Spinal Tap visits Stonehenge
cbcnews.ca

Fans of metal mockers Spinal Tap will be thrilled to hear the band members visited the ancient site of Stonehenge recently after performing at Britain's Glastonbury music festival.

News of the surreal visit comes courtesy of Canadian band Metric. Singer Emily Haines posted news and photos of the art-meets-life-meets-art happening on Metric's blog.

In the 1984 mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, band members — played by actors Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean — create a bizarre tribute to Stonehenge in their act, complete with a tiny reproduction of the prehistoric site along with dancing dwarves.

The film has since become global cult hit and resulted in a reunification of the mock band for a real tour this year.

Haines says she and her band wanted to see the monument but were disappointed when they discovered the entrance was closed.

"We were staring at the stones through the fence and halfheartedly watching various generic families wander toward their cars when [drummer Joules Scott-Key] said the words we will remember forever: 'Um, guys, that's … Spinal Tap!" wrote the singer.

"We descended upon them immediately."

Band members only managed to catch up with Shearer, who obliged for a photo op.

"The best part is, it was Spinal Tap's first trip to Stonehenge as well," Haines notes.

"According to Shearer, they were just making their way back to London when they spotted the source of their most memorable joke in in the distance and decided, 'This would be the time to see the full-scale version."

SPINAL TAP Schedules 'Rockline' Appearance
blabbermouth.net

England's "loudest heavy metal band" SPINAL TAP will guest on the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" with host Bob Coburn on Wednesday, August 5 at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to speak with SPINAL TAP by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625).

For more information, visit RocklineRadio.com.

"Back From The Dead", the first new album in almost two decades from SPINAL TAP, sold 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 52 on The Billboard 200 chart. Issued on June 16, the follow-up to 1992's "Break Like The Wind" sees TAP members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls unearth their long-self-suppressed studio versions of the classic songs from the movie "This is Spinal Tap", as well as six new additional tracks and an exclusive hour-long accompanying DVD featuring a track-by-track video commentary by the band. "Back From The Dead" also features guest appearances by Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD), Keith Emerson, John Mayer and Steve Vai.

"This album title says it all. We're back from the dead. But we weren't dead. But we definitely are back," proclaimed Hubbins.

"Back From The Dead" is a deluxe CD/DVD package aggressively priced and containing 19 original SPINAL TAP songs, a one-hour DVD and unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge.

"Back From The Dead" is destined to be a collector's item, especially among collectors. The LP includes the newly interpreted TAP classics "Hell Hole", "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight", "Heavy Duty", "Rock 'n' Roll Creation", "America", "Cups and Cakes", "Big Bottom", "Sex Farm", "Stonehenge", "Gimme Some Money" and "(Listen to the) Flower People".

"While the movie and soundtrack accurately represented our stage sound at the time, the studio versions of these songs on this album represent the cosmic maturation of the material, within a digital context. Also, they're louder," stated Smalls.

The new songs recorded specifically for "Back From The Dead" include "Warmer Than Hell", "Short and Sweet", "Celtic Blues", "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare", "Back From The Dead" and "the first known studio recording of the soon-to-be-long-forgotten 'Jazz Oddyssey'."

"Back From The Dead" was produced by CJ Vanston, who arranged and played keyboards on the band's "Break Like The Wind" album and was musical director for their 1992, 2000 and 2007 tours. As a film composer, he has produced music for Christopher Guest's movies "Waiting For Guffman", "Best In Show", "A Mighty Wind" and "For Your Consideration".

A fine line between stupid and clever: Celebrating 25 years of 'This is Spinal Tap'
by John Serba | The Grand Rapids Press

Twenty-five years ago, Nigel Tufnel said, "But these go to 11" -- and pop culture would never be the same.

It was 1984 when Rob Reiner's "This is Spinal Tap" debuted, and it A) relentlessly skewered rock 'n' roll/heavy metal culture, B) coined the term "mockumentary" and C) was met with a shoulder-shrugging "meh" upon its release.

It seems odd that this indisputable classic didn't immediately catch fire, but "Tap" was, in the early '80s, a new style of filmmaking, one that apparently required time to fully acclimate with audiences. Its release on video prompted a rabid cult following, and it wasn't until (roughly) 1992 that "Tap" achieved crossover success, with concert tours, MTV appearances and Guitar World covers featuring Nigel (played by Christopher Guest) and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean).

Numerous rock luminaries have touted it for its so-funny-it's-trueness, saying its absurdity cuts close to the bone. I once interviewed Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford and, when asked about it, he said, "I think they saw Priest, and that's where the movie came from. It was hysterical the first time I saw it. I saw my life flashing before my eyes. But I think you've got to be able to laugh at it now. It's a very, very funny movie, even watching it years later."

The anniversary prompted an "unwigged" tour earlier this year, new album "Back From the Dead," a Blu-ray DVD (in stores July 28) and a fresh onslaught of media attention. Also, "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," a real-life "Spinal Tap" of sorts, is debuting across the country -- in Grand Rapids Friday, at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts. Obviously, now is a good time to appreciate such clever stupidity.

Obviously, "Spinal Tap" is famous for its ruthless satire, for the gales of laughter it spawned. But it's notable for several other reasons, too:

It spawned Rob Reiner's career. Sure, he followed it with the forgettable "The Sure Thing." But his next five films were "Stand By Me," "The Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally," "Misery" and "A Few Good Men."

It launched Guest's career, too. A "Saturday Night Live" stint followed, but it wasn't until 1996 that he used the "Tap" template and launched a directorial master of the mockumentary with "Waiting for Guffman," followed by "Best in Show," "A Mighty Wind" and "For Your Consideration."

Guest appearances. Billy Crystal (post-"Soap") and Dana Carvey (pre-"SNL") as mimes. Anjelica Huston as the designer of the mini-Stonehenge. Fred Willard as the doofus Air Force captain. Fran Drescher as label rep Bobbi Flekman. And Paul Shaffer, as "Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records."

Spinal Tap, Wembley Arena, London Take That, Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester
Reviewed by Simon Price

