He was the best! I didn't know he was married to JLC that's awesome. Oh someone I missed from horror was one of the girls hanging out with the guys (brunette with black headband) was Brinke Stevens!
People today won't hear any stories, but back then, every rock band (and even NON-rock bands) knew this movie by heart. They watched it on the tour bus and all of the stuff that happens to the guys (no one at the signing, getting lost under the stage, hotel ef-ups, being canceled or demoted in favor of a puppet show) were very familiar to working bands. It was all painfully relatable.
I was in a band that just did local club gigs in LA and this stuff is really close to what being in a real band was like. It was really that stupid, that childish, and that much fun.
If you enjoyed this film, then nevermind the ~2 hours of alternate scenes -just watch it again with the DVD commentary. The 3 main stars do the entire thing in character as if they are old washed up rock stars looking back at a tour they went on ~25 years earlier.
The whole movie is improvised. They shot hours of footage and cut it down to the best stuff. The band are actors- David St. Hubbins was Lenny on Laverne and Shirley and Chuck on Better Call Saul- Derek Smalls does many voices on the Simpsons- they all played instruments in real life and wrote all the music. There is an over an hour of outakes available. The actual soundtrack album was an all black cover. The band did a mini tour after their second album, I saw them in Atlanta.
@@JayBondReacts They released a second album about a decade later, titled "Break Like the Wind", which coincided with their tour & even got a video into rotation on MTV ("Bitch School"). Ironically enough given how involved Harry Shearer is with the show, the entire band appeared in an episode of The Simpsons as themselves ("Otto Show", season 3 episode 22).
David, the lead singer is Chuck on Better Call Saul. He was also on Laverne and Shirley, a T.V. show from the 70's where he also played guitar occasionally.
Glad you watched this. Such a great, influential band. There wasn’t any other band quite like Spinal Tap. Well, I mean, there were a lot of bands that were like them, but none of them were named Spinal Tap, so, you know, they were rather unique in that way.
After finding out he was Ned Flanders, during this edit I kept hearing bits of different Simpsons characters. Principal Skinner stood out the most. I have never seen his face before!
No one ever notices who the mimes are, it's billy crystal and Dana carvey. And the guitar he says "don't touch it, don't even look at it" was a fender bass VI, a short scale 6 string bass, with a tremolo. Only 2 were made with that seafoam green finish.
Great reaction! The fellow who plays Nigel (Christopher Guest) may look familiar-- he played Count Rugen (the arch-nemesis of Inigo Montoya) in "The Princess Bride"! Tons of talent in this hilarious film :) You might also like "Best in Show."
No way! That's amazing, I would have never guessed that. Mind you, I just watched Princess Bride for the first time recently so I feel like I should have seen it. The accents throw everything way off though lol Thanks, I'll have to look into Best in Show. Haven't heard of that one.
The Stonehenge thing actually happened to Black Sabbath... except they ended up with a model 3 times the size that wouldn't even fit the doors of the arenas they were playing. Heh.
I got to see Spinal Tap tour for Bitch School. Fed-Ex delivered a package on stage. They opened a smaller Stonehenge. The movie was a huge bomb at first. Too authentic to be funny to some. . cult status grew on VHS & DVD. They had to reform every few years to maintain copyright. New movie soon?!?!?
Some facts for you to mull over There was over 100 hours of material for the film as the actors did adlib alot of there lines, the film also didn't see immediate success since most people who saw it originally believed it to be about an actual band. Where they disliked it since it was about a band no one had heard of, even Ozzy Osbourne believed it to be based on a real band.
Oh wow, that's hilarious. I guess that's a testament of how well it was done as a mockumentary but at the time, I feel a lot of stuff would confuse Ozzy lol I really need to see that extra footage. It had to be great!
I'm an actual roadie, and I can tell you as a roadie that this is THE roadie movie. And also, as a rock-n-roll musician, this is the rock-n-roll musician movie. Also, as a HUGE Pink Floyd fan, watch the Pink Floyd "The Dark Side of The Moon" documentary. It's sad and funny how accurate this movie is (was). Artie Fufkin of Polymer Records is Paul Shaffer, who you might know as David Letterman's music director. And yes, the girlfriend is meant to be a parody of Yoko Ono.
