Spın̈al Tap

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Spın̈al Tap
Logo by Spın̈al Tap

Logo by Spın̈al Tap
General information
Genre (s) Heavy metal , rock
founding 1964 (fictional), 1979, 1992, 2001, 2007, 2009
resolution 1982 (fictional), 1984
Website www.spinaltap.com/
Current occupation
Nigel Tufnel ( Christopher Guest )
Vocals , guitar
 David St. Hubbins ( Michael McKean )
Derek Smalls ( Harry Shearer )

Spinal Tap is a semi- fictional heavy metal - rock band formed by the movie This Is Spinal Tap was known from the year 1984th

Band history

Fictional story

The film depicts the personal behavior and the musical changes of a rather second-rate rock band in a satirical way. The group is encountered in the film as a heavy metal band on the decline, whose performances are constantly being canceled due to lack of demand and which follow this trend sometimes with more mysticism (Stonehenge), sometimes with a new name ("The New Spinal Tap - Mark 2") tried to counteract this. A tried and tested procedure, as several flashbacks and (also fictional) interviews show: The band started as a Beatles cut, sang hippie pop about love and peace (Listen to the Flower People) before arriving at the current status of studded leather sex (Sex Farm, Big Bottom).

The band consists of the actors Christopher Guest , (Nigel Tufnel, guitar), Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins, vocals / guitar), and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls, bass). Christopher Guest is in the movie This Is Spinal Tap by Rob Reiner as British shown, although all band members of US citizens are played. A special feature is the drummer position, which changes frequently, as all drummers die under mysterious circumstances.

The film is particularly popular with musicians and music fans. The internal disputes alluded to the band biographies of well-known groups such as Led Zeppelin , The Who , Queen , Black Sabbath , Judas Priest and the Beatles, as well as the difficulties aging musicians have to adapt to modern trends (for example, hard rock from the 1980s to the wave of grungy ) to observe again and again in reality. At the same time, well-known rock clichés are parodied in the film.

Real band history

The band Spinal Tap was originally formed in 1978 by actors and comedians Michael McKean (as David St. Hubbins ), Christopher Guest (as Nigel Tufnel ) and Harry Shearer (as Derek Smalls ) for a comedy special on the ABC network entitled The TV Show formed.

A short time later, the team teamed up with Rob Reiner to bring the band into a movie. Much of the film was improvised and many hours of footage had to be shot before Rob Reiner could edit and publish the film. A 4½ hour long bootleg version of the film is in circulation and has been exchanged among fans and collectors for years. According to rumors, there is also a ten-hour version of the film. The latest DVD edition of the film includes an extra hour of footage. In fact, the film wasn't a hit at the beginning and only found audiences over the years.

In addition to the three members of Spinal Tap and Rob Reiner, who appears as Marty DiBergi , the maker of the documentary, Paul Shaffer , Fred Willard , Patrick Macnee , Fran Drescher , Bruno Kirby , Howard Hesseman , Ed Begley junior and Anjelica Huston also play Roles in the film. Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal cast supporting roles.

Reunions

In the 1990s there were rumors of a "reunion". Spinal Tap actually performed live for the first time in 1992 at the MTV Music Awards with a new drummer and keyboard player. This was followed by the real album Break Like the Wind with new material, partly produced by T-Bone Burnett . The album also featured guest appearances by Slash , Cher and Joe Satriani . The album peaked at number 61 on the Billboard 200 . The band also played a concert tour. On April 20, 1992 they played live at the " Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert " at Wembley Stadium . The featured song was The Majesty of Rock from the album Break Like the Wind , which they dedicated to Freddie Mercury .

In 1994 The Return of Spinal Tap was released on videotape; mostly filled with live recordings from a 1992 performance at the Royal Albert Hall . The video also contained some interviews with the band members. In 1996, Spın̈al Tap appeared in commercials for the IT company IBM as their fictional customer for their third comeback tour.

In 2000, a new song called Back from the Dead was released on the Spın̈al Tap website. In 2001 the band reunited for the Nine Cities Back-from-the-Dead tour, which began on June 1 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and ended in Montreal at the Just-for-Laughs Festival in mid-July . The tour also included an appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York .

In 2007, Spın̈al Tap performed as part of the Live Earth Concert on July 7th at London's Wembley Stadium . A new 15-minute documentary should also be created as part of this performance.

