MovieChat Forums > This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Discussion > Spinal-tap-ish things that really happen...

Spinal-tap-ish things that really happened


Spinal-tap-ish things that really happened :

These are real-life examples of things that were described as Spinal Tap-moments by real musicians:

1) Alice Cooper: Grim Norwegian Death-metal rockers who, when meeting Alice Cooper, turn into little boys who beg for Cooper’s autograph;

2) Pearl Jam: the number of drummers that came and went

3) The Kreuners (Flemish rock band ): the time they issued their Christmas record - at January 15th

Any other suggestions?

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4) When Bret Michaels ran into scenery at the 2009 Tony Awards because he didn't attend rehearsals or pay attention when the director told him how he was supposed to exit the stage in order to avoid injury.

One can't help but remember "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."

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Or not being able to find the stage..."Hello Cleveland! Hello Cleveland!"

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The whole part about poor ticket sales, and gigs being changed to smaller venues reminded me of Motley Crue in the 90's after they lost their original singer and changed their sound. The bands taking of Vince Neil back into the fold, and reclaimed success could be likened to Tufnel getting back into the band and their new found success in Japan.

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Christopher Guest:

"In the '70s I was in a lobby waiting for a friend at a hotel, and a British band came in. This was probably '76 or something. The manager went up to the desk and he just turned, and one of the musicians was just standing there. He says, 'Where's your bass? … Where'd you put your bass?' 'I don't know. I think I left it at the airport.' 'You left your bass at the airport?' 'My what?' 'Your bass.' 'So you're saying you left your bass at the airport?' 'Well, I don't know.' 'It's your bass,' " Guest recalled, pointing out that the exchange went on for 20 minutes. "I guess somewhere in my head this lodged something like a bizarre one-act play."

I've completely lost my short term

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That is wonderful. It must have been hilarious watching it. I'm imagining how random it probably was.

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I've heard this story too. Has he ever divulged who the musician was? I've always wanted to know.

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Someone thought it was UFO and Pete Way.

Pluto is the Peter Dinklage of planets.

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During the last British Music Awards, Madonna was yanked off the stage to the floor. She was wearing some type of cape that was supposed to tear away. There are several videos online.

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Lots of stage falls. Britney Spears and Lady Gaga recently had them. I heard once upon a time that Ann-Margret was performing in Las Vegas and she was lowered to the stage on a swing in the shape of a giant hand. The hand swung forward and dumped her on the ground from a great height. She broke bones!

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Yoko Ono, the "Fifth Beatle" had to be the inspiration for the intrusive and disrupting Jeanine, inexplicably adored by David St. Hubbins.

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Jeanine is quite obviously modelled on Nancy Spungen. Sure, there might be a little bit of Yoko in there, but "girlfriend breaks up the band" is a pretty archetypal rock legend and Spungen resembled Jeanine right down to the dirty frizzy hair and Annie Oakley outfits.

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Umm....Manowar?

Nothing specific really. Just Manowar in general :-)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj6nHFLHYcU

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Iggy Azalea's management cancelled her entire arena tour because of poor ticket sales and then said it was really because she's too much of a perfectionist and didn't have the show planned as wonderfully as she knew she could and was going to spend more time planning it and have an extra super, fabulous tour next year, instead.

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Yngwie Malmsteen, Extreme... Or on a very un-p.c. level Def Leppard (who have had their fair share of bizarre incidents), Black Sabbath (who go through members like hot dinners)

Queen too perhaps. Didn't Freddy Mercury say he wanted to bring ballet to the masses?

--
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Didn't Freddy Mercury say he wanted to bring ballet to the masses?


Actually, that was Sid Vicious who said that to Freddie the first time they met in 1976 or '77

Sid:
So Freddie, still trying to sell ballet to the masses"?

Freddie's response:

"So, Sid, still trying to sell noise to the dozens"?

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I was reading an article about the sadly short life of Randy Rhoads, and this part seemed a bit Spinal Tap like:


"Determined to keep Ozzy contemporary, Sharon had commissioned a new show for the tour, featuring a castle facade, complete with turrets, gantries, and medieval outfits for the band to wear, as well as a dwarf – nicknamed Ronnie, after Ozzy’s replacement in Sabbath, the diminutive Ronnie James Dio.

None of the band was happy with the set-up. Tommy Aldridge’s drums were set so high among the castle’s turrets that he complained he couldn’t hear what the rest of the band were doing, while Randy’s and Rudy’s amps were hidden so far behind the castle’s walls they also had trouble with to their own sound. Worst of all, Ozzy was required to stand on a giant mechanical hand for the encores, which would lift him above the front rows of the audience.

“If it’s so safe, you do it!” Ozzy roared at Sharon before storming off. By now Ozzy and Sharon’s fights were such a regular occurrence that the band accepted it as part of the touring landscape."


https://classicrock.teamrock.com/features/2012-02-01/randy-rhoads-the-guitarist-who-changed-the-world

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lol

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There's the legendary Van Halen and the brown M&M's incident.

Plenty of bands have reported getting lost in the bowels of venues, but I understand This Is Spinal Tap took the idea specifically from something that happened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

After Hell Hole, someone in the crowd can be heard yelling 'play Stonehenge'. This could likely be based on the once-ubiquitous 'play Whippin Post' at Allman Brother's Band - and later, just about any rock band during the 70's - concerts.



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Oh, the brown M&Ms!

Okay, I read an interview with one of them years later, and he said that they had that bit about the candy put in their touring contract riders... just so they could tell whether the theater managers had actually *read* the contract! The band member who was interviewed said that whenever he saw the wrong-colored M&Ms in the dressing room, he'd start looking at the lighting and electrical stuff, and see all sorts of safety violations. And the band would throw a shitfit and refuse to play because the working environment wasn't safe, but they'd yell about the M&Ms because they'd found it was more effective in getting things fixed up than arguing about specific electrical or safety issues.

Or so this guy said, long after the fact. But if he was telling the truth about the ulterior motive there, that was *very* smart.

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