This Is Spinal Tap

Over 20 years ago, three young men made a mockumentary called This Is SpinalTap. I first saw this film in 2002. Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting these gentlemen at the Newport Film Festival. When I saw the film on the shelf at the library this weekend, I grabbed it to see what I thought of it with a new familiarity.

At the film festival, I spent most of my time with Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest. Guest and I had a funny conversation about why women have so many pairs of shoes. (We were picking up a few pair for his wife and daughter at one of the sponsor stores, support your local sponsors). After I made my case for women, and their relationship with shoes, he sheepishly admitted he had a similar weakness for guitars (the man is an amazing musician). In the film, there is scene with Reiner and Guest, where Guest's character shows off his guitar collection. I got it.

There is also a jubilant scene at the end of the film, where the boys are reunited on stage after Nigel's (Guest) disgruntled departure from the band. Mike McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest were all very kind, polite and charming with me and other festival folks, but when the three of them came together, there was a magic and a "click" that is hard to describe. These men have known each other most of their lives, and that chemistry blasts on the screen in that scene. Fun to watch this film having met these talented guys.

At a Q&A someone asked if they would ever perform again as Spinal Tap. They chuckled and said they are happy to perform the Spinal Tap material, but were pretty much over the wigs and makeup. It has been reported that they are performing in London, as Spinal Tap, on July 7th, as part of Live Earth. I'm dying to see if they don the wigs and makeup, cuz no matter what they look like, they always sound great!!