On June 27, 2009, Spın̈al Tap performed at the Glastonbury Festival . On July 28, 2009 the band was a guest on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. In 2009, the second album ( This Is Spinal Tap was actually just the soundtrack for the film) Back from the Dead was released . This contained old songs from the film in a new guise, partly also in Unplugged & Unwigged versions, as well as a number of new songs and was released for the 25th anniversary of the film. The album peaked at number 52 on the Billboard 200 .

Harry Shearer has been suing rights holder Vivendi for fraud and breach of contract since October 2016 . Shearer demands a fairer distribution of the revenues and sued the company for 117 million euros in lost royalties. In 2017, the remaining band members joined the lawsuit, so that the claim rose to 370 million euros.

In 2018 Derek Smalls (so Harry Shearer) released his solo album Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Aging) "in character". He mimes an aging rock star who has problems with getting older. Guest musicians such as Steve Lukather , Chad Smith , Joe Satriani and Taylor Hawkins appear on the album .

In addition to Spın̈al Tap, the band members also run a fictional folk music band called The Folksmen , some of which appear as the opening act. This was created in 1984 for an episode of Saturday Night Live .

Pop culture references

  • A flyer for the on-board radio was on display in aircraft operated by the airline “ USA 3000 Airlines ”. The description of the "Playback" channel was as follows:
Crank your air guitar - amplifier on Elf! This is a reference to This is Spinal Tap , in which Nigel has an amplifier in his guitar room with a knob that has eleven levels instead of the usual ten. His reasoning: "When you've turned up your amplifier to ten, you ask yourself: What can come after that?"
  • Also in the video game " Guitar Hero " one of the sentences that is displayed while loading is: "Eleven IS louder than ten!"
  • The doctors take the piece Good time on the album that is not the whole truth ... with the lines of text "Today you can help any / our Marshalls geh'n to eleven" and "today we gittin give anything / we woll'n yes not live forever ”reference to Spinal Tap. In addition, in the video for “Elke” an amplifier is turned to “11”.
  • In the episode "Schluckauf" of the stop-motion television series " Shaun the Sheep ", the title hero turns a guitar amplifier to eleven as well.
  • In the US cartoon series The Simpsons , Bart and Milhouse attend a live concert of the band in episode 22 of the third season (German title Der Fahrschüler , OT The Otto Show ). Harry Shearer , who lends his voice to numerous characters in the series , resumes his role as Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls. As a result, the band breaks off a catastrophic concert after an inflated Dark Lord stage decoration loses air above their heads and descends on the drummer (“We greet you, our half-inflated Prince of Darkness!”) And one of the band members blinded by the laser light show. Later in the episode, Otto's school bus rams the band's bus off the street, causing the rammed bus to roll over and catch fire - an obvious nod to the bizarre early deaths suffered by the Spinal Tap drummers .
  • According to the imdb.com website, the film is rated 8 out of 11, although the maximum rating is usually ten.
  • In the book "Divine Misfortune" by A. Lee Martinez it says from the mouth of the god of fortune Lucky: "The path to enlightenment is found in the Lyrics of Spinal Tap." (In German about "The path to enlightenment can in the texts of Spinal Tap can be found. ")
  • In the Doctor Who episode "Der Preis der Jugend" ("The Lazarus Experiment"), the 10th doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to set the amplifier of a cathedral organ to 11 in order to make the mutated scientist Lazarus fall out of the bell tower by means of a sound attack.
  • In Deadpool 2, the opponent's weapon "Cable" has a guitar amp knob that goes to 11.

The name

Spinal tap means " lumbar puncture " in English . The band name is officially written as "Spın̈al Tap", with a trema (two dots) above the letter n , in a satirical reference to the heavy metal umlaut , ie the frequent use of umlauts in band names such as Motörhead and later Mötley Crüe . The i in “Spinal Tap” is missing the dot, which makes it look like the Turkish dotless ı .

The n with trema exists in the little spoken Jacalteco language , which is spoken in Guatemala , and in Malagasy , one of the official languages ​​in Madagascar. In both languages, the letter indicates a velar nasal ( [⁠ ŋ ⁠] ) as well as in German can be found for the letters "ng".

The film's booklet claims that the band - assuming the word would actually spell itself spynal - chose to call themselves Spinal Tap to mimic the intentionally misspelling style of the band's name, Stryper .

