Did you know that a famous scene from This Is Spinal Tap inspired a major plot point
in J.K.
Rowling's Harry Potter books?
Curious to know what it is?
Keep watching.
Most casual fans of the band don't realize this, but Spinal Tap was actually based on
a real-life English rock band.
In 2017, at the AV Club Festival, Christopher Guest talked about the origins of the band
during a question and answer segment with fans.
He humorously recalled a story in 1974 when he was checking into a hotel in Los Angeles,
and in front of him was an English rock band arguing amongst themselves about lost equipment.
The manager asked the bass player where his instrument was, and the oblivious bassist
responded by saying he didn't know.
A hilarious back-and-forth ensued, with the manager and musician arguing about where the
bass was for a full 15 minutes.
The incident crystallized in Guest's mind and went on to inspire Spinal Tap a decade
later.
He called it the happiest moment of his life apart from the first time he met his wife.
Also during the interview, Guest said that many people had come up to him over the years
claiming to know who Spinal Tap was based on, but they were all wrong.
The name of the actual English rock band is a mystery, as Guest never revealed who they
were, if he ever even knew himself.
This Is Spinal Tap was released in theaters in 1984, but the band's origins actually began
years earlier in a sketch comedy show created by Rob Reiner.
"Now, from England.
You might say you're gonna love 'em to death.
Spinal Tap!"
According to actor and creator Michael McKean in This Is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion,
Spinal Tap was created by McKean, Reiner, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer as a
sketch for Reiner's show The TV Show.
Previously, McKean and Guest had worked together on a similar sketch involving heavy metal
rockers, and that was how McKean became involved in Spinal Tap.
They chose the name Spinal Tap because it was "suitably duff."
In the sketch, Spinal Tap parodied a popular radio show known as Midnight Special that
was hosted by famous DJ Wolfman Jack.
They wrote a fake song, "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare," which they also performed.
The 1979 sketch also featured musician Loudon [LAOW-din] Wainwright III ["the third"] on
keyboards, though he would not be in the subsequent film.
A little over a year after the sketch aired, Reiner was trying to move from television
into feature films, and he decided on Spinal Tap as his first major motion picture.
While it would be a stretch to call it method acting, the members of Spinal Tap are famous
for remaining in character whenever they reunite as a band.
According to Christopher Guest in This Is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion, the band
has gone to lengths to remain in character over the years.
He said the band had participated in over 500 interviews and spent "hundreds and hundreds
of hours in motel and hotel rooms" in full costume and in character.
Guest even said that when fans come to the concerts they act as if they are taking part
in the film.
Groupies would even come backstage looking to meet the band members, not the actors.
Not only do the band members play along in interviews and skits, but other famous rock
stars reference the band from time to time.
Gene Simmons has been known to joke about having an affair with Tap guitar player Nigel
Tufnel, played by Guest, and Icelandic singer Björk referenced the movie during an interview
talking about her hectic lifestyle.
In 2011, fans of the movie created "Nigel Tufnel Day" to coincide with the date 11/11/11,
a reference to the famous scene in the movie where Tufnel shows his amp's volume knobs
going up to 11 rather than the standard 10.
"Does that mean it's louder?
Is it any louder?"
"Well, it's one louder, isn't it?"
The antics and actions of This Is Spinal Tap might seem too outrageous to be true, but
Harry Shearer has claimed that many of the scenes were actually based directly on real-life
events.
In the book Best in Show: The Films of Christopher Guest and Company, Shearer elaborated on the
real-life inspiration for several of the movie's most famous scenes.
For instance, the scene at the Air Force base, featuring Fred Willard as an Air Force Lt.,
was based on an experience the keyboard player had a few years prior.
Additionally, the famous incident in the movie when bassist Derek Smalls became trapped in
a pod on stage, was also taken from a real-life event involving Screamin' Jay Hawkins at the
Apollo Theater in 1956.
In 1984, as part of the promotion for This Is Spinal Tap, Harry Shearer, Michael McKean,
and Christopher Guest all appeared on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in
a skit about the band.
The bit was centered around an interview with the band by the weekly host Barry Bostwick.
The band claimed it was the first television performance they had been invited to since
1968, and they humorously argued amongst themselves about various trivial matters.
The band compared themselves with Mozart because of their insistence on playing as loud as
possible.
"And his mom would go, 'Mozart, Mozart, don't play loud.'
But he would anyway."
The band also served as the musical guest for the night, performing a song from the
movie.
Both Guest and Shearer were able to parlay their success with Spinal Tap into season-long
stints as "not ready for primetime players" on SNL.
While on the show, they worked with other This Is Spinal Tap alumni like McKean and
Billy Crystal on several sketches.
One of their most famous sketches involved another fake documentary, this time about
male synchronized swimming.
Most fans of the movie are familiar with their fictional album Smell the Glove, featuring
an all-black cover, but the band has also released three "real" albums full of actual
material.
