Before I saw This is Spinal Tap my life was comedically a shambles. I was using bits and pieces of whatever early 80s sitcoms happened to drift through my transum, be they Three of a Kind or Kelly Monteith. Like most British Tap fans, I first saw this film on late night TV in about 1985, and I wasn't completely sure if what I was watching was real or not. Later I discovered that a whole group of people had not only seen it once, but they had watched it again. And again. And again. Most of them could recite large chunks of the film's dialogue. Some of them could even play the songs on their guitars. Like a classic album, it is a film which withstands playing over a period of years, and its current welcome re-release offers many fans of old their first chance to see it on the big screen as well as introducing it to a brand new audience.
For the uninitiated, the film is a faux documentary charting the highs but more often lows of Britain's loudest rock band on their ill-fated 1983 North American tour. Attempts to promote their new album 'Smell the Glove' become increasingly desperate and their proposed stadium tour is reduced to gigs in puppets theatres and air force bases. There are too many astoundingly good things in the film to list here and longtime viewers will have their own favourites, but highlights include the notorious Stonehenge stage performance, the backstage minibread tantrums and the disastrous decision not to mix the new album in Dobly.
What makes this film truly a classic is the care and detail devoted to it by an all-American cast (with uncannily accurate accents) and crew: the glorious recreation of 60s pop shows, the spot-on discographies and the beautifully incorrect songs on the new album (Big Bottom, Sex Farm). Director Rob Reiner went on to make much more commercially successful films (When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride), and many of the cast have continued to ply their spoofing trade (Harry Shearer aka bassplayer Derek Smalls is the voice behind Mr Burns in The Simpsons). But This is Spinal Tap will always remain their crowning glory, and after nearly 20 years is still goes up to 11.