Somehow a fictional band of metalheads can still attract tens of thousands almost 25 years later
There can't be a rock band anywhere who haven't had a copy of This Is Spinal Tap on the tour bus. Not only is Rob Reiner's tale of a gormless heavy metal act neck-and-neck with Airplane! as the funniest film ever made. It's also so uncannily true to life that, ever since its 1985 release, actual rock dinosaurs have been squabbling over who is the real-life inspiration.
A quarter of a century on, Spinal Tap have arguably been superseded by the likes of Anvil, Steel Panther and The Flight of the Conchords, whose tele-vision series is a painfully funny expression of what it's like to be in a struggling band now.
The problem with writing a review of Spinal Tap live, a document – or, if you will, rockument – of a concert by a band who don't actually exist, is whether to treat it as a gig or a fan convention. The danger is that, when stripped of the comedy context, you're simply left with a third-rate band, and not a lot of laughs.
Most of Wembley is here to worship the Tap just for being the Tap. Bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), brilliantly, looks exactly like Derek Smalls would in 2009: identical to his younger self, but with grey hair and 'tache, and leather slacks instead of skin-tight nutcrushers. Similarly, Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), the preening axeman who shows his versatility by parping tunelessly on an Alpenhorn, is thicker set but rockin', with the same look he always had, and David St Hubbins (Michael McKean, left) is still giving it the full Parfitt.
They're assisted by keyboard player Caucasian Jerry Vanston, death-defying drummer Gregg Bissonette and a backing singer dressed like an Australian's nightmare, and on purely musical merits they're surprisingly proficient. Playing the riffs from "Sunshine of Your Love", "Daytripper" and "Jump" all at the same time is a neat trick if you can pull it off. On "Big Bottom", they're even joined by some proper musicians: ELP's Keith Emerson on keys, The Sweet's Andy Scott and Justin Hawkins from The Darkness on bass.
The set spans all eras, from The Thamesmen's faux-Fab Four "Cry All The Way Home" through the weedy psychedelic of "Listen to the Flower People" and cock-rock classics such as "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" right up to new tracks like the brilliant "Saucy Jack" and climate change number "Warmer Than Hell" ("Satan went to Surrey, sweating like a pig ..."). "We premiered that at Live Earth," says Smalls, "and in all modesty we have to say it worked. Two years on, the Earth is still here."
For all the humour in the lyrics, it's the dialogue that we're here for. Like David and Nigel reminiscing about their native district of Squatney: "The whole area's gone now ... there's just a giant poster for Jersey Boys."
The funniest moment clearly was not scripted. Just as it was in the film, the song "Stonehenge" is scuppered by a prop malfunction. This time, a giant trilithon fails to inflate, and has to be wrestled erect by a team of dancing dwarf druids. "We never did get that right, did we?" sighs St Hubbins. "Worth every cent of the £10,000 ..."
A sum which is dwarfed, if you'll pardon the pun, by what it must have cost to put on the current Take That tour. Before the man-band, whose phenomenally successful second career has entered uncharted territory for a revived act, have even appeared, we're entertained by old-fashioned clowns. Suddenly, the performers huddle in a cluster of helium balloons, release the ribbons, and there they are: the reassuringly homely Gary Barlow, the impish Mark Owen, and the two pieces of stubbled mature beefcake, Howard Donald and Jason Orange, whom no one can be bothered to tell apart.
Old Trafford erupts, and so does the outlying area. The estates all around the stadium have thrown impromptu street parties, with fans perched on walls and peering through gaps.
For the first half hour, Take That's Circus tour is about as feel-good as you can get. It's essentially Britain's biggest hen party, but when I spot a green-haired punk in a Rancid T-shirt going nuts to "Pray", I realise just how far the foursome's appeal has spread.
There's a slump when they seek to prove they're a "real" band who can play their instruments, but once they ditch that idea we're back on course. It's a show that tracks their musical development from the oiled-up gay disco of the Nineties ("Relight My Fire") to the stompalong pop of the Noughties ("Shine") via their one moment of towering greatness, "Back for Good".
What they've gained, since their hiatus, is a redeeming sense of their own ridiculousness, plus a licence for pure smut. "Go on, Jay," says Barlow, as Orange strips to his boxers. "Play your one-note skin flute ..."
The hands-in-the-air hosannas that greet the chorus of "Never Forget" come as a shock if you didn't know which song it was, and are almost as spectacular as the pyros that mimic musical notes in mid-air.
This is what's known as a home win. Robbie who?

Geek Monthly: Still Alive and Back from the Dead
by Susan Michals

Spinal Tap isn't tapped out yet
by Steve Appleford, LA Times

The rock stars in the room have been at this all day. Since 11 a.m., the laughable, mostly fictional heavy-metal trio Spinal Tap has been hard at work, making the usual wig adjustments and celebrating the release of the band's first album in 17 years.

First there was a live performance and some preposterous chitchat on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" and now more interviews and a quick nighttime photo shoot. The photographer observes the musicians' scowling, mildly bewildered faces as they pose at a Universal City hotel.

"Nice," he says approvingly.

"We don't do nice," says the tall singer with a British accent, who calls himself David St. Hubbins (more commonly known as American actor Michael McKean). "Nice is for the Jonas Brothers."

Bassist Derek Smalls (a.k.a. Harry Shearer) raises a triumphant heavy-metal fist toward the lens, and lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) watches blankly in his leather jacket and shiny red sneakers. The day isn't over.

"If I could get a rubber doughnut to sit on," says St. Hubbins, looking at his chair, "that would be great."

"You mean," Tufnel asks, "besides the one in your trousers?"

The exchange is a typical moment of ridiculous, overlapping improvisation that Guest, McKean and Shearer have periodically brought to life since the 1984 release of "This Is Spinal Tap," the Rob Reiner-directed skewering of rock 'n' roll excess and general cluelessness.

At moments like this, the three humorists remain in character as their Spinal Tap alter egos, as they do even backstage on Spinal Tap tours. The new album, "Back From the Dead," was recorded in January at the Village Studios in Los Angeles. It was released last week on the band's Label Industry Records, with 19 tracks, a DVD interview disc and an elaborate foldout diorama of the musicians as action figures.

Among the newer songs is "Warmer Than Hell," a climate change anthem written for the band's performance at the Live Earth concert in 2007, where St. Hubbins introduced the lyrics: "Satan sat in Surrey / sweating like a pig. / He said, 'Is this just a fluke / Or maybe something big?' "

Fans will recognize many songs ("Big Bottom," "Stonehenge," "(Funky) Sex Farm") from the film, recorded in a studio for the first time, sometimes with such guest players as John Mayer and Steve Vai.

"We said, 'Why don't we make these tracks sound as best they can be?' " says Tufnel, "with us controlling it, with loudness, sonic integrity."

"It's just an ability to have these songs enjoyed the way they were meant to be enjoyed," says Smalls, "with royalties flowing to us."

The band's last album was 1992's "Break Like the Wind." A reunion was unexpected this many years later.

"We went in the studio and cut 23 songs in six days," says CJ Vanston, longtime keyboardist for the band and producer of "Back From the Dead." "That's what people don't know about these guys -- what really solid musicians they are, how creative they are musically."

Guest is the acclaimed director of a series of improvisational comedy films, from 1996's "Waiting for Guffman" to 2006's "For Your Consideration." McKean is a busy stage and film actor, appearing in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works," released last week. And Shearer voices several recurring characters on "The Simpsons," hosts his long-running "Le Show" on KCRW-FM (89.9), writes books and more.

But fans keep asking about Spinal Tap, 25 years after the hit mockumentary. (Smalls calls it "docu-ganda.") They just completed a 30-city "Unwigged & Unplugged" tour, appearing onstage as themselves to perform songs from "Tap," the 2003 folk music parody "A Mighty Wind" and other film-music projects.

The trio plans a one-night-only "world tour" at London's Wembley Stadium on June 30. They promise to be loud as always.

"We wanted it to be a painful experience on some level," says St. Hubbins of the Spinal Tap mission. "Painful not emotionally but physically painful and difficult to stomach."

Adds Tufnel, "At the end of the day, people thank us for that pain. At the end of the show, there's a look on their face -- it's a glazed look, but it's a good glazed."

"It's similar to enhanced interrogation. Audio-boarding," St. Hubbins suggests. "I have heard people yell, 'I give up.' They'll tell you anything you want to know."

"That was me, actually," says Smalls.

The Tap experience now extends to players of the Rock Band video game. Four Spinal Tap songs, including the previously unavailable "Saucy Jack" (from the band's unfinished musical about Jack the Ripper) became available to download for use in the game last week.

"I think it's very important for kids these days to learn to fake it," says St. Hubbins of the game. "It's very important in business, in relationships -- "

"Sex," interjects Tufnel.

"Authenticity has been proved wanting as a strategy," says Smalls.

"So we're glad to lend our services to help them learn how to completely [B.S.] their way through anything in life," St. Hubbins goes on. "But I would rather kids play this game with a guitar than a shooting game, blowing away the zombies."

Smalls agrees. "We don't get any royalties for that."

