Spinal Tap
| Spinal Tap | |
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| Genre(s) | Heavy metal, Rock and Roll |
| Label(s) | Dry Clean Only; Polymer Records |
| Members | David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls, a drummer |
| Former Members | Enough drummers to start their own nation |
| Discography | Spinal Tap Sings "(Listen to The) Flower People" and Other Favourites (1967) We Are All Flower People (1968) Brainhammer (1970) Nerve Damage (1971) Blood to Let (1972) Intravenus de Milo (1974) The Sun Never Sweats (1975) Bent for the Rent (1976) Tap Dancing (1976) Rock 'n' Roll Creation (referred to as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap in the film) (1977) Shark Sandwich (1980) Smell the Glove (1982) Heavy Metal Memories (1983) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Break Like The Wind (1993) Christmas With The Devil (1991) Tic Tap Toe (1996) Tapping Your Ass Live From Hell (1998) Bitch Skool Of Rock (2000) The Slightly Blacker Then Black Album (2002) Spinal Tap Covers The Best Of Boy George (2005) No Guts, Nowhere to store food (2007) Lick My Love Pump (2009) On Top Of Her Majesty's Secret Service (2011) Spinal Tap Greatest |
“I loved Spinal Tap so much, that I had reconstructive surgery on my face to look just like Derek Smalls”
“David St. Hubbins is a distant relative of mine, he lives in England where as I live in America, so that's how distant”
“I don't know why people think I look anything like Nigel, the only thing we have in common is his guitars go up to 11 and well my... *grins*”
“He-Man may not have been part of Tap, but I certainly was!! You can see me in the back of many of their live videos during the 1980's”
Spinal Tap is the ultimate British Heavy Metal band. They define Metal in a way no other band ever could - indeed, their blood is the very essence of metal. Mercury, possibly. It has been wrongly observed that Tap embody the worst of Metal clichés - in fact, the truth is they are Metal pioneers who invented all the worthwhile Metal clichés, and whose legacy continues to be felt across the whole spectrum of popular music. Their raw live power was captured for posterity by director Marty DiBergi in the - if you will, 'Rockumentary' - movie "This Is Spinal Tap".
Fiction[edit | edit source]
Since Spinal Tap where featured as the focus group of some fat dude's documentary in 1982, many who have witnesses what they called a "mockumentry" say that this group was purely fictional. How wrong they where... Spinal Tap are as real as you & I, and Santa and Michael Jackson being innocent of child molestation. Spinal Tap have inspired all the great metal bands, everyone from AC/DC to ZZ-Top.
Striking Resemblance To Actors...(but they're not)[edit | edit source]
Tap broke new wind in molding what a true rock n roll band is, and they go about it in their day to day lives. If you hear someone tell you that the band if fictional, you can just inform them that they just happen to have a striking resemblance to certain actors out there in the world.
Spinal Tap, The Ripped Off Pioneers Of Metal[edit | edit source]
Tap's lead guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, invented many guitar techniques that were so far ahead of their time that people still haven't caught on and started using them, including the frankly awesome idea of playing a guitar with a violin! Something that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin ripped off from Nigel after seeing Tap open for Black Sabbath in 1971.
Derek Smalls was also the first ever "school boy" suit wearing guitar player. Derek would perform amazing mind blowing bass solo's, while duck-walking across stage as a tribute to Chuck Berry before spinning around on the floor frantically, while not missing a note. Derek claims Angus Young ripped that off from him, and the only reason Angus has been more know for it, is because Derek can not do it anymore since he went to spin around on the floor one time and fell off stage, injuring a popcorn salesman and two roadies, leaving Derek with permanent injuries to his ear piercings.
David St. Hubbins also said that he was first man to dress up like a female for the stage show, they however dropped the clothing in 1977 and just kept the long hair and makeup due to every other band copying the idea that lasted for the next 15 years.
