MovieChat Forums > This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Discussion > Spinal-tap-ish things that really happen...

Spinal-tap-ish things that really happened

posted 11 years ago by jeff5102
41 replies | jump to latest

Spinal-tap-ish things that really happened :

These are real-life examples of things that were described as Spinal Tap-moments by real musicians:

1) Alice Cooper: Grim Norwegian Death-metal rockers who, when meeting Alice Cooper, turn into little boys who beg for Cooper’s autograph;

2) Pearl Jam: the number of drummers that came and went

3) The Kreuners (Flemish rock band ): the time they issued their Christmas record - at January 15th

Any other suggestions?

[–] TejasTeacher 9 years ago

In the Genesis documentary "Sum of the Parts" Phil Collins relates the problems Peter Gabriel had during "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" tour, wearing a giant prosthetic "slipperman" costume and emerging from a stage set that was like a vagina. Gabriel also had problems getting the mic near his face in order to sing as well.

Collins said, "Every time I see Spinal Tap, I laugh thinking, I've been in that band, where the pod didn't open."

[–] wrs6565 9 years ago

Two years after the movie's release, a band called "GTR" formed, led by former Yes/Asia guitarist Steve Howe and former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, hence, "guitar." They put out an album called, eponymously, "GTR." It was reviewed by a major music magazine which gave it a one-line review: "TTL SHT."

In other words, a real-life "S*it Sandwich" review.

[–] tarheelpup 9 years ago

The *beep* Sandwich" review seems to me to be a homage of sorts to Village Voice critic Robert Cristgau, who would often do one line/two word reviews of a large number of releases in his columns.

[–] tarheelpup 9 years ago

Paul Gilbert, guitarist for '80s metal band Mr. Big, used an electric drill with guitar picks attached for his solo. He has stated in interviews at least once his hair became tangled in the drill, resulting in his having to back off the stage so his roadies could free him.

And let's not forget Ashlee Simpson on SNL, one of the great Spinal Tap moments ever.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] countZero87 9 years ago

Anvil: The Story of Anvil(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157605/) reminded me al lot of Spinal Tap. They go on tour with a tour manager that doesn't seem to know what she is doing and who is also the girlfriend of one of the band members. They have several concerts that don't go according to plan and at the end they get a happy ending when they play in front of a huge audience in Japan.

[–] eoilersfan1 9 years ago

Jack Russell's Great White played to an empty arena following an arena football game in Trenton, NJ. Here's the YouTube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm4dLrsOhGc

[–] HVMetal 8 years ago

Iron Maiden, Tweeter Center at the Waterfront (Camden, New Jersey) on 7 October 2006. I had the great pleasure of attending the show in the company of my then 16 year old son. At the end of the song "Iron Maiden," Bruce Dickinson announced that "It appears that we've had a bit of a Spinal Tap moment. Eddie (the band mascot) was supposed to drive on stage in a tank. We apologize for the malfunction."

I proceeded to explain to my son the reference to "Stonehenge," and that we'd watch the movie the next day (easily accomplished as the movie was and still is sitting on my DVD rack).

[–] Gandolph_Lundgren 8 years ago

In the early days of Metallica Dave Mustaine & Ron McGovney did not get along so Mustaine poured beer in the pickups of McGovney's bass. When McGovney plugged it in, it electrocuted him and shot him about 20 foot across the room.

[–] CBBUBS67 8 years ago

MID 1980'S

STATE THEATER, KALAMAZOO, MI

RAVEN
SLAYER
WASP

WASP was about halfway through their set when one of the lighting rigs above the center of the stage caught fire. There was a roadie up on the lighting rig on each side of the stage operating a manual spotlight. The one on the right unbuckled his seatbelt, climbed out of his harness, and shimmied across the top of the lighting rig about 25 feet, 40 feet in the air and put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, blasting away for about 8-10 seconds. It was like a poor man's fog machine.

The best part that truly exuded that true Spinal Tap ethic/attitude........

WASP NEVER STOPPED PLAYING!!!!

Matter of fact, the fire was first noticed by lead singer Blackie Lawless, when burning insulation from wiring dripped on him. He's also the bass player so it was hilarious that while in the middle of both singing and strumming he got dripped on, he looked up, saw the fire, took his strumming hand off the bass for only about 3 seconds so he could violently point up, shaking his arm, then right back to the bass!!!!

Much like Spinal Tap, WASP obviously proved that they are subscribers to the old adage "the show must go on".

[–] StarskyandChinaHutch 8 years ago

The Rolling Stones really were brainless, clumsy layabouts 90% of whose discography was either blatant innuendo or self-absorbed odes to egotism.

[–] tenantennae 8 years ago

The bonehead lead singer of Oasis thought Tap were a real band until he went to their concert
http://www.contactmusic.com/liam-gallagher/news/gallagher-thought-spinal-tap-were-real-band
I can picture him storming out like Nigel at the Air Force base.

[–] seymour_sp 8 years ago

There's the legendary Van Halen and the brown M&M's incident.

They're not my favourite band by any stretch of the imagination, and like so many others I took this story at face value for many years, especially since it seemed to fit the stereotype so nicely; but in fact the reasons behind it are anything but Tap-like.

From David Lee Roth's autobiography, quoted in an article on the notorious rider clause at http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp:

Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We'd pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn't support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren't big enough to move the gear through.

The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say "Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes ..." This kind of thing. And article number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: "There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation."

So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl ... well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you're going to arrive at a technical error. They didn't read the contract. Guaranteed you'd run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.

The folks in Pueblo, Colorado, at the university, took the contract rather kinda casual. They had one of these new rubberized bouncy basketball floorings in their arena. They hadn't read the contract, and weren't sure, really, about the weight of this production; this thing weighed like the business end of a 747.

I came backstage. I found some brown M&M's, I went into full Shakespearean "What is this before me?" . . . you know, with the skull in one hand . . . and promptly trashed the dressing room. Dumped the buffet, kicked a hole in the door, twelve thousand dollars' worth of fun.

The staging sank through their floor. They didn't bother to look at the weight requirements or anything, and this sank through their new flooring and did eighty thousand dollars' worth of damage to the arena floor. The whole thing had to be replaced. It came out in the press that I discovered brown M&M's and did eighty-five thousand dollars' worth of damage to the backstage area.

Well, who am I to get in the way of a good rumor?