name "Nigel" in honour of Nigel Tufnel, thanks to persuasive staff members (and Spinal Tap fans) of the Center for Whale Research.
• On the Marillion video compilation release "Singles 1982-86" lead singer Fish refers to the period between drummers Mick Pointer and Ian Mosley as being a "Spinal Tap drummer situation".
• In the movie Toy Story 2, the Evil Emperor Zurg is about to kill Buzz Lightyear (after delivering the immortal line "I am your father"). We see a shot of the settings on Zurg's gun, which has a large dial going all the way up to 11.
• The song "Rocker Girl", by Jewel features the line, "He'll know every word to Spinal Tap", in the description of the "Rocker boy made for her".

Trivia

• The trio that make up Spinal Tap -- Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean -- also wrote the original songs for Guest's films The Big Picture and Waiting for Guffman.
• Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin was asked in an interview by Rolling Stone what scenes in Spinal Tap hit home. He replied: "Getting lost on the way to the stage. That was us, playing in Baltimore. It took twenty-five minutes to do the hundred yards from our Holiday Inn through the kitchen to the arena."
• On a concert in the late 80's, the members of Kiss got lost on their way to the stage, just like Spinal Tap did in the film This Is Spinal Tap
• In September 2002, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary included the entry: "Up to eleven: up to maximum volume" a reference to Nigel's amplifier that had controls that went beyond the usual maximum setting of 10.
• The three "real" members of Spinal Tap are also the members of another mostly fake band, a folk trio called The Folksmen. The Folksmen originally appeared as the warmup band for some of Spinal Tap's live concerts, but eventually became the subject of their own mockumentary, A Mighty Wind, directed by Christopher Guest.
• In the game Guitar Hero, during the load screen before each playable song, a randomly selected message is displayed on an animated amplifier. While the player waits for the song to load, the controls on the animated amp move up in succession, ending at 11, in reference to Nigel's amp. One of the random messages also reads, "Eleven IS louder than ten." The sequel, Guitar Hero 2, allows players to play Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight". After the song is successfully finished by the player, the drummer of the band explodes and leaves a green globule on his drum throne. In both games, the audio settings can go up to 11.
• Nigel Tufnel is based upon Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, who were both members of The Yardbirds. Nigel's physical appearance resembles Beck, and his name ("Nigel Tufnel") is a reference to Clapton. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088258/trivia
• In an episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown, Alton asks for a toaster from a scientist, and he brings out a very modified and outlandish toaster. When Alton says it is too much, the "scientist" exclaims, "But it goes up to eleven!"
• In commercials for Kidz Bop 11, the announcer exclaims "Watch Out Kids! This One Goes To Eleven!"
• The now defunct Working Designs had "Our games go to 11!" as their slogan.
• In a 2006 episode of the TV game show, Jeopardy, one of the categories was titled "This Category Goes to 11" in reference to that line, and featured questions regarding the number 11.
• In an issue of the New Musical Express, there was a feature called "This One Goes To Eleven: the loudest songs of all time", which were rated out of eleven for loudness, complete with an amp dial pointing to the correct number.
• In the computer game Total Extreme Wrestling 2007, there are many references to Spinal Tap. The most notable ones are when certain workers get injured, it could be to a similar fashion as a lot of the drummers of the Spinal Tap such as a freak gardening accident. Adam Ryland, the creator of the game, has admitted this.
• New Jersey band A Static Lullaby has a song titled "We Go To Eleven" on their 2003 album ...And Don't Forget to Breathe.
• Chicago-based band Umphrey's McGee has several Spinal Tap references in live shows. "Jazz Odyssey", a free-form jazz improvisation seen in the mockumentary is a live staple in their shows, where it is an improvisation piece. Furthermore, while not referencing Spinal Tap directly, another song is called "Tribute to Spinal Shaft". Another song in this vein is titled "Smell the Mitten", a take-off of Spinal Tap's album "Smell the Glove", although it does not emulate Spinal Tap's style. The classical piece "Boccherini" has been incorporated as a finale to "All in Time", much as in Spinal Tap's "Heavy Duty". At the end of some shows, lead singer Brendan Bayliss quotes Viv Savage's life philosophy of "Have a good time, all of the time."
• Harry Shearer toured with British band Saxon in 1981, and was told dozens of anecdotes about life on the road by lead guitarist Graham Oliver and bassist Steve "Dobby" Dawson. Many of these anecdotes found their way into the film. Shearer copied Dawson's famous mannerisms in his characterization of Derek Smalls, such as playing his bass with one hand plucking the strings while the other one points to the crowd.
• In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar states that "Most magic shop owners in Sunnydale have the life expectancy of a Spinal Tap drummer".
• Track four on the 1987 album Happy Accident, by Canadian band Doughboys, is titled "Intravenus de Milo".
• A scene from This is Spinal Tap was used in the documentary series The History of Rock N' Roll.
• Black Label Society performed a "Freeform Jazz Odyssey" during their European tour, featured in the behind the scenes disc (disc 2) of the Doom Troopin' Live DVD.
• In the Doctor Who episode The Lazarus Experiment, The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to increase the volume of a church's pipe organ, saying, 'We need to turn this up to eleven.'
• In the video game Pokémon Battle Revolution, one of the phrases spoken by the announcer towards the end of very close matches is "The energy level of the fans in this colosseum has been turned up to 11!"
• Professional wrestler AJ Styles calls one of his signature moves the 'Spiral Tap.'
• Punk band "Latterman" have used sound bytes from This is Spinal Tap in their songs "There's Never a Reason not to Party" (off of None of These Songs are About Girls) and "The Biggest Sausage Party Ever" (off of Turn Up the Punk, We'll be Singing).

References

External links

• This is Spinal Tap at the Internet Movie Database
• Spinal Tap Reunites Video - Spinal Tap reunites for Live Earth concert.
• The Ultimate Spinal Tap Discography - an illustrated guide to Tap's albums (both real and imagined)
• Diary of a Spinal Tap "audition", from the website of the Royal Crown Revue drummer
• SpinalTapFan.com, compiled by Taphead Chip Rowe
• Spinal Tap Reunites - Video