16:37 - Making fun of Jimmy Page in "The Song Remains the Same" concert movie (and most Zeppelin concerts, in general) where he'd do this big long tedious guitar solo in the middle of Dazed And Confused, using a violin bow on his guitar at one point, lol. The air-traffic control coming over the PA happened to Jimi Hendrix. I can just go on and on. Filled with rock trivia in-jokes!
@@JayBondReacts Nah! You got lots of 'em! You're sitting there, talking about Shure microphones and Marshall stacks! You were noticing the accuracy of the old clips! And what's so great about this movie is you DON'T need to know the in-jokes to find them funny!
David St Hubbins, played by Michael McKean played Lenny on Lavern and Shirley back in the 70's-80's also was on Better Call Saul. Rob Reiner played Meathead on All in the family, along with the loads of films he directed.
When I found out that the same actor that played Chuck in Better Call Saul was in this movie I couldn't believe it and watched it again as soon as I could. Watching him sing Big Bottom after recently watching him play Chuck was absolutely ridiculous (in the most awesome way).
@@missk8tie it's so fun to watch an old film and see a major actor today in some random minor roll. Like the film Youngblood and see Keanu Reeves as an ice hockey goalie with maybe 1 line.
On the DVD for this movie, they did a commentary track in character where the band members constantly complained that Marty DiBergi had made a hatchet job, and that things were actually a lot better on that tour, etc., etc. You are right that it was largely improvised. They shot hours and hours of footage with loose “goals” for a scene and then the movie was really made in the editing room.
Nigel: I call this one "Lick My Love Pump." This acting crew have been in a few mocumentary spoof movies like Best In Show spoofing show dog owners and handlers, and A Mighty Wind spoofing 60's style Folk musicians. Both are equally as good as this one. I have the soundtrack for this movie and Spinal Tap's second album, Break Like The Wind. Both are pretty good sound-wise and funny as Hell. Another cult movie movie you should check out is the animated 80's movie Heavy Metal which has an excellent soundtrack. It has a sequel Heavy Metal 2000, but, I am not sure if I have watched it.
Appreciate it! I have a couple of their films on the list, but the company has blocked this video in certain regions so I was iffy to do more of theirs until I have a time to fight copyright in advance. I have watched Heavy Metal back when I was a kid but don't remember anything except seeing animated boobs for the first time. 😂
Christopher Guest is a goddamn genius - check out Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. He and Michael McKean (also Lenny fr Laverne & Shirley and Chuck McGill fr Better Call Saul) made this iconic.
Good Lord, how is it that one can just keep noticing new things in this movie even after watching it numerous times? 11:11 Please note that the Blues/Jazz Festival where their drummer Peter James Bond met his end was held on the Isle of Lucy (I Love Lucy). 🤣
Great reaction- all of these guys are super talented and you can name just about any one in show business and find direct a link to somebody in this movie. Note Billy Crystal ("Mime is money"), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) and Rob Reiner went on to make The Princess Bride a couple years later (in that movie, Guest plays the 6-fingered man). Speaking of Christopher Guest, he is well-known for working with the same actors over and over again (playing totally different roles each time) in his own series of award winning mockumentaries. For example, in the wonderful movie Best in Show, he and Michael McKean (David St.Hubbins in Spinal Tap) compete against each other for the best dog competition.
Sir Denis Eton-Hogg is Patrick MacNee, who was the charming, old-fashioned super-spy John Steed in a BBC series, "The Avengers". Here's one of the intros, featuring his most famous co-star, Diana Rigg, whom you might know as Olenna from "Game of Thrones": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AgEqMsfDGnQ.html
So many great actors in bit parts in this movie! Patrick McNee, Bruno Kirby, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Fred Willard.... Glad you showed the "harmonizing" at Elvis' grave, it's my favorite scene. Christopher Guest (Nigel) has written, directed, and starred in several mockumentaries: you might like Waiting for Guffman, about a small town local theater musical production.