Sex, drugs and mock 'n' roll
Alexix Petridis, Brisbane Times

NASHVILLE'S Ryman Auditorium has fair claim to have seen it all. Elvis played here, as did Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Patsy Cline. Hank Williams was fired after turning up drunk one too many times. In 1968, the Byrds got a frosty reception from the crowd who sat in the venue's wooden pews, as much for the length of their hair as for their music. And yet even that seems less improbable than what's happening on the stage tonight: three sixtysomething actors are performing a selection of songs from a film 25 years old to a response verging on mild hysteria. Presumably for the first time in the Ryman's history, the phrase "This song is called Big Bottom !" rings around the auditorium. The resulting cheer nearly takes the roof off.

Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean are midway through an American tour celebrating the silver anniversary of the release of This Is Spinal Tap and its unchallenged position as the greatest rock satire in cinema history: the tale of a gormless, deluded but ultimately endearing British heavy metal band and the indignities heaped on them as they tour America. It is a film that has caused innumerable hard rockers to claim it was based on them, at first indignantly - a band called Foghat angrily alleged Guest, Shearer and McKean had bugged their tour bus to gather material - and then, as time went on, with increasing pride.

The only person apparently immune to its charms is Liam Gallagher, who, his brother related with relish, stormed out of a Tap live show in protest at the jokes, having apparently believed Spinal Tap was a real band, the film a serious documentary. "It's fair enough," Shearer says. "I was under the impression for some time that Oasis was a real band."

If nothing else, Gallagher's reaction highlights This Is Spinal Tap's unerring accuracy and attention to detail. When the film was released, Guest says, British interviewers at first refused to believe the trio were American, so convincingly had they nailed Spinal Tap's English accents (a situation possibly further confused by the fact that Guest is the American-born son of a British peer: his full title is Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest).

Furthermore, all are accomplished musicians. Before Spinal Tap, Shearer had focused on comedy and acting, working with Jack Benny as a child, then on Saturday Night Live and in the Credibility Gap, a radio comedy troupe also featuring McKean. Guest and McKean, who had been friends since acting school, had both attempted to run entwining careers as musicians and actor/comedians. They had success - Guest doing musical parodies for National Lampoon , McKean as Lenny Kosnowski, leader of a band called Lenny and the Squigtones, on the sitcom Laverne And Shirley - but their efforts also provided them with a crash course in the kind of anticlimax that became Spinal Tap's trademark.

In the mid-'60s, McKean had joined the Left Banke, a "baroque pop" band whose combustible relationship was not helped by the fact that their hits were agonised paeans of unrequited love written by the keyboard player about the lead singer's girlfriend - on their biggest hit, Walk Away Renee , he neglected even to change her name. McKean joined after the original line-up had split up, just in time to be groomed for stardom. "We got bought clothes, instruments, had our photo taken trying to look like the Beatles in Central Park." Before he'd played a note, the band had split up again. "I kind of grabbed my clothes and instruments, and sneaked out the back door."

A decade later, McKean and Guest performed together in a band whose record label announced, mid-tour, that there was no more money for flights and they would henceforth be travelling across America in a small car, their equipment tied to the roof. "It was 1979," Guest remembers, "a period when a lot of people were high a lot. So now we're in a car, being driven by our drummer, who was also, how shall we say, not sober most of the time. He would keep going on about health food, how good it was for you, and the whole time he's ?" He mimes frantic drug taking. "It didn't seem funny at the time," he adds.

A year earlier, Guest had been staying at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles when he had overheard a jetlagged British rocker and his manager holding an interminable, agonising conversation about whether the former had left his bass guitar at the airport. The character of Nigel Tufnel was born, lucklessly trudging around the US with his childhood friend and vocalist David St Hubbins (McKean) and bass player Derek Smalls (Shearer). All three co-created the film, which was largely improvised (though directed by Rob Reiner).

In theory, the gag should have worn thin over the past quarter century. The kind of music Spinal Tap satirised - grandiose heavy metal with lashings of lyrical sexism - has largely vanished. Even people who haven't seen the film know the jokes off by heart: the drummer who choked on someone else's vomit; the Stonehenge model that descends from the rafters, 50 centimetres rather than five metres tall; the beautiful piano piece called Lick My Love Pump . The most famous of the lot - about the guitar amplifier that goes up to 11 - has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. St Hubbins's desperate cry of "Hope you like our new direction!" might as well have been, so often is it invoked when a band bullishly refuses to play its hits onstage.

Furthermore, you might expect those responsible to have left Spinal Tap behind long ago. It's not as if they haven't other things to do. McKean is an acclaimed Broadway actor. Guest has created semi-improvised films - Waiting For Guffman , Best In Show , For Your Consideration - that have made him one of the world's most respected comedy writers and directors. Shearer is rumoured to earn $US400,000 ($500,000) an episode providing the voices of Mr Burns, Ned Flanders and others on The Simpsons and hosts a hugely popular satirical radio program, Le Show : it is that, not Spinal Tap or The Simpsons , that has earned him a star on Hollywood Boulevard. But Spinal Tap just kept going.

The trio have toured intermittently as the band ever since the film came out, amassing a lengthy roll call of superstars who've joined them onstage: Metallica, Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, Cher, Elvis Costello, Ry Cooder, the Beastie Boys and Jeff Beck, the latter apparently unperturbed by his striking physical resemblance to Tufnel. In 1992, they released a "new" Spinal Tap album, Break Like The Wind - the cue for much bathos of the life-imitating-art variety. Their parodically sexist video for the single Bitch School was banned by MTV for being too sexist. When it became apparent that the album wasn't going to be a hit, McKean says their label withdrew financial support midway through the subsequent tour: if Spinal Tap didn't actually end up playing second on the bill to a puppet show, as happened in the film, they still found themselves reduced to staying in "the kind of hotel rooms where you stood by the liquor cabinet and realised the floor was really wet and something really bad had happened there".

On this tour they are performing out of character, without wigs or costumes, enabling them to include material from their other famed musical "mockumentary", 2003's A Mighty Wind , in which the trio played the Folksmen, a dreadful early '60s folk band. They're about to play Wembley and Glastonbury, the latter for the first time, in costume as Spinal Tap. And there's a new album to promote, Back From The Dead , which largely consists of re-recordings of songs from the film's original soundtrack. As Shearer notes: "The length of Spinal Tap's fictional career in the movie is now eclipsed by the length of Spinal Tap's career as a fake band. That's a little: Huh? What?"

Indeed, the continuing career of Spinal Tap seems to baffle its participants as much as it would an impartial observer. "I don't think we've ever known what the hell's going on when we do Tap shows," Guest says. "It's possible the audience are effectively getting to see more of the movie when we play. You know, they know the songs, so anything we do onstage, whether we're meaning to or not, is an extension of the film. Other than that, I wouldn't understand what's going on."

The question of why they've chosen to re-record the songs from the film for the new album is equally confusing. McKean says the music in the film was supposed to sound like Spinal Tap playing live but these versions - complete with "strings and horns" - are meant to sound like the actual records Spinal Tap are supposed to have released in the '70s and '80s. "This recording is more how those records would sound if they had really existed," he says.

If that sounds nit-picking, then at least it fits with the trio's infamous attention to detail: the intricate history of Spinal Tap they wrote before filming began, "with biographies of all 37 people who'd played in the band"; the string of gigs they played around LA at the same time, to ensure their joke band was sufficiently authentic ("No one in the audience realised it was a gag," says Shearer); the fact that every time they write a new Spinal Tap song they first come up with a suitable back story to explain its existence. "It gets very arcane," Guest admits, "but that's what's great about this, the specificity."

But there seems to be another, more prosaic reason. "We wanted the songs to sound better," Guest says, "and we've accomplished that, I think."

There's something hugely appealing about the idea of Guest and co entering the studio, concerned that they hadn't done Spinal Tap's oeuvre justice, determined finally to give Sex Farm the treatment it richly deserves.

It also makes an improbable suggestion about Spinal Tap's continued appeal: that it might rest not on the jokes but on a genuine love for the music, in both audience and band. Watching the crowd in Nashville, it's easy to forget that these songs are intended to satirise the awfulness of heavy metal. The fans laugh at the trio's onstage banter but when they play Stonehenge or The Majesty Of Rock they react as any other audience would to a favourite band trotting out its classics.

Shearer nods: "You can't get onstage and play music you hate or want to make bad. We wrote it with the intention that it be credible that a band could have some kind of career playing this music, so it had to be at least borderline credible that someone might be ignoring the stupidity of the lyrics and enjoying the music."

Shearer and McKean laugh easily but Guest arrives trailed by a reputation for being rather hard work. His Wikipedia entry includes a section devoted to his "offstage demeanour" and an interviewer who found him "rude, condescending and intolerable" is quoted. He's none of those things today but he is grave and unsmiling. On a couple of occasions, I assume he's being deadpan and laugh at something he says and he shakes his head: "I'm not," he says flatly, "trying to be funny."

At another juncture, I lightheartedly remark that the famous scene where Nigel Tufnel throws a tantrum because the slices of bread in Spinal Tap's backstage catering are the wrong size must make it hard for Guest to complain if his own catering genuinely isn't right. He looks blank - "We aren't difficult Hollywood people that travel that particular path ? we have modest backstage demands" - before launching into an exhaustive list of his meagre dressing-room requirements. "We ask for fruit, bananas specifically. We ask for a chocolate bar each, a specific brand of chocolate bar. We ask for coffee. A couple of bottles of wine." As he goes on, he sounds not unlike Harlan Pepper, the character he played in Best In Show , who couldn't stop himself from continually demonstrating his ability to name every variety of nut in the world.

But you can tell when Guest is being funny, because he transforms into Tufnel and says something snortingly hilarious. When the conversation turns to how Spinal Tap might be coping with the collapse of the music industry, Guest starts explaining that the band probably haven't noticed. "If you're deluded, you live in a place where there isn't everyone else's reality. The last time people saw Nigel, he was raising miniature horses and complaining that he couldn't find a jockey small enough to race them, as if it was a possibility that he might find a guy two feet tall, you know: I haven't done looking yet. For a guy like that, to say to him, there's this world where record companies barely exist any more ?"

His voice tails off, replaced by a familiar British drone, rich with the entitled effrontery of a thick, chippy rock star and laden with pregnant pauses, during which his mouth hangs open slightly. "What do you mean? No, it's not going wrong at all. That's what you don't understand. It's going right. This is what you don't know. That's where you're stupid, you see. You don't get it at all. You look around and see something. I see a different thing. My thing happens to be right. I see great promise."

It's confusing: a man who gives every appearance of having no sense of humour suddenly revealing himself to be the funniest guy in the room. But then, as has already been established, much of Spinal Tap's world is confusing. Despite Guest's steely assurances that there's no similarity between Spinal Tap's on-screen misadventures and the experience of touring as Spinal Tap, the line between actors and characters does seem to blur occasionally. Every now and again, one of these erudite satirists says something about music that might have come from the lips of the people they're satirising. Shearer enjoyed last night's gig in Atlanta not merely because of the audience reaction but because the band played "balls out": "It's almost physics. It's an interchange of energy. The audience gives it to you and you give it back."

I know what he means but, still, say it in a gormless English accent and it would be tough to distinguish from the golden philosophy of Derek Smalls.

Back at the Ryman, the gig pauses for questions and answers. "If I were a woman," declares one teenage boy, "I'd let all three of you have me, one after the other." Someone else raises a hand. "Could you give us some background into Spinal Tap's formation?" he asks. "You mean," says Shearer, "as if we were a real band?" And the audience cheer and thump the backs of the pews in approval.

The Majesty of Rock
by Jane Anderson, Radio Times

Back From the Dead
NME

Back From the Dead
The Sun

Tapping Into Rock History
Daily Mirror

Review : Daily Express & The Independant

Back from the Dead
Daily Mail, June, 19

The Return of Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap's 'Back From the Dead' Shows They're Still a Spoof With Serious Chops
By Mario Tarradell, The Dallas Morning News

This is a Spinal Tap groupie's rock 'n' roll dream -- or nightmare, to quote one of the song titles. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer are back in their David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls guises to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of This Is Spinal Tap.

Back From the Dead, the third Spinal Tap studio album, offers 19 tracks: 11 are freshly recorded versions of classic tunes from the Tap soundtrack, five are new vocal tracks and three are instrumentals. The package also includes a DVD commentary as well as nifty, pop-up action figures of the metal-loving guys.

Sonically speaking, the flow is seamless. "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" grooves into the drum-heavy "Back From the Dead" while the Queen-inspired "Big Bottom" segues into the harmonious "Celtic Blues" and the spacey, ambitious instrumental "Jazz Oddyssey III."

That's because McKean, Guest and Shearer, accomplished multi- instrument musicians, conceived the music of Spinal Tap to cross the stylistic spectrum. While the song lyrics are earnestly, humorously overblown, the rhythms, melodies and riffs are seriously well-executed.

The idea of Spinal Tap worked famously because the funny shenanigans came backed up by no-joke talent.

In stores Tuesday

Whatever Happened to Spinal Tap
US Weekly

Spinal Tap earns 110 percent
BY ERIC ANDERSEN, The Daily Iowan

In 1984, director Rob Reiner unleashed the film This is Spinal Tap, setting the standard for all parody films and becoming one of the most revered comedies of all time. Twenty-five years later, Spinal Tap is releasing the aptly titled Back from the Dead.

Surprisingly, the album is solid (for a movie-made band) — even if it could use a few more new tunes. Spinal Tap consists of legendary guitarist/vocalist David St. Hubbins (played by Michael McKean), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). On the album, the band re-records its classic tunes, such as “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” “Big Bottom,” and “Sex Farm.” More than half of the album consists of older songs reworked, but these versions actually sound better than the originals.

However, the big question on die-hard fans’ minds is whether the new tracks stack up.

The title track Back from the Dead is the best of the new songs on the CD — and actually is one of the band’s best of all time. It’s hard to pass up lyrics such as “Nothing’s more fun than flipping off the reaper / we’re back on our beeper / heading straight for the top.” “Warmer than Hell” is a play on the KISS song “Hotter than Hell,” and it could actually be confused for a valid classic rock song, with the exception of some cheesy lyrics (wait, scratch that — these lyrics are no cheesier than something you would find on a KISS album). “Rock ’n’ Roll Nightmare” is another rockin’ number that is slightly forgettable, but still better than the recent output of most real-life aging musicians (such as AC/DC).

The remaining new songs are funny but stray a bit from the straight-up heavy rock that some fans might prefer. “Celtic Blues” is just a bunch of layered vocals (but is a definite win with the lyrics “I loved me a lass whose hair was long and brown as the finest stew”), and “Jazz Odyssey” is an epic seven-part instrumental song mocking the million-part prog songs that such bands as Yes or Rush.

The blues-rock tinged “Short but Sweet” is cool only because it features Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and badass guitarist Steve Vai. Oh yeah, I guess it has John Mayer, too (if you’re into that).

The biggest problem with Back from the Dead is that there aren’t enough new songs on the album (though I would rather see five quality new tunes rather than 10 shit sandwiches). Spinal Tap’s marketing team put together an amazing package that will deter Internet pirates. The deluxe CD version includes an hour-long bonus DVD of studio footage, a download for the unreleased song “Saucy Jack,” and one of the best album designs to ever grace store shelves. (Seriously, the artwork contains 12-inch action figure cut-outs of the band and a mini-Stonehenge. This thing takes 20 minutes to put together. That’s 50 cents per minute of fun right there.)

In all, Back From the Dead will not only make Spinal Tap fans happy, it may even bring a few new believers into the fold. Turn this one up to 11.

Spinal Tap's new album 'Back From the Dead' is in stores today
by Dustin Schoof. LehighValleyLive.com

Tonight they're going to rock you tonight.

Get ready, America, Spinal Tap is back.

The faux British heavy-metal band (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer) is celebrating its 25th year of turning it up to 11 with a new album, "Back From the Dead."

The disc -- which comes packaged with mini cardboard stand-ups of the band in action figure form -- is a collection of new songs ("Short and Sweet") and remixed versions of tunes from the soundtrack to the group's 1984 mockumentary, "This Is Spinal Tap."

What's amazing about the band is that all three members wrote and played on all the songs on the album. Not only are they gifted comedic actors, but accomplished musicians as well.

Classics like "Hell Hole," "Stonehenge" and "Big Bottom" sound crisper and brighter. The cleaned-up sound also allows for more emphasis on vocals and that's a good thing.

In some of the songs' original mixes, McKean's vocals often were subdued and not as audible. Hearing them in crystal-clear definition for the first time will give you a new appreciation for his ability to pen brilliantly funny rock lyrics ("You're sweet but you're just four feet and you still got your baby teeth").

From the rollicking "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" to the folksy "Cups and Cakes," the group once again proves that when it comes to putting the proverbial tongue in the cheek of pop music, nobody pulls it off better than Spinal Tap.

Spinal Tap: Tapping into the digital world
By Ken Tucker, Billboard

Spinal Tap is Back From the Dead. At least according to the title of the group's new album. The June 16 release commemorates the 25th anniversary of the cult-classic film This Is Spinal Tap.

David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) have "revisited and reimagined" their 1984 soundtrack compositions. They've also included six new songs on the album, which will be released on their independent the Label Industry Records.

The album includes the newly interpreted Tap classics "Hell Hole," ''Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," ''Big Bottom," ''(Funky) Sex Farm," ''Stonehenge," ''Gimme Some Money" and "(Listen to the) Flower People." iTunes will offer an exclusive version of "Sex Farm" while Amazon will carry its own version of "Flower People." A free download of the previously unreleased "Saucy Jack" — from Hubbins' unfinished musical about Jack the Ripper — can be found on spinaltap.com.

New Spinal Tap songs include "Warmer Than Hell," ''Short and Sweet" (with guests Phil Collen, Keith Emerson, John Mayer and Steve Vai), "Celtic Blues" and "Jazz Oddyssey." Through e-mail — and in character — Guest says the new songs "were chosen by our ability to learn them. We all write everything, although some of us write some stuff more than others."

The album, billed as a "perfect combination of loudness, vulgarity and a pinch of evil," was produced by CJ Vanston. "He's got great ears," Guest says. "He hears loud the way most producers hear soft."

Noting the tracks are louder because they're digital, Guest adds, "We've always burned with the desire to have people hear these songs as they were meant to be heard — with performance royalties flowing to us."

The physical release will include a pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge. The group will also release an 11-inch, limited-edition vinyl album.

Touring acoustically in recent months on the Unwigged & Unplugged tour, McKean, Guest and Shearer will appear at the United Kingdom's Glastonbury Festival (June 27). A "one night only world tour" is set for June 30 at Wembley Arena in London.

Videoclips from the original movie are on YouTube and Daily Motion, among other outlets, and a Blu-ray version of the movie is due July 14.

Shearer (in character) says the group intends to stay active. "There are no chapters in this book, only page numbers," he writes in an e-mail. "There will be many future projects."

Spinal Tap - Back From The Dead Review
by Dan Marsicano, 411mania.com

In 1984, the world was given Spinal Tap, the greatest heavy metal band that nobody had ever heard of. Vocalist/guitarist David St. Hubbins, guitarist/vocalist Nigel Tufnel, and bassist/backing vocalist Derek Smalls, along with a revolving door of currently-deceased drummers, made their presence well-known with the documentary, “This Is Spinal Tap.” Winning over critics and metal fans with an in-depth look at the twenty-plus year career of the British trio, the documentary is still considered the best movie ever made about a British heavy metal band touring the United States in support of a new album called Smell The Glove.

In the shadow of the 25th anniversary of the legendary documentary, Spinal Tap has returned with their first album in 17 years, Back From The Dead. A collection of re-recordings, interspersed with a few new tunes, Back From The Dead still shows that the band has a lot of life left in them, and that they have once again resurrected a staling genre. The old songs sound more powerful, with a modern production adding a major punch to all the instruments, and the new songs are both hilarious and catchy.

Spinal Tap could have easily just repackaged their early material with a glossy finish, but that wouldn’t be the metal thing to do. No, the band goes back into the studio and plays through their old favorites again, with a few changes here and there. The sands of time have seemed to pass over Spinal Tap, as the songs still sound fresh after all these years. Stand-outs like “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” and “Stonehenge” still pack quite a punch and just like wine, age has given the band full flavor and taste.

A few of the tracks were reworked and given an extensive makeover. “Sex Farm” is now a blast from the funk past, as if George Clinton and KC and the Sunshine Band got horny and had a sexy offspring. Horns blare, the bass is loud as hell, and Hubbins gravitates towards the groove with ease, as if he was made to funk it all night long. “(Listen To The) Flower People,” a product of the late 60s, is back with a reggae-flavored twist. The song’s message of peace and love is still strong, but now it’s the perfect song for a day at the beach, sitting in front of a burning bonfire with that special someone.

Most of the songs from the band’s extensive catalog are front and center on Back From The Dead. For the first time, Spinal Tap fans finally get their hands on the full-length “Jazz Oddyssey.” A forgotten gem from the band’s latter-day catalog, the instrumental is broken up into three easy-to-digest parts. It’s too bad they couldn’t put it all together, but that would probably cause a black hole to form due to the sheer awesomeness that would emit from the combination.

The other new tracks are almost as strong as the classics. The title track has a creepy vibe, with lyrics of resurrection and skeletons rising their bony fingers towards the sky. “Short and Sweet” is a misleading title, as the song goes into a seven-minute jam that features guest guitarists John Mayer, Steve Vai, and Phil Collen. While none of them can match the technical ability of Nigel Tufnel, they each compliment Spinal Tap well. If Nigel ever left the band, any one of these guitarist would be privileged to attempt to step into those massive shoes of his.

Finding a criticism of Back From The Dead is liking finding something wrong with “Freddy Got Fingered;” it’s next to impossible. If this reviewer was to pinpoint anything negative, it would probably be that the album isn’t at least a double album. A 25th anniversary album should have 111 songs on it; no more, no less. Why not 110, you may ask? That’s not enough material; have to add that extra one for good measure. There could have also been some more new material or at least a more even balance between past and present. Of course, the big question that any Spinal Tap fan is asking right now; where is “Lick My Love Pump?” At this point, that song deserves to be released, for crying out loud!

Back From The Dead is quite an apt title, as Spinal Tap has once again restarted the lifeless heart of heavy metal with a prolonged electrical shock that probably did more damage than good. Some will see this as nothing more than a cash-in; a way for the band to take advantage of fans by just giving us the old hits and nothing substantial. What do those people know? While they are listening to the newest pop junk or the hip-hop flavor of the week, true Tapheads will be cranking up Back From The Dead and preaching the word of the Gospel of Spinal Tap.

CD review: Spinal Tap's 'Back From the Dead' shows they're still a spoof with serious chops
By MARIO TARRADELL / Music Critic, Dallas News

Back From the Dead, the third Spinal Tap studio album, offers 19 tracks: 11 are freshly recorded versions of classic tunes from the Tap soundtrack, five are new vocal tracks and three are instrumentals. The package also includes a DVD commentary as well as nifty, pop-up action figures of the metal-loving guys.

Sonically speaking, the flow is seamless. "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" grooves into the drum-heavy "Back From the Dead" while the Queen-inspired "Big Bottom" segues into the harmonious "Celtic Blues" and the spacey, ambitious instrumental "Jazz Oddyssey III."

That's because McKean, Guest and Shearer, accomplished multi- instrument musicians, conceived the music of Spinal Tap to cross the stylistic spectrum. While the song lyrics are earnestly, humorously overblown, the rhythms, melodies and riffs are seriously well-executed.

The idea of Spinal Tap worked famously because the funny shenanigans came backed up by no-joke talent.

The glory that was Spinal Tap returns
By Mike Devlin, Times Colonist, June 15, 2009

This is Spinal Tap, director Rob Reiner's fictitious 1984 documentary about a trio of ersatz British rockers, was painfully real. Too close to the bone, in fact, for bands such as Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin, whose cartoonish excess was the impetus behind the script.

Spinal Tap writers/ actors/musicians Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean seize the spotlight again this week. The group, which reunited earlier this year for the fourth time, will appear today on The Tonight Show, while a new album, Back From the Dead, composed of old hits and new songs, blows into record stores tomorrow.

There's no better time than now to celebrate the film's goofball genius. The group supposedly came to us "direct from hell," but the film is a gift from mockumentary heaven. Here are the film's funniest lines.

1. Spinal Tap carts around vast amounts of gear, including a guitar with the price tag still on it that no one is even permitted to look at. But the baddest of the bunch are custom Marshall amplifiers with volume knobs that can be cranked past 10 all the way to ... 11. "It's one louder, isn't it?" says guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest).

2. The sexist album artwork for Spinal Tap's new recording, Smell the Glove, has been rejected and it's up to their publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) to explain why. "You put a greased, naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?" she asks. "Well, you should have seen the cover they wanted to do," Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) responds. "It wasn't a glove, believe me."

3. When copies of Smell the Glove finally arrive, there is no logo, name, image or tracklisting whatsoever. The LPs are completely black, forcing the band to put a positive spin on a bad situation. "Something about this is so black," Tufnel says. "How much more black could this be? And the answer is: None. None more black."

4. Backstage banality is skewered delightfully when Tufnel can't get his head around the miniature rye bread on a finger-food deli tray. The green olives, some of which have pimientos, some of which do not, eventually put him over the top. "It does disturb me, but I rise above it. I'm a professional."

5. The image of the band, lost in the bowels of an arena and unable to find the stage, is rightfully entrenched in pop-culture history. The capper is the refrain, "Hello, Cleveland!"

6. One of the worst in-store appearances in history winds down with record label promo rep Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer of The Late Show With David Letterman fame) taking full blame for the fiasco. "Do me a favour. Just kick my ass, OK? Kick this ass for a man, that's all. Kick my ass. Enjoy. Come on. I'm not asking, I'm telling with this. Kick my ass."

7. Dwindling concert ticket sales midway through Spinal Tap's tour of the U.S. prompt a radical idea: To expand the song Stonehenge with rock-opera flourishes. It goes horribly awry when the set arrives on stage, and it's 18 inches tall rather than 18 feet. "I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf," says singer-guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean). "That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

8. Twenty-three drummers passed through the ranks of Spinal Tap, each meeting an untimely death. One died in a bizarre gardening accident, while another choked on someone else's vomit. Peter "James" Bond had the worst fate of all -- death via spontaneous combustion. "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year," argues St. Hubbins, "it's just not widely reported."

9. There are a dozen deadly cameos in the film, including a brief but memorable turn from Bruno Kirby as a bitter, Sinatra-loving limo driver. The king of sting is Billy Crystal, making his moment count as a cocktail party waiter dressed in a mime costume. He quips to a fellow mime not moving fast enough, "C'mon, don't talk back. Mime is money."

10. Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) is the buffer between the band's two leads. "David and Nigel are like poets, you know, like Shelley or Byron, or people like that. The two totally distinct types of visionaries; it's like fire and ice, and I feel my role in the band is to be kind of the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water, in a sense."

NEW SPINAL TAP ALBUM ARTWORK TAKES 20 MINUTES TO ASSEMBLE
Metal Sucks, Vince Neilstein

The same band that brought you the blackest album of all time has once against revolutionized the art of packaging recorded music by releasing the deluxe edition of their new album, Back From The Dead in a fold-out cardboard digipak — featuring 12-inch tall cut-outs of the band members — that takes 20 minutes to assemble.

The new disc from the legendary Spinal Tap drops next Tuesday, June 16th. It will include studio versions of tracks like "Big Bottom" and "Hell Hole" that were performed live in the 1984 This Is Spinal Tap mockumentary and featured on its soundtrack. Back From The Dead will also include a three-part version of "Jazz Odyssey," a reggae version of "(Listen To The) Flower People" and newer songs including "Warmer Than Hell," "Celtic Blues" and "Rock ‘N' Roll Nightmare."

"While the movie and soundtrack accurately represented our stage sound at the time, the studio versions of these songs on this album represent the cosmic maturation of the material, within a digital context," said bassist Derek Smalls to ChartAttack.com. "Also, they're louder."

The deluxe edition of the CD comes with the aforementioned diorama ... as well as a one-hour DVD.

New Spinal Tap CD, Some Assembly Required
Metal Insider, Bram Teitelman

When Spinal Tap's first album in 17 years, Back From the Dead, is released this coming Tuesday, it will be Tap fan nirvana. Not only does the disc feature re-recorded classics and some new songs, it also comes with a one-hour DVD and an elaborate fold-out diorama of the band as 12-inch action figures with, of course, Stonehenge. But what takes longer, assembling the package or finding your way to the stage in Cleveland? According to chartattack.com, it takes about 20 minutes to assemble.


Don't get frustrated with this thing. It looks easy to assemble and is once you get it, but it might take you more than five minutes to figure it out. It's also very easy to rip or break, so you have to be patient while putting it together.

For the record, Metal Insider tried to assemble the package, but realized that we a) couldn't follow the Ikea-like simple directions included and b) didn't get our masters degrees in advanced origami, so decided to come back to it later.

Spinal Tap's Brilliant Album Artwork
SMN NEWS

SPINAL TAP never cease to amaze. Artwork for Back From the Dead has been released - and it requires having your paper folding skills maxed out to 450 and your puzzle character leveled to 80.

The glory that was Spinal Tap returns
By Mike Devlin, Times Colonist

his is Spinal Tap, director Rob Reiner's fictitious 1984 documentary about a trio of ersatz British rockers, was painfully real. Too close to the bone, in fact, for bands such as Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin, whose cartoonish excess was the impetus behind the script.

Spinal Tap writers/ actors/musicians Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean seize the spotlight again this week. The group, which reunited earlier this year for the fourth time, will appear today on The Tonight Show, while a new album, Back From the Dead, composed of old hits and new songs, blows into record stores tomorrow.

There's no better time than now to celebrate the film's goofball genius. The group supposedly came to us "direct from hell," but the film is a gift from mockumentary heaven. Here are the film's funniest lines.

1. Spinal Tap carts around vast amounts of gear, including a guitar with the price tag still on it that no one is even permitted to look at. But the baddest of the bunch are custom Marshall amplifiers with volume knobs that can be cranked past 10 all the way to ... 11. "It's one louder, isn't it?" says guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest).

2. The sexist album artwork for Spinal Tap's new recording, Smell the Glove, has been rejected and it's up to their publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) to explain why. "You put a greased, naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it. You don't find that offensive? You don't find that sexist?" she asks. "Well, you should have seen the cover they wanted to do," Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) responds. "It wasn't a glove, believe me."

3. When copies of Smell the Glove finally arrive, there is no logo, name, image or tracklisting whatsoever. The LPs are completely black, forcing the band to put a positive spin on a bad situation. "Something about this is so black," Tufnel says. "How much more black could this be? And the answer is: None. None more black."

4. Backstage banality is skewered delightfully when Tufnel can't get his head around the miniature rye bread on a finger-food deli tray. The green olives, some of which have pimientos, some of which do not, eventually put him over the top. "It does disturb me, but I rise above it. I'm a professional."

5. The image of the band, lost in the bowels of an arena and unable to find the stage, is rightfully entrenched in pop-culture history. The capper is the refrain, "Hello, Cleveland!"

6. One of the worst in-store appearances in history winds down with record label promo rep Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer of The Late Show With David Letterman fame) taking full blame for the fiasco. "Do me a favour. Just kick my ass, OK? Kick this ass for a man, that's all. Kick my ass. Enjoy. Come on. I'm not asking, I'm telling with this. Kick my ass."

7. Dwindling concert ticket sales midway through Spinal Tap's tour of the U.S. prompt a radical idea: To expand the song Stonehenge with rock-opera flourishes. It goes horribly awry when the set arrives on stage, and it's 18 inches tall rather than 18 feet. "I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf," says singer-guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean). "That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

8. Twenty-three drummers passed through the ranks of Spinal Tap, each meeting an untimely death. One died in a bizarre gardening accident, while another choked on someone else's vomit. Peter "James" Bond had the worst fate of all -- death via spontaneous combustion. "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year," argues St. Hubbins, "it's just not widely reported."

9. There are a dozen deadly cameos in the film, including a brief but memorable turn from Bruno Kirby as a bitter, Sinatra-loving limo driver. The king of sting is Billy Crystal, making his moment count as a cocktail party waiter dressed in a mime costume. He quips to a fellow mime not moving fast enough, "C'mon, don't talk back. Mime is money."

10. Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) is the buffer between the band's two leads. "David and Nigel are like poets, you know, like Shelley or Byron, or people like that. The two totally distinct types of visionaries; it's like fire and ice, and I feel my role in the band is to be kind of the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water, in a sense."

Eleven heaven for Spinal Tap
theage.com.au, Kylie Northover

It's been 25 years since Spinal Tap strode the world stage. Now they're back, reports Kylie Northover.

IT'S been 25 years since director Marti DiBergi's "rockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap told the behind-the-scenes story of the loudest band in rock. This week, to celebrate, Spinal Tap releases Back from the Dead, featuring reworked classic numbers and new songs and a DVD of track-by-track analysis from the band. Speaking to bassist Derek Smalls about the anniversary, I tell him I can't believe it's been that long since I saw him remove a cucumber from his trousers. "It's a courgette, actually," Smalls says. "What's your point? It's stagecraft, isn't it? I mean, you don't think that's Elton John's hair you see on stage, do you?" While DiBergi's film is still a sore point with the band, Smalls says that reuniting with vocalist David St Hubbins and guitarist Nigel Tufnel for the new recording was exciting. "And it's also inspiring. And depressing. But the technology's better these days — it's all digital and it's louder," he says. So the band can finally take it beyond 11?

"Oh yeah — the sky's the limit. It's infinity for us now."

Back from the Dead is Tap's first release since 1992's Break like the Wind, and features new versions of classic tracks Hell Hole, Big Bottom and Flower People. In the intervening years, the Tap members have gone their separate ways, but Smalls says they remain colleagues.
"We're dear, close colleagues. But we don't go out and shoot snooker together or anything," he says. "We're very private people, which is why we enjoy being as public as we are." Lead singer St Hubbins has been working as a hip-hop producer, and Nigel Tufnel has a new career breeding miniature horses. "I don't think you'll be seeing young teenage boys of a certain colour driving by with booming sound systems and David's productions pouring out the windows," says Smalls. "That's not a critique — that's really praise, because what those boys do play is crap. But David has fantasies of being a hip-hop producer, yes. "And Nigel has been a bit obsessed with raising his miniature horses. He's ahead of the game, although he can't find anybody to ride them. They're tiny horses — he'd be looking for about a one-stone jockey." Smalls, meanwhile, has been struggling with an internet addiction. "I don't want to mention the name of the doctor but she's said I'm OK," he says. "She does monitor my usage. I'm allowed on now, but I wasn't for four long months. If I dare to stray into areas where I'm not supposed to — basically gambling and porn — she knows about it. She's monitoring me in real time and I've not found a way to disable that feature yet." But he's clean now and about to set up a new business.
"We're rolling out a chain of Derek's Big Bottom Burgers in the Midlands in the UK," he says. "It's taken a few years to work on the recipe: it's air-filled beef. "It looks like, 'Oh my God, what happened to her?' Except it's a burger."
An edible tribute to the Tap groupies? "Groupies do tend to cluster around bands that seem to be calling them out, lyrically, if you get my drift," Smalls says. Speaking of groupies, will there ever be a tell-all Spinal Tap biography, like Motley Crue's The Dirt? "Well if I remembered more of it, maybe," Small says. "I tend to just remember about 10 seconds of it. The crucial 10 seconds, and then move on." Luckily, he does remember Tap's tunes, and next week British audiences will be treated to a one-off concert at London's Wembley Stadium. "Well, it's a two-off world tour now," Small says. "We're also doing Glastonbury." No plans to visit Australia then? "I do love Australia, and especially Melbourne, but no," he says. "We love it too much to tour there — we wouldn't do it to you."
Back from the Dead is out now.

Back From the Dead by Spinal Tap
GRAHAM ROCKINGHAM, FOR METRO CANADA

The greatest band that never was celebrates the 25th anniversary of This Is Spinal Tap! with a wonderfully packaged new CD/DVD that offers six new songs and reworkings of the 11 originals from the 1984 mockumentary. There's even a reggae version of (Listen to) The Flower People. The Tap are played expertly both musically and theatrically by actors Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel), Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) and Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins). With the help of ringers like Keith Emerson and Steve Vai, this record fixes early production mistakes and raises metal mediocrity to new lows with tracks like the always-hinted-at-but-never-heard Jazz Odyssey. Once you've spent an hour or two putting together the cardboard stage and figurines, the joy is figuring out from which classic rock album each riff is lifted. The DVD deserves careful study as Guest, Shearer and McKean deadpan their way through the history of each track.

Tapping Into the Digital World
Billboard, Ken Tucker

ANNOUNCE ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY WORLD TOUR' starring SPINAL TAP at WEMBLEY ARENA with special guests THE FOLKSMEN
London, England – Monday 6th April 2009

London, England – Monday 6th April 2009 – Legendary funny men of rock, Spinal Tap (Michael McKean aka David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest aka Nigel Tufnel and Harry Shearer aka Derek Smalls) have today announced that they will be returning to the UK this June to play a one off show at London's iconic Wembley Arena with special guests The Folksmen.

2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the iconic rock movie ‘This is Spinal Tap' and Spinal Tap are celebrating this in a big way! On reuniting for the ‘One Night Only World Tour' the band had the following to say:

"If we're going to do a World tour on only one night, at least it's this world"
Nigel Tufnel
 
"One night is not enough, and it's way too much!"
 Derek Smalls
 
"This show will be dedicated to all of our drummers who have passed on, either to their reward or to middle management at Sainbury's." 
 David St. Hubbins.

Spinal Tap began back in 1964 when good friends David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel joined forces and formed The Originals. After finding out that there was already a group of that title, they would go through a series of name changes until finally joining up with bassist Ronnie Pudding and drummer John "Stumpy" Pepys, becoming The Thamesmen. After releasing two minor hit singles, "Gimme Some Money" and "Cups and Cakes", Pudding left to form Pudding People and was replaced by Derek Smalls.

With this line-up, the band recorded "Listen to the Flower People". A surprise hit, the single went gold in the United Kingdom and the band toured worldwide. The band's "success" came to a halt when Pepys died in a bizarre gardening accident in 1969. He was replaced with Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs. ‘Intravenus de Milo' was released in 1974and is known to be the first album to ever reach the status of bronze, which a band can only attain if one million copies of an album are returned.

Childs choked to death on an unknown offender's vomit that same year, and was replaced with Peter ‘James' Bond. Trouble began when the group sued their record label, Megaphone, for back royalties, but the label counter-sued, claiming they had a "lack of talent". When their release, ‘Rock and Roll Creation', became a surprise hit in the United States. They quickly signed with Polymer Records and began to record a new album, but were halted when Bond spontaneously combusted on-stage. He was immediately replaced with drummer Mick Shrimpton and the group released ‘Shark Sandwich' in 1980, spawning the hit "Sex Farm."

Spinal Tap's 1982 tour in support of the album ‘Smell The Glove' got off to a bad start when some of their biggest gigs were cancelled. A mistake in prop sizing would prompt the group to fire manager Ian Faith and replace him with Hubbins' mistress, Jeanine Pettibone. Shortly afterward, Tufnel momentarily quit the band but Tufnel and Faith returned for the band's final U.S. performance and one Japanese gig.

In 1983, the band would split and go their separate ways. It wasn't until 1992, when Spinal Tap seemed almost forgotten, that they had re-formed and were working on a new album. The band appeared on the MTV Music Awards announcing their return to the spotlight with their upcoming album, ‘Break Like the Wind'. They embarked on another tour. After the tour, they once again faded away.

The Folksmen are perhaps best known, if at all, for their 1962 Top 70 hit ‘Old Joe's Place,' The Folksmen have earned a lasting place in folk music history as the group too popular to be purist and too purist to be popular. Jerry Palter, Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb met as freshmen at Ohio Wesleyan and over the next 26 months played and sang their own brand of ‘eclectified folk' music. They reunited after more than two decades, and again became a popular late addition to folk festivals within a day's auto travel of their homes. A later Folksmen reunion was chronicled in the documentary ‘A Mighty Wind'. They were scheduled to open for Spinal Tap during the 1992 Royal Albert Hall show. Instead, they played a nearby Tube stop for change because roadies feared the energetic heavy metal crowd would tear them to pieces. But fear not, with a new road crew, The Folksmen are set to return to the UK to once again unite with the mighty Spinal Tap.

So crank your dials up to 11, lock up your daughters and dust off your spandex in anticipation of THE rock event of the summer. This is Spinal Tap and on June 30 2009 at Wembley Arena, have no doubt, they are gonna rock you!


SPINAL TAP ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY WORLD TOUR'
Plus Special Guests The Folksmen

TUESDAY 30 JUNE WEMBLEY ARENA, LONDON

"BACK FROM THE DEAD"
NEW ALBUM RELEASE ~ JUNE 16, 2009
May 1, 2009

Jeff Abraham/Jonas PR
(310) 656-3355
jeff@jonas.pr.com

SPINAL TAP is
"BACK FROM THE DEAD"
and CELEBRATING with
NEW ALBUM RELEASE ON JUNE 16, 2009
Album includes 19 songs and hour-long DVD

(LOS ANGELES, CA – May 1, 2009)  – This year marks the 25th anniversary of the cult classic film "This is Spinal Tap" and now England's Loudest Heavy Metal Band, SPINAL TAP, is celebrating with the release of their first new album in almost two decades, Back From The Dead (The Label Industry Records/Artist2Market/INgrooves). Street date is Tuesday, June 16, 2009. SPINAL TAP's last album was 1992's Break Like The Wind.

On Back From the Dead, Tap members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls unearth their long-self-suppressed studio versions of the classic songs from the movie "This is Spinal Tap," as well as six new additional songs, and an exclusive hour long accompanying DVD featuring a track-by-track video commentary by the band. Back From The Dead also features guest appearances by Phil Collen, Keith Emerson, John Mayer and Steve Vai. "This album title says it all.  We're back from the dead.  But we weren't dead.  But we definitely are back," proclaimed Hubbins.

  Back From The Dead is a deluxe CD/DVD package aggressively priced and containing 19 original Spinal Tap songs, a one-hour DVD and unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge. Back From The Dead is destined to be a collector's item, especially among collectors.

The new album includes the newly interpreted Tap classics 'Hell Hole,' 'Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight,' 'Heavy Duty,' 'Rock 'n' Roll Creation,' 'America,' 'Cups and Cakes,' 'Big Bottom,' 'Sex Farm,' 'Stonehenge,' 'Gimme Some Money' and '(Listen to the) Flower People.'

"While the movie and soundtrack accurately represented our stage sound at the time, the studio versions of these songs on this album represent the cosmic maturation of the material, within a digital context.  Also, they're louder," stated Smalls.

The new songs recorded specifically for Back From The Dead include 'Warmer Than Hell,' 'Short and Sweet,' 'Celtic Blues,' Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare,' 'Back From The Dead' and "the first known studio recording of the soon-to-be-long-forgotten 'Jazz Oddyssey.'"

Back From The Dead once again shows SPINAL TAP defies categorization, hop scotching from genre to genre all with moments of brilliance. The album is that perfect combination of Loudness, Vulgarity and a pinch of Evil. Back From the Dead promises to finally give SPINAL TAP their rightful place in history as "The true unsung and misunderstood geniuses of Rock 'n' Roll" and they dedicate this new album to all those metal titans the world has come to love—or at least tolerate.

Back From The Dead was produced by CJ Vanston, who arranged and played keyboards on the band's Break Like The Wind album and was musical director for their 1992, 2000 and 2007 tours. As a film composer, he has produced music for Christopher Guest's movies "Waiting For Guffman," "Best In Show," "A Mighty Wind," and "For Your Consideration."

The Back From The Dead deluxe CD/DVD package is being distributed completely outside of the traditional major label infrastructure. Retail distribution and marketing of physical CDs will be handled by Artist2Market (A2M) while digital marketing and distribution will be serviced by INgrooves. 

Track List

1. Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight
2. Back From The Dead
3. (Funky) Sex Farm
4. Rock 'n' Roll Creation
5. Jazz Oddyssey I
6. Gimme Some Money
7. Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare
8. Heavy Duty
9. America
10. Jazz Oddyssey II
11. (Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)
12. Hell Hole
13. Big Bottom
14. Celtics Blues
15. Jazz Oddyssey III
16. Warmer Than Hell
17. Stonehenge
18. Short and Sweet
19. Cups and Cakes

In addition to the above 19 songs, fans of SPINAL TAP can find a free download for the previously unreleased 'Saucy Jack' from Hubbins' unfinished musical about Jack the Ripper on the band's website HYPERLINK "http://www.spinaltap.com" www.spinaltap.com. There are also rumors that there will be exclusive versions of 'Sex Farm' and '(Listen to the) Flower People' available on certain digital outlets – stay tuned.

And if that is not enough, the band will be releasing a very special 11 inch, limited edition vinyl version of Back From The Dead.