Band History[edit | edit source]
Spinal Tap where originally called "The Originals" when child hood best friends, Nigel(6 years old) & David (2 weeks old) decided to form a band. Shortly afterwards, they changed their name to the New Originals because there was already a band called The Originals. Finally, they settled on the name The Thamesmen. They wrote various tunes of the nature of the current times in the 50's such as "All The Way Home" and "Wanna See Something Swell, Baby?". Once they had successfully dropped out of elementary school, they found a bass player (Derek) who agreed to be part of what by then was known as the "Flower People" and they recorded their first track together called, "(Listen to) The Flower People" which was released to moderate success, but becoming a #1 hit song in Whales where the band simply refused to tour.
The band would change their name to "Spinal Tap" in 1969, with a new direction of music that became what is known today as classic heavy metal. They also released their first album under the bands new name, "Brain Hammer" which caused a lot of controversy over a long haired group of men singing about sex, drugs and headbutting nails. Parents of America where outraged by the new sound for a new generation and labeled Spinal Tap as degenerate misfits of the devils left testicle, which only made the band more popular with the kids.
Controversial critics however labeled Tap's next album "Nerve Damage" as "perfect" due to a mistake with the pressing of the album that sent out 80,750,000 copies of the album where dispatched around the world without holes having been punched into the middle of the record, leaving them unplayable.
Tap's 3rd album "Blood To Let" sent the group to the top of the charts with the single, "How Can I Tell You I Love You (When I can Hardly Breath Down Here). Over the next few years Tap released numerous albums with hit singles such as "Sex Farm", "Stonehenge", "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight", "Rock 'N' Roll Creation", "Big Bottom" & "Hell Hole" just to name 6.
In 1982 the band was followed around by some schmuck with a camera who made it look like the band was a bunch or morons. Having access to over 3 years of footage of the band, he chose to only use the moments when things went wrong. The documentary, labeled a "Mockumentary" was released in 1985 titled "This Is...Spinal Tap". The band then sued the director for 20 bucks and a packet of cheerios for the damages done to their reputation.
Breakup[edit | edit source]
In 1986 after their world tour of Japan, they broke up, or 'disbanded' as Paul Gambaccini put it. Nigel went off to record his first solo album which wasn't very good as it only featured himself playing a 304 minute solo with no other musicians to back him up. Not to mention that a record in those days could only hold 60 minutes of music. He had wanted to release it as an anthology of albums over a group of 7 volumes, the solo album was never released as Nigel got drunk one night and mistook the original recordings on vinyl as licorice pizzas and ate them all.
David St Hubbins & Derek Smalls started up a Jazz band called, "David & Derek Have Started Up a Jazz Band". This group never got to finish their debut album either, as the "curse" of Spinal Tap followed them, they say that the stuff they had recorded was going to make Jazz music sound so good that it would leave kid's thinking Rock N Roll and Rap music was lame, but during the recording of the session, their drummer exploded and burned down the entire studio.
The end of touring[edit | edit source]
On top of disbanding they also stopped touring.
Tapping Back[edit | edit source]
In 1988 Spinal Tap decided to reform after unsuccessful solo careers. Plus, David & Derek needed money to help pay back what they owed from their drummer burning down the Atlantic recording studio. The group spent 4 years making the next album, "Break Like The Wind" that featured Guns n Roses guitarist, Slash, actually taking a slash on the amplifiers in the explosions heard during the track, "Bitch School".
Tap then recorded a live show called, "The Return of Spinal Tap" that is said to be pretty good... by those who have seen it, let alone even know it exists.
Guest Stars On The Simpsons[edit | edit source]
Spinal Tap played on the Simpsons episode "The Otto Show", they played a mystery solving band with a dog that could talk. In the end they concluded O.J. Simpson did it, but Homer lost the evidence needed to convict.
Where Are Tap Today?[edit | edit source]
We have no idea, if you know the whereabouts of this band, let us know, someone out there might give a rats bum?!
See also[edit | edit source]
External links[edit | edit source]
- Spinal Tap (Polymer Records) Official site, by Polymer Records
- DM's Tap site Comprehensive discography, complete song index with lyrics, detailed and illustrated history, thousands of pictures, forums, and much more.