“A Mighty Wind” is a definite must-watch, and has ties to Spinal Tap as well. One of the fake groups in “A Mighty Wind” is called The Folksmen. When the fake band Spinal Tap went out on a real concert tour (because of the movie’s popularity), the three main actors decided they would be their own opening act as The Folksmen. Of course, the rock/metal fans who came to see Spinal Tap got very upset and booed The Folksmen (even though it was the same three guys). 🤣
Hahaha All good! That show is one that I've only heard the name of but haven't seen an episode. So not only did I miss out on a bunch of great movies but shows too. 😂
@thevividvoid Haha Thanks. It's weird. 😂 I have watched movies and shows before. I swear I'm not as sheltered as this channel is gonna make me look. ☺️
You mispronounced his name? I've been pronouncing it that way since the 70s!!!! Yeah: that's Chuck from Better Call Saul all right! He's ALWAYS great in ANYTHING he's in. Total chameleon. Watch "Best In Show": same thing, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean but with Eugene Levy, Catharine O'Hara.....HILARIOUS. About dogs and their owners. Totally improvised, like this one was.
PS: And Christopher Guest played (among other things) the 6-Fingered man in "Princess Bride" and the doctor that Tom Cruise cross-examines in "A Few Good Men"....both directed by Rob Reiner, who helmed "Spinal Tap" (it was his first movie).
The stuffing of the pants thing was something you see on lots of 70s album covers, usually hard rock ones. I don't think it was as much a thing "civilians" did!
Check out the IMDB reviews for this movie, and you'll see that it currently scores a 7.9 out of 11 stars. Yes, IMDB cranked it all the way up to 11 just for Spinal Tap! You're correct in that much of the movie was ad libbed by the actors. Also, you probably know this by now, but the actors wrote and performed the songs themselves, including playing the instruments. Over the years, they've done a few live concerts (staying in character), mostly to benefit charity. I think their last one was the Spinal Tap One Night Only World Tour back in 2009. There are some RU-vid videos of some of their live performances (including "Stonehenge"), if you want to check out any of those. Guest, McKean and Shearer have also portrayed a fictional folk music trio known as the Folksmen in another mockumentary called "A Mighty Wind" (about folk music). In a few of the live concerts, the Folksmen even "opened" for Spinal Tap. But sometimes not everyone in the audience was in on the joke and they were not pleased. LOL
IMDb holding it down for Spinal Tap. I love that! I really need to see A Mighty Wind soon, that sounds hilarious. I would be so confused if I saw them in concert and saw the Folksmen come out. 😂
@@JayBondReacts Agreed. I wonder what they thought about getting booed as the Folksmen, then coming back out and getting mad-crazy cheers as Spinal Tap. They probably loved it. 😂
Rob Reiner had an amazing directorial run in the 80's and early 90's. This Is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. That's from 1984 to 1992. 3 of those movies are very high on my best movies of all time list.
Heck yeah! Aside from this I most recently saw her in Santa's Slay. She's in the opening scene and she's literally a smoke show (she catches on fire). 😂
I worked for a promoter for many years and had to work in unfamiliar venues backstage. I got lost many times. Most places have yellow tape that show the way from dressing rooms to the backstage entrance now.
Christopher Guest is married to Jamie Lee Curtis. He was on SNL in the 80s and did a number of films similar to Spinal Tap's fake doc format (Best in Show). Director Rob Reiner who was Meathead on All In the Family directed Stand By Me and Misery. Bruno Kirby, Billy Crystal, Fred Willard and others have small parts. This film is a true classic.
If you liked this you might like Anvil The Story of Anvil, which is a real documentary of a band that 'never quite made it' yet still has that comedy element
Oh I have to look into that one. Kinda reminds me of Thor. Not sure if you've seen that one but that's kinda sad because it's like a dude really trying to be the rockstar he used to be.
@@JayBondReacts edit - just found this comment and trailer, will check out the Thor (band) documentary, the theme seems to be generally the same as Anvil
@@MrVidification I was talking Thor, the musician, that like your Anvil suggestion was a guy who just didn't quite reach the stardom he thought he did. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_bMRsVs5skU.html
@@JayBondReacts Thor's movies are atrocious, but hysterical. The crazy thing about Anvil is that one of the members in the band is actually called Robb Reiner. With two "b"s, but still...
Even though most people think of Christopher Guest (also, all three members of Tap have been in the SNL at one point or another) as American, he is actually by birthright a British Baron, Baron Haden-Guest (or Lord Haden-Guest), and, by extenstion, Jamie Lee Curtis (who knew she was going to marry him when she saw him for the first time in a Tap promo photo as Nigel) is Baroness (or Lady) Haden-Guest. I'm not sure if she does, but he has a hereditary membership to the House of Lords. This being said, he believes the House of Lords should be accessible by democratic vote, and she rejects the title outright.
