helterskelter.ca

This Is SPINAL TAP.
1984 - This Is SPINAL TAP.
more SPINAL TAP.
way more Helter Skelter.

March 2, 1984 - 2024: 40 years of: This Is SPINAL TAP.

"Exuberance, raw power and punctuality": where real rocknroll lays.

One of England's loudest band, featuring wireless-guitars, none more black album-artwork and a mini Stonehenge ...all in the saddest of all keys: D-Minor. Mocking rocknroll and pushing black-humor into the stratosphere, with spontaneous human-combustion and infinite sustain, SPINAL TAP became the ultimate zinger in rock. So rowdy and dangerous that the band's official-logo even includes an umlaut on the "N" !

This unique rocknroll continuum is:
- Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins on vocals and guitar,
- Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel on lead-guitar,
- Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls on bass-guitar
...and a vast array of dead drummers.

"I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on stage that was in danger of being crushed, by a dwarf !" - David On tour, promoting their soon to be release Smell The Glove LP, the returned SPINAL TAP tours America, in a very different era then their last glorious 1976 Tour. Filmed as a documentary, or rockumentary by Rob Reiner as Marty DiBergi, we follow the band on the road along the usual rocknroll shenanigans, yet this band seems cursed. After the demise of too many to name percussionists, the doomed tour hits rock-bottom with many cancelled dates, malfunctioning stage-props, odd catering, inner band tensions, exiting manager and even an unexpected performance in an Air Force Base. Yet through adversity and resiliance, the wounded SPINAL TAP would end up on top of the Charts ...in Japan.

"Forget this, fuck the napkin !!!" - Ian Immensely funny, immensely real and immensely British, they rock the fine line between stupid and clever. This Is SPINAL TAP is a mirror towards rock-stardom and all of the attached excruciating minutia. Representing mostly late 70s and early 80s hardrock / heavymetal clichés, the movie indirectly pokes fun at the excesses of BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, JUDAS PRIEST, MEAT LOAF and VAN HALEN ...to name a few. And yes, the dysfunctional TAP even has their own version of Yoko.

"I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really" - Nigel Now tour-bus favorite and rockers delight, this one of a kind 82min up-to-eleven exposition is so aesthetically, culturally and historically important, that the movie was eventually archived at the National Film Registry in 2002. So deadly close to reality that a lot of then industry-people and musicians though SPINAL TAP were a real recording and touring band ...probably the best critique money can't buy. A lethal mix: a mockery filled rock-documentary: a mockumentary.

"I feel my role in the band is to be kind of in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water." - Derek But wait there's more ...as these fine actors are also boni fide musicians. The matching heavy duty rocknroll soundtrack was obviously released with a full none more black album-artwork, but also featured all three actors in writing and performance-mode. Not only comedic-artists, but rock-artists as well ...a full 360° experience.

"What day did the Lord create SPINAL TAP and couldn't he have rested on that day too ?" - a reviewer Through time, from jazz / blues to blues / jazz, the term "Spinal Tap" became synonymous with irony, blatantness and über buffoonery in rocknroll's lexicon. Now integral part of pop-culture, SPINAL TAP is the very essence of rocknroll lifestyle and teenage-rebellion. Eight years after their successful tour of Japan, the infernal trio did come back, with a new drummer and the divine majesty of rock: 1992's Break Like The Wind CD.

RIP John "Stumpy" Pepys AKA drummer (19XX-1966)
RIP Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs AKA drummer (19XX-1967)
RIP Peter "James" Bond AKA drummer (19XX-1977)
RIP Mick Shrimpton AKA drummer (19XX-1982)
RIP Bruno Kirby AKA limo driver (1949-2006)
RIP Wonderfull Smith AKA janitor (1911-2008)
RIP Paul Benedict AKA Tucker (1938-2008)
RIP Patrick Macnee AKA Sir Denis Eton-Hogg (1922-2015)
RIP Charles Levin AKA music store manager (1949-2019)
RIP Fred Wikkard AKA Lieutenant (1933-2020)
RIP Tony Hendra AKA Ian Faith (1941-2021)
RIP Howard Hesseman AKA Ladd (1940-2022)
RIP Ric Parnell AKA Mick Shrimpton (1951-2022)

*
This Is SPINAL TAP = movie-trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N63XSUpe-0o
This Is SPINAL TAP = soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9aThIovMA&list=OLAK5uy_k5nYaT0E0S0EfFABherCDEQdVzlQTcL2I
Hell Hole = video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk9aThIovMA
Interview in 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVDVx5WuGf4

more SPINAL TAP:

#Freddie Mercury Tribute