I agree. They actually give a humorous look at how hard the lifestyle really is. While it all seems really fun and glamorous, it's hard, exhaustive work! I think every kid that is looking to start a band should watch the movie.
I was friends with one of the top guitar/amp techs in the business before he passed away. He worked with Blackmore, Iommi, Springsteen among others. I once asked him how close "Spinal Tap" was to the truth, his reply was "closer than you will ever know!".
I believe 'This is Spinal Tap' to be a perfect film. I would challenge anyone to find something wrong with it. I have played in many bands and there is so much in the film that rings true. It is utterly brilliant!
The actual phrase is... In response to a question of why don't you just make 10 louder? A pause, a minor amount of confusion and then he responds "but this one goes to 11" completely missing the point of the question
Thanks for this, I had no idea about lots of this, including Nigel Tufnel day 11-11-11. Line for line and visual gag for gag, IMHO this is spinal tap is the funniest movie of all time. Michael McKean turned out to be an excellent dramatic actor playing Jimmy McGill’s brother Chuck in Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel. I’m old enough to remember him first as Lenny of ‘Lenny and Sqiggy’ in the 1970s sitcom ‘Laverne and Shirley’
And I am old enough to recall when Michael Mckean played Lenny Koznowski on Laverne and Shirley as well as being old enough to know that Rob Riner played Michael Stivic on All In The Family. 😁 Some of the best shows from the 70's imo. 👍🏻🙂
@@kindoe66 thanks, I’m not a Meathead, I just forgot to mention it. Did you know that Eric Cartman on South Park is loosely based on Archie Bunker?. Norman Lear produced and wrote some truly Groundbreaking series back then, mostly spin-offs of All in The Family.
@@batgurrl Lol,oh no I wasn't trying to say you're a meathead, just was adding to the comment about the post. And no I didn't know about the South Park character you mentioned, I dislike that show.
@@kindoe66 I’m sorry I didn’t word it properly. I thoroughly enjoyed your comment but just added in ‘meathead’ to indicate I too watched the show.😂😂Sorry about the misunderstanding. I guess I messed up.☮️😆🤔 I stopped watching South Park decades ago myself, but now you know😆
Spinal Tap is definitely a historic band. Nigel is the highest ranked guitarist. Just add David St Hubbins and you have the greatest twin guitar attack. So many anthemic songs children will sing for generations.
The "trapped in a stage prop" incident actually happened to Screaming Lord Sutch, an English musician who basically stole Screamin' Jay Hawkins act. He would emerge out of a coffin. But, one night the crew put it face down rather than up and he couldn't open the lid.
I saw them perform at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. It was only a short one, but a great one. And I was not aware of them being a fictional band, there was nothing amateurish or out of place, they really rocked Wembley stadium hard and good!
Spinal Tap - is the Best Band in Rock'N'Roll History! Why? Their music is LOUD! They Revolutionized Rock by going to 11 instead of measly 10!!! Their Stonehenge Saga is unbeatable, epic and very long! I am sure it is still going on... My super heroes! :-)
I always thought that it was not just one band that Spinal Tap was doing the parody/spoof on, but was multiple bands. There’s a little bit of the most famous bands in Spinal Tap.
The only actual Musician in that band. He was an impressive act in Rock, Country or Jazz. A nice guy too, but as Chuck Norris said, "Smoked too much".....
This was really great! Thanks for covering this. I know it's going to age me, but I have "This is Spinal Tap" on VHS. I like watching it once in a while. It still cracks me up!
That’s awesome. The DVD is great too. Nigel, David, and Derek give a running commentary track which is hilarious. The premise is that they hate Marty DiBergi because This Is Spinal Tap was a “hatchet job”, making them look bad.
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull has confirmed that some of the events in This Is Spinal Tap were eerily close to things that actually happened to Tull. Anderson also notes the similarity between the name Derek Smalls and Derek Small, a fictional character mentioned in the sleeve notes of the Thick As A Brick and Passion Play albums, and Derek Smalls has been shown smoking on a pipe in poses very similar to mid-70s photos of Anderson smoking a pipe. Harry Shearer told Anderson that this was a coincidence and the just came to his mind. Anderson then asked Shearer if he owned a copy of Thick As A Brick. Shearer hesitated and before confirming that he did.
