10 Films to Watch Next If You Liked This Is Spinal Tap

With the world eagerly awaiting Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, Cinema Paradiso goes back into the mists of time to the dawn of the mockumentary.

For four decades, one of rock's most burning questions has been, 'Whatever happened to Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins, and Derek Smalls?' Now, 15 years after their last reunion, the fabled trio played by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer are back in the limelight, as Rob Reiner releases, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.

Returning as documentarist Marty DiBergi, Reiner (who turned 77 on the first day of shooting in March 2024) has been explaining how the project came about. He told Empire magazine that the death of Tony Hendra in 2021 had sparked the idea. He had played manager Ian Faith in This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and Reiner, Guest, McKean, and Shearer concocted the scenario that Ian had left the band in his will to his daughter, Hope (Kerry Godliman). She's unconcerned by the bequest until a celebrity singing a Tap tune goes viral and she reforms the combo for a contractual obligation concert in New Orleans.

But, as Cinema Paradiso reveals, this is far from the first time that Tap have emerged from the 'Where Are They Now?' file.

In Ancient Times

Some time in 1970, the British pop group, The Troggs, booked into the London studio owned by Dick James Music to record a track called 'Tranquility'. Having not rehearsed beforehand, problems soon arose over the sound of the song and lead singer Reg Presley lost his temper with drummer Ronnie Bond. As producer Dennis Berger, guitarist Chris Britton, and bassist Tony Murray tried to mediate, the air turned blue, with no one being aware that engineer Clive Franks and tape operator Barry Sherlock were recording the row in the control booth.

The Troggs had enjoyed a string of hits in the mid-60s. Their version of 'With a Girl Like You' can be heard in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) and John Duigan's Flirting (1991), while covers of 'Wild Thing' and 'Love Is All Around' featured prominently in David S. Ward's Major League (1989) and Mike Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). But it was The Troggs Tape that made the band infamous after the 'Tranquility' slanging match was bootlegged.

According to legend, it was this impromptu set-to that provided the inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap, although Guest has also revealed that he had been intrigued by the sight of a British metal band checking into the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles. However, a lot of coincidences had to occur before the leading players came together for the Rainbow Trout Recording Studio sequence that was directly based on the Troggs Tape.

The son of the 4th Baron Haden-Guest, Christopher Guest had attended New York's High School of Music & Art before making his way into The National Lampoon Radio Hour in 1973. The same year saw him feature in National Lampoon's Lemmings, which was co-directed by Tony Hendra and starred Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Stockard Channing. Having taken cop bit parts in Peter Yates's The Hot Rock (1972) and Michael Winner's Death Wish (1974), Guest won an Emmy for scripting The Lily Tomlin Special (1975).

In 1977, Guest met Rob Reiner when he played a friend of his character, Mike 'Meathead' Stivic, in an episode of All in the Family (1971-79), which owed its origins to the Johnny Speight sitcom, Till Death Us Do Part (1965-75), with Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) sharing the same misanthropic worldview as Alf Garnett (Warren Mitchell). Rob was the son of Carl Reiner, a legend of American comedy who had won 11 Emmys before directing Steve Martin in The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982), The Man With Two Brains (1983), and All of Me (1984). He had followed in his father's footsteps at UCLA by joining the comedy troupe, The Session, and by writing for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967-69). But it was his two-Emmy stint as Archie's liberal Polish son-in-law that made Reiner's name.

Harry Shearer was also a graduate of UCLA, where he majored in science. However, he also had a number of credits to his name as a child star in such contrasting pictures as Henry Koster's The Robe and Charles Lamont's Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (both 1953). Following spells as a journalist and a teacher, Shearer joined the radio comedy troupe, The Credibility Gap, which also included Michael McKean, who left in 1976 to play Lenny Kosnowski in the classic TV sitcom, Laverne & Shirley (1976-83), which starred Penny Marshall, who just happened to be married to Rob Reiner.

In the mid-60s, McKean had been in a band named The Left Banke and, in the late-70s, he recorded an album of 60s pastiches with David Lander under the name Lenny and the Squigtones (1979). Among the session musicians was Christopher Guest, who used the moniker Nigel Tufnel for the first time. Staying in the spoof sphere, McKean appeared in Young Doctors in Love (1982), which was directed by Reiner's brother-in-law, Garry Marshall.

By this time, Shearer had also had a crack at parody in Albert Brooks's Real Life (1979), which was an early example of a mockumentary. It was preceded, however, by Eric Idle's The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978), a lampoon of The Beatles that featured an album's-worth of sublime pastiches by Neil Innes. This must be considered a key influence on Tap, but it also contains echoes of such rockumentaries as

D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back (1967) and Ernest Day's The Song Remains the Same (1976), which centred respectively on Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin, as well as such concert films as Mike Wadleigh's Woodstock, David and Albert Maysles's Gimme Shelter (both 1970), and Baird Bryant and Johanna Demetrakas's Celebration At Big Sur (1971).

All these notions were floating in the ether when Shearer, Guest, McKean, and Reiner first came together on The TV Show (1979). Among the sketches was 'Rock''n'Roll Nightmare', a song by the British heavy metal band, Spynal Tap. While developing the performance, McKean and Guest started improvising in the characters of David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel. As they and Shearