Forum Home Forum Home > Other music related lounges > General Music Discussions
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Which bands were Spinal Tap mocking?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Topic ClosedWhich bands were Spinal Tap mocking?
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>
Author
Message
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
AfanSpur View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: June 03 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
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.
There stands Olias to outward to build a ship
Holding within all we hope to retain
The frame will be so built to challenge the universe
Clasped with the skins of the fish of the plain

Back to Top
Jared View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20296 		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!
Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
Back to Top
Bob Greece View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: July 04 2005
Location: Greece
Status: Offline
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.
Back to Top
NutterAlert View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 07 2005
Location: In transition
Status: Offline
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'
Proud to be an un-banned member since 2005
Back to Top
Sean Trane View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator

Prog Folk

Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 20409 		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.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
Back to Top
NutterAlert View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 07 2005
Location: In transition
Status: Offline
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....
Proud to be an un-banned member since 2005
Back to Top
Jared View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: May 06 2005
Location: Hereford, UK
Status: Offline
Points: 20296 		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!
Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
Back to Top
Snow Dog View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: March 23 2005
Location: Caerdydd
Status: Offline
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?
Back to Top
Dick Heath View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Jazz-Rock Specialist

Joined: April 19 2004
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 12818 		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

Back to Top
Drachen Theaker View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: April 22 2005
Location: England
Status: Offline
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.
"It's 1973, almost dinnertime and I'm 'aving 'oops!" - Gene Hunt
Back to Top
St Hubbins View Drop Down
Forum Groupie
Forum Groupie


Joined: January 20 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
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.
Here lies David St Hubbins
and why not....
Back to Top
Dick Heath View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Jazz-Rock Specialist

Joined: April 19 2004
Location: England
Status: Offline
Points: 12818 		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
Back to Top
BaldFriede View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: June 02 2005
Location: Germany
Status: Offline
Points: 10266 		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".


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
Back to Top
NetsNJFan View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer


Joined: April 12 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 3047 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 10:01
^BaldFriede's back!
Back to Top
Progbear View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: July 14 2005
Location: CA
Status: Offline
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.

-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

"You can take the war out of the soldier, but you can't raise that soldier from the dead."
          --Shona Laing

N.P.:nothing
Back to Top
spock84 View Drop Down
Forum Newbie
Forum Newbie


Joined: May 02 2004
Location: Norway
Status: Offline
Points: 32 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 18 2005 at 15:51
For some reason I'm thinking Styx.
Back to Top
DarHobo View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 16 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
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.
Back to Top
TheProgtologist View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

Joined: May 23 2005
Location: Baltimore,Md US
Status: Offline
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.


Back to Top
Cygnus X-1 View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: July 06 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
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...
Back to Top
kingofbizzare View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: March 09 2005
Location: United States
Status: Offline
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.
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  12>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.227 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.