This is spinal tap was funnest movies of 80s. Michael McKean is one of most underrated actors , he has over 200 acting credits he can sing play guitar , piano and harmonica .He can do a very good English , Scottish and Australian accent.
Defending the final version of the “Smell the Glove” album cover: “It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none - none more black. REMINDER: This was made 6 years before the Metallica Black album 🤣🤣
Spinal Tap shared the bill with Metallica at a British music festival a few years later - It's documented on Metallica's '2 1/2 years on the road" DVD, and Spinal Tap confront Metallica about where they got the idea for a black album. Check it out, it's hilarious too. Spinal Tap: "Of course, yours sold better than ours. Maybe ours would have sold more if we were allowed to write "Metallica" on it..."
That was based on Floyds Wish you were Here, which the band wanted released in an unmarked black vinyl cover. The label wouldn't play ball, so put a sticker on it.
I remember seeing the Spinal Tap movie with an old boyfriend when it first came out. My BF was about 10 years older than me, so had 10 more years of listening to music/going to concerts in the big hair 80s, and we had lots of notes to compare. I can't remember ever laughing so hard at a movie in my life! They really seemed like a _real_ band! And I believe much of the move was AD LIBBED! Ever since then, I cannot watch any other band's music videos, or see a band in concert, without mentally harkening back in some way to Spinal Tap, even through the grunge era and beyond. It is truly one of the most priceless pieces of movie history ever created. I don't know if Rob Reiner and the guys realize the utter brilliance of, and lasting legacy, of that movie. But may Spinal Tap forever live on!
There's an early version of that scene, used as a demo to get funding for the movie as a script wouldn't capture the feel and mood of the movie, dating from 1982. It could also be a coincidence.
Anybody that ever performed on stage has had a 'Spinal Tap Moment'. That's when they are about to perform/are performing and things just keep going horribly wrong. It's become a common expression among musicians, from what I understand.
I am probably going to offend somebody by saying this, James Hetfield gets the all-time 'STM' award. No performer has ever had Anything go so seriously wrong as the pyro accident. Thank heavens he didn't end up a 'green globule' on stage!
@@angusfan1212 Not caused by an accident but I saw the bass player for the Angels a take a half full magnum of champagne in the face from someone in the the crowd. The lead singer saw it coming, ducked, Chris Baily never had a chance.
@@glenchapman3899 Oh yeah, for sure Glen. Two Bands that I think of are STATUS QUO ( Rick Parfitt's Blonde hair ) & JETHRO TULL ( Stonehenge ) Ian Anderson dancing around it, playing his medieval flute.
Not a bad video, but I’d argue your facts regarding the origins of the band. They made an appearance on the Lavern&Shirley show as Lenny&The Squigtones way back in the day. The band featured all 3 main members of Spinal Tap and Chris Guests’ name in that band was also Nigel Tufnell.
Side note* @ 4:41, in this clip the drummer featured did not die as per the media hype, his real name is Clifford Main and he along with the lead singer, real name Chuck McGill also in this clip, would leave music and each start their own successful law firms in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
With no clue who these guys were, I joined the Australian Blues Brothers Revival and did a three month tour (81 gigs in 90 days) and learned every reference, and even screamed "Hello Cleveland" when we entered bigger venues. Thanks Styne! Such an education. $0.02
There is a professional musician has a youtube channel where he reviews live performances of various bands. He was very impressed with Spinal Tap, he explained it is one thing to play well on stage. Another to play well while trying to look like you are playing badly.
Nigel's unmarried uncle's longtime friend, a women's haberdasher, taught him to play bouzouki left-handed. Derek Smalls' first band was an RnB outfit called The Stolling Roans. David St. Hubbins did not know what a guitar was prior to Spinal Tap.
Key to 2.2 million subscribers... Begin all your videos with The Untold Truth about or what ever happened to... then add the noun. They are not untold, you did not discover plutonium my friend. The story has been told previously, and the song remains the same.
This is Spinal Tap was completely ad libbed! 14 years ago I saw them in concert in Seattle…imagine the whole line of us before the show finding out the concert was going to be UNWIGGED AND UNPLUGGED!! Nooooooo!!!!
@@petedepledge3359 It was a great night. The Folksmen were superb! "this is by one of your young English Bands" cue Start Me Up! And Spinal Tap, simply immense. A brilliant gig!