The fictional discography of Spinal Tap originally spanned from 1967 to 1983, and featured 15
albums, starting with Spinal Tap Sings '(Listen to the) Flower People' and Other Favorites
and ending with Smell the Glove.
None of these albums were ever actually released, but they were all mentioned in the movie.
Since the release of the movie, the band has recorded and released three more albums full
of real songs.
In 1984, they released the soundtrack to the movie, which featured 11 songs featured in
the film.
In 1992, they reunited to release Break Like the Wind, which featured all-new material.
In 2009, the band released Back From the Dead, which featured a mix of new and re-recorded
material.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the release of Back From the Dead, Christopher
Guest, in character as Nigel Tufnel, talked about the challenges of recording the material
again, joking that the previous records had not stood the test of time.
While the band released new albums in 1992 and 2009 as Spinal Tap, they have actually
reunited at least six separate times since the movie was released in 1984.
"We have returned."
Their first reunion took place in 1992, when they released Break Like the Wind, and they
subsequently went on a short tour afterwards.
In 2001, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer reunited for another short
tour, which featured a performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
The band reunited in 2007 with director Rob Reiner for another series of concerts and
made a short video.
In 2009, as part of their 25th anniversary, Spinal Tap released Back From the Dead and
went on a "world tour."
However, in true Spinal Tap fashion, the "world tour" turned out to be a one-night stand at
Wembley Stadium in London.
They again reunited in 2019, on their 35th anniversary, at the Tribeca Film Festival
in New York.
They attended a screening of the film and had a short question and answer session, and
they even performed a small acoustic set of Spinal Tap songs.
Their most recent reunion took place in 2020 and was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band took part in a benefit for the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania.
As part of the promotion for their new album Break Like the Wind, Spinal Tap appeared in
the 1992 episode of The Simpsons entitled "The Otto Show."
In the episode, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer all do the voiceovers
for animated versions of their Spinal Tap characters.
The plot of the episode revolves around a Spinal Tap concert occurring in Springfield
that several of the characters attend.
The band performed the song "Break Like the Wind" from their recently released album and
parodied the movie with several onstage mishaps.
It might sound like a stretch at first, but This Is Spinal Tap actually helped inspire
one of the most crucial plot points of the Harry Potter series.
One of the gags from the Spinal Tap movie is the constant deaths of their fictional
drummers.
According to J.K.
Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, this actually inspired her to replace the
Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher each year at Hogwarts.
In 2018, Rowling responded to a tweet and confirmed the connection between Spinal Tap
and Harry Potter.
In Spinal Tap, all the drummers end up dying from outlandish circumstances, yet in Harry
Potter, most of them survive – they just no longer teach at the school.
The symbolism is not perfect, but it is still pretty similar and interesting.
Though most fans are only familiar with the original 1984 movie This Is Spinal Tap, the
band has released three pseudo-sequels since then.
In 1992, the band released a concert DVD of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall
titled The Return of Spinal Tap.
Several celebrities made cameos, including actors who had played roles in the original
film, like Fred Willard.
In 2007, as part of their reunion to combat global warming, Rob Reiner created a short
film featuring the band, commissioned by the Live Earth campaign that the band was participating
in.
In 2009, the band created another short film titled Stonehenge: 'Tis a Magical Place, which
was released exclusively on iTunes.
The short film spoofed the band's long-running gag surrounding Stonehenge and the band's
adaptation of it into a song.
In the short film, the band travels to Stonehenge for the first time as part of a pilgrimage.
As part of their bumbling and oblivious fictional personas, the band finds ways to parody themselves
over and over again.
During their concerts, they often have mishaps involving their Stonehenge set.
In one of the most memorable storylines from the film, the band tries to incorporate a
Stonehenge-themed set into their live performances, but it ends in disaster when the pieces are
comically undersized.
"It tended to understate the hugeness of the object."
"I really just think you're making much too big a thing out of it."
"Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea."
Parodying this in their 1992 movie The Return of Spinal Tap, instead of the equipment being
too small as in the film, the set pieces were now too big to fit through the doors of the
amphitheater, leaving the band onstage looking bewildered and signaling for nonexistent equipment
to be lowered down.
In 2009, at the Glastonbury Festival, their performance featured an inflatable Stonehenge
monument that was constantly blown around by the wind.
That same year, the band released a recording of "Saucy Jack," a reference to a scene from
the original movie about a proposed rock musical based on the life of Jack the Ripper.
"You're a naughty one, Saucy Jack."
Over the years Spinal Tap has continued to surprise audiences with their impromptu reunions
and releases.
They still occupy a warm place in the heart of American music history, and are regularly
quoted by rock stars and musicians in their interviews.
No one knows what the future will hold for Spinal Tap, but fans can only hope England's
loudest band will be back again.
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