Spinal Tap

Battling with exploding drummers, mini Stonehenges and amplifiers with an excessive volume level, Christopher Guest's comic creations have reached legendary status as the cult heavy metal band who were the focus of the spoof rockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap (1984). Driven by the creative tensions between pouting, preening front man David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and guitarist extraodinaire Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), the lads produced such insightful classics as "Big Bottom", "Sex Farm" and "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight". The cult continued beyond the film, which the spoof band declared themselves unhappy about, and described it as a "hatchet job - the director definitely had an agenda to grind." Life began to imitate art when the band reformed and recruited Slash, Jeff, Beck, Joe Satriani and Cher to feature on the real life album Break Like the Wind (1992) before they toured across America in 2001, climaxing with a show at Carnegie Hall. Premiering new single "Warmer Than Hell", they played at the 2007 Live Earth gig in aid of combating global warming and celebrated the album Back from the Dead (2009) with a performance at the Glastonbury Festival and a "one date world tour" at Wembley Arena. In 2025, they reunited for the movie Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, once again directed by Rob Reiner fourty-one years after This Is Spinal Tap. Released on September 12, 2025, the album featured guest appearances by Paul McCartney, Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Trisha Yearwood.