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AfanSpur View Drop Down
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Points: 204 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Which bands were Spinal Tap mocking?
    Posted: July 18 2005 at 06:14
Spinal Tap is a great movie, but which bands were being mocked? I'm sure the fibreglass pods were in memory of the Topographic oceans set, but maybe not. Maybe you know more than i do.
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Jared View Drop Down
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Points: 19281 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 07:06

It's funny, but in interviews, many bands have admitted to thinking that the spoof was aimed at them personally.... especially Aerosmith, as Steve Tyler thought a lot of the similarities were so uncanny that he assumed they must have had the inside word from one of their roadies! (Classic Rock interview, about 5 years ago...)

In truth, I think most rock bands would like to have thought they were important enough for such an epic to have taken the 'mick' out of them personally!
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Points: 1823 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:05
I heard that it was Saxon but I'm sure they took bits from many bands.
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Points: 2808 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:10
Derek Smalls (he of pod fame) went on the road with Saxon to pick up some bass playing hints.

AC/DC, St. Hubbins said 'there was an influence one way or another'
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Points: 20240 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:14

The 60's psych debut of Spinal Tap and the lenght of their carreer reminds me of Status Quo!

The drummer situation reminds me of Judas Priest.

The Smell The Glove album Metallica's Black album.
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Points: 2808 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:18
Oh, and the epic stonehenge moment is supposed to be based on an idea by Black Sabbath, who had a replica built of stonehenge 3 times larger than the original, they took it to their first show but couldn't even get it through the doors....
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Points: 19281 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:28
Originally posted by Sean Trane Sean Trane wrote:

The 60's psych debut of Spinal Tap and the lenght of their carreer reminds me of Status Quo!

The drummer situation reminds me of Judas Priest.

The Smell The Glove album Metallica's Black album.

I agree with the Status Quo reference... in those old clips, The Thamesmen could have been playing 'Like Ice In The Sun'...

Metallica obviously parodied themselves, as the film was 1984 and the Black album 1991!
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Points: 32995 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:37

Originally posted by Bob Greece Bob Greece wrote:

I heard that it was Saxon but I'm sure they took bits from many bands.

Yes it was Saxon the main influence, but as you say it seems they have taken stuff from other nands too. Uriah Heep maybe?
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Points: 12812 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:38

Coincidentally watched the Rutles last night on DVD, one of the great pastiches. Also Peter Richardson's Comedy Strip's one hour films, first shown on Channel  4 about 20 years ago, have been just been issued on DVD, with the mockumentary The Bad News Tour included - I note a couple of  critics stating this was the influence for Spinal Tap.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007LPLRY/qid=1121 690116/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/202-0064998-4346254

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Points: 376 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 08:43

Originally posted by AfanSpur AfanSpur wrote:

Spinal Tap is a great movie, but which bands were being mocked? I'm sure the fibreglass pods were in memory of the Topographic oceans set, but maybe not. Maybe you know more than i do.

I read somewhere that it was Alan White became imprisoned in one of the Roger Dean-designed contraptions (like Derek Smalls did in the movie).

Ian Gillan's autobiography has a chapter on his time in Black Sabbath which is hilarious (maybe even funnier than Spinal Tap) and includes the story of the Stonehenge fiasco.
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Points: 49 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 09:30

As you've all spotted it was indeed more than one band that influenced the film;

Black Sabbath, Saxon, Purple, Van Halen, Aerosmith,The Who, Quo and many others.  A collection of stories and anecdotes that loosely translated into a script, as per most Christopher Guest films there's an a lot of adlib kept in.  Guest was a gutarist in National Lampoon in the 70s so probably picked up a lot from their tours.  The new DVD has 45 mins of unreleased material including Tufnell's replacement, St Hubbin's son & a trip to the zoo.  Well worth a watch.

On Friday, Channel 5 showed the Brit film Still Crazy, superior to the Bad News film, not as funny as Tap, more of a story of a 70s band (Strange Fruit) reforming for a tour.  Great performances from Tim Spall & Bill Nighy.
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Points: 12812 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 09:53
Originally posted by St Hubbins St Hubbins wrote:

On Friday, Channel 5 showed the Brit film Still Crazy, superior to the Bad News film, not as funny as Tap, more of a story of a 70s band (Strange Fruit) reforming for a tour.  Great performances from Tim Spall & Bill Nighy.

Auf Wiedersein Spinal Tap......

 

I agree a great movie, and seems to go cheap as a DVD. Also check out Almost Famous.

 

And just checking out Amazon.Uk Still Crazy/Almost Famous and La Bamba are about to be sold together, as a pack of three......

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/202-0 064998-4346254
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 09:56
Originally posted by Dick Heath Dick Heath wrote:

Originally posted by St Hubbins St Hubbins wrote:

On Friday, Channel 5 showed the Brit film Still Crazy, superior to the Bad News film, not as funny as Tap, more of a story of a 70s band (Strange Fruit) reforming for a tour.  Great performances from Tim Spall & Bill Nighy.

Auf Wiedersein Spinal Tap......


It's "Auf Wiedersehen".


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Points: 3047 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 10:01
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Points: 139 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 14:54
There’s an awful lot of Uriah Heep in there. I detected some Moody Blues, and there’s definitely some Jethro Tull in the “Stonehenge” scene (specifically the bit about finding mandolin strings). The pod scene is taken pretty much directly from the Monkees’ little-seen TV special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee.

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Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 15:51
For some reason I'm thinking Styx.
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Points: 114 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 16:28
I thought of Spinal Tap as more of an 80's "cock rock" hair band more then anything from the movie.
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Points: 27802 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2005 at 08:32
I think they were pretty much mocking all the 80's "hair" metal and thrash bands.


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Points: 653 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2005 at 16:18

Lemmy has to be one of them, i mean Derrek Small's tash...
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Points: 520 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 19 2005 at 23:04
They definately payed some tribute to Jethro Tull, the name Derek Small appeared in both the Thick as a Brick newspaper and the Passion Play theater booklet.
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