Dude, the fact that you're a musician (which you just revealed in the video) is why this is the best reaction to this movie. It makes all the difference.
The urban legend is that at the premiere of this back in the day the Band Scorpions were in the audience and angrily stormed out. They were offended thinking the movie was mocking them.
Possibly my fave reaction to this movie! Virtually every joke in this movie is rooted in some actual rock & roll thing. Like the "choking on vomit" line: that's a phrase EVERY rock & roll fan knew back then because in the 70s, all these rock stars were OD'ing and the news reports would always say: " Keith Moonked on his own vomit.....Jimi Hendrix choked on his vomit.....John Bonham choked on his own vomit......" etc etc. Also there are bands that seemed "cursed", hence all the drummers that croak! (For instance the Grateful Dead have had four of their keyboards die, two of the members of Badfinger hung themselves, etc)
Thank you so much! Haha I didn't know about the band curse thing but that's great. The vomit thing I didn't put together with the OD'ing despite hearing about those kinda headlines. People dancing around the topic. I love that someone like me, who has basically has no knowledge of rock/metal can still appreciate this movie. I was concerned going on in and it was still hilarious. Testament to how well it was done.
I'm sure someone has listed all the references, but here's a couple ... - Record company vetoes album cover - The Beatles, 'Yesterday and Today' - the 'butcher cover' - Rest of band resenting interloping girlfriend - Yoko And a Nostradamus moment - Drummer dies in bizarre gardening accident - Jeff Porcaro, d.1992
Yeah, the dialogue was largely improvised. But Reiner crafted it *_very_* carefully. All the main characters were given a detailed backstory so the actors could bounce their improvised lines off each while maintaining a coherent narrative. They also wrote and played the songs themselves.
There have been very few genuine innovations in rock band equipment. Les Paul and Leo Fender pretty much perfected the guitar back in the fifties and sixties. Everything else has just been variations on that. Same with amps. Outside of Mashal stacks and Fender Twins, the only real major development has been solid state. Basically the original stuff sounds the best most of the time. As far the actors, the three main ones, I think you've figured out. You also caught Fran Dresher. But you missed a lot of cameos. Paul Shaefer, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Ed Bagley Jr. and a bunch of others.
That's pretty amazing that equipment has staying mostly the same for so long. Yeah, those cameos I missed for sure. During the editing (after I saw them in the credits), I had to seek them out. They are so obvious after the fact, well maybe not Carvey.
@@JayBondReacts Yeah, he didn't have any lines. You just had to be familiar with his early work to catch it. You want an extra thrill? Look up a live performance and interview of Lenny and the Sqiggtones. Michael Mekean got his start playing Lenny on Laverne and Shirley. He and his co-star who played Squiggy started a fake band, not unlike Tapp and had a very special guitarist.
The greatest thing about this movie is there was no script. They wrote the history of the band and the characters and improved all the interviews and lines
They’re fantastic as The Folksmen in A Mighty Wind (2003). They once did a concert (possibly a whole tour?) where The Folksmen opened for Spinal Tap. 🤣
You should have seen pa systems back when I first started playing in the early 70s, They were pretty much guitar amp heads with multiple independent inputs. You'd have 6 or 7 of them stacked up on the side of the stage, no front of house sound man, no "sound board". if turned up decently loud, they would distort just like a guitar amp. The Marshall PA was literally a Marshall Super Lead amp head with 4 channels and volume controls instead of 2, and 8 inputs instead of 4. And they sound exactly like a Super Lead. Paul Kossoff of Free used a Marshall PA as his amplifier. That was the entire reason for extremely large guitar amps, the PA was used mostly for vocals and drums. The guitar and bass amps HAD to be extremely loud.
Geez if there really was a band out there that didn't get any fan to show up at a signing, that's just heartbreaking. Also knowing myself now, I feel like if I was in the hippie era, I definitely would have been doing drugs. Not that anyone should obviously. PSA: No Drugs!
Some fun facts. There wasn't a script. Turned the cameras on and improvised the scene. Nigel (Christopher guest) is Jamie lee curtis' husband. Lots of cameos. Artie phufkin is paul Schaffer. David lettermans band leader. Mime is money. Is Billy crystal. .
13:53 -- the gorgeous TSA agent was also in 48 Hrs, another GenX flick that I wish more people would react to. You ain't seen Eddie Murphy until you've seen his breakout movie.