Related works

This is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion was released in 2000. ( ISBN 0-7475-4218-X ) It contained a tap'istory , the full recording of the film (with outtakes ), a discography , lyrics and an A – Z of the band.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Break Like The Wind
  UK 51 04/11/1992 (2 weeks)
  US 61 04/04/1992 (6 weeks)
This Is Spinal Tap
  DE 79 04/05/2004 (1 week)
Back from the Dead
  US 52 04/07/2009 (2 weeks)
Singles
Bitch School
  UK 35 03/28/1992 (2 weeks)
The Majesty Of Rock
  UK 61 05/02/1992 (1 week)

Albums

  • 1984: This Is Spinal Tap (Original Soundtrack) ( Polydor )
  • 1992: Break Like the Wind ( MCA Records )
  • 2009: Back from the Dead (The Label Industry Records)

Singles

  • 1984: Christmas with the Devil (Enigma Records)
  • 1984: Hell Hole / Big Bottom (12 ″, Polydor)
  • 1992: The Majesty of Rock (The Pageantry of Roll) (MCA Records)
  • 1992: Bitch School (MCA Records)
  • 2000: Back from the Dead (download single)

Video albums

  • 1984: This Is Spinal Tap (film)
  • 1992: Break Like the Wind - The Videos (VHS / LaserDisc , MCA Music Video)
  • 1993: The Return of Spinal Tap (VHS, Laserdisc, DVD / TV film)

Solo albums

  • 2018: Derek Smalls: Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Aging) ( Sony BMG )

Fictional publications

Albums

  • Spinal Tap Sings Listen to the Flower People & Other Favorites (1967)
  • We Are All Flower People (1968)
  • Silent But Deadly (1969)
  • Brainhammer (1970)
  • Nerve Damage (1971)
  • Blood to Let (1972)
  • Intravenus De Milo (1974)
  • The Sun Never Sweats (1975)
  • Jap Habit (1975)
  • Bent for the Rent (1976)
  • Tap Dancing (1976)
  • Rock 'n' Roll Creation (1977)
  • Shark Sandwich (1980)
  • Smell the Glove (1982)

Singles

  • Listen to the Flower People (1967)
  • We Are All Flower People (1968)
  • 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' Sticky (1975)
  • Heavy Duty (1976)
  • Bent for the Rent (1976)
  • Tap Dancing (1976)
  • Rock 'n' Roll Creation (1977)
  • Hell Hole (1980)
  • No Place Like Nowhere (1980)
  • Sex Farm (1982)

Compilations

  • Heavy Metal Memories (1983)

Unpublished

  • Here's More Tap
  • Flak package
  • Lusty Lorry
  • SEXX! (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
  • Hernia
  • Break Like the Wind II

Solo releases

Derek Solo

  • It's a Small World (1978)

Nigel Solo

  • Nigel Tufnel's Clam Caravan (1979)
  • Pyramid Blue (date unknown)

Ross Solo

  • Doesn't Anybody Here Speak English? (unknown date)

Web links

Commons : Spın̈al Tap  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ spinaltap.com Spinal Tap Official Home Page ( Memento from January 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c d Biography at Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  3. ↑ 'Rock' n 'Roll Nightmare': The origin of Spinal Tap. Dangerousminds.net, July 11, 2013, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Jennifer M Wood: 15 Things You Might Not Know About This Is Spinal Tap. Mental Floss, March 3, 2014, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  5. ^ Stuart Elliott: IBM Taps Spinal Tap Actors to Sing Its Olympic Praises. In: New York Times . May 28, 1996, accessed June 7, 2013 .
  6. ↑ a b c Spinal Tap announce 'world tour'. BBC News, April 6, 2009, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  7. ↑ guardian.co.uk
  8. ↑ thedailyshow.com
  9. ↑ Allmusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine at Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  10. ↑ Spinal Tap: Lawsuit filed for 370 million euros. Rock Antenne , February 9, 2017, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  11. ^ Daniel Kreps, 'Spinal Tap': Judge Allows $ 400 Million Lawsuit to Proceed. Rolling Stone , September 29, 2017; accessed August 13, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Kai Butterweck: Spinal Tap? There was something ... "We were the greatest!" N-tv , April 29, 2018, accessed on August 13, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Spinal Tap's Derek Smalls Discusses His Star-Studded Solo Debut: 'It's Like a Pity F—'. Variety , April 13, 2018, accessed August 13, 2018 .
  14. ↑ This is Spinal Tap in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  15. ^ A. Lee Martinez : Divine Misfortune . Orbit, p. 129 (2011), ISBN 978-0-316-04992-4 .
  16. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE UK US