Black Sabbath was where Stonehenge started, during the Born Again tour. It was so big, they had to rent a stadium just to store it. Same thing, except confusing feet for meters
Well Rick from Status Quo used to tell a hilarious story of getting lost for 5 minutes back stage trying to find their way on stage. I suspect most bands have a version of that as well
Exactly. And Christopher Guest was an important member of the Lemmings show which included several if not most of the first Not Ready for Prime Time Players and writers who started SNL. His Positively Wall Street is a brilliant Bob Dylan parody.
They played at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. Where there amps wouldn't work for about 10 minutes. Had to tell jokes to fill the time before they got them working. The set never made it to the dvd release only the llve broadcast
Inducting to Rock and Roll hall of fame could be the subject of a movie. If the movie is as good as the first it would advertise the Hall of Fame for decades.
In Ronnie James Dio’s project Hear ‘n Aid, that features many heavy metal legends, Michael McKean can be seen among the chorus of rock singers, chanting ‘We’re Stars”. I was pleasantly surprised to see him there
YAAAASSS!! And St. Hubbins made the observation that he was glad to meet people like Yngwie J Malmsteen who separated himself from all the other Yngwie Malmsteens out there with that middle initial, J.
Hey....Rob Reiner.....Yeah, it's me again. The Central SCCCRRRRRUUUUUTTTIIIIINNNIIIIIZZZER. The WHITE zone is for loading and unloading. If you are loading or unloading go to the WHITE zone.
Last night saw the Band "You Am I" perform a tribute set of just Spinal Tap music...right down to Stone Henge...fantastic...as close as we would get to seeing a Spinal Tap live show!!!
WELL BUDDY, OR WHOEVER YOU ARE... you totally missed the laverne and shirly beginnings of this band, thats where it really started. nigel played guitar for lenny and the squigtones........
R.I.P Ric Parnell (aka Mick Shrimpton). Now finally dead in real life, and finally reunited with Spinal Tap's many other not so fortunate deceased drummers.
There is no single band that Tap was based on. And I'd like to know your source for Screaming Jay Hawkins inspiring the "stuck in the cocoon" bit. It seems more obviously inspired by Yes's Alan White getting stuck in a clear clam shell thing his drums were in.
@@petedepledge3359 Check out the drumming on Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight. During the intermission part. Absolutely amazing. A drummer I played with said it was his ambition to one day be able to play it. Triplets played on the hihat And a cut time back beat for the rest of it.
The Defender against the Dark Arts would have a high turnover. He'd be like the Solider Wizard, always fighting, And that school would be like capturing all the Jedi, a prime target for everything evil. Interesting Stuff, the real Drummer audition was funny as well. It would have been great if they could have had every Popular Band at the time's drummer there, I'd drop RUSH to be in Spinal Tap, in a instant, whooHooo, Van Who, Spinal Tap is where it's at... Go on then, ask him....Nigel sheepishly "You aren't really with the Police are you....."
The weird coincidence is that the movie's gag about Stonehenge mirrored a thing that happened to a tour Black Sabbath did around a year prior for their Born Again album. It had a song called Stonehenge, and they wanted a replica of some of the stone monuments for the stage...but someone had misinterpreted the requested foot measurements as meters for the pieces, making all of the pieces roughly nine times too large (45 feet high instead of the 15 it was supposed to be) and unable to be brought on tour. They were only able to use some of it for one show, and they had a dwarf that crawled on top of it, and then a loud baby scream was broadcasted and the dwarf stood up and fell backwards off the replica into a pile of mattresses. (Also, it was actually Sharon Osbourne's dad who designed it and subsequently was responsible for screwing it all up). Principle photography for the movie and the recording of Spinal Tap's song were all already completed before the Sabbath incident even occurred...so it was all a big, weird coincidence.
No mention of them touring Canada in one day?? Forget the year, but with the help of a helicopter, they played Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver all in the same day. To my knowledge, the only band in history to perform such a feat. How could they leave that out??
SpiTap toured Prince Rupert, Banff, Moose Jaw, Flin Flon, Barrie, Pembroke, Chicoutimi, and Corner Brook just last week! Charlottetown was cancelled because of riotous non-interest and Lunenberg said the band had played all its venues in 1989.
Yup. I saw their first show that day in the morning in St. John’s, NL, actually. I believe it was in ‘92. Was awesome! Seen the movie at least 50 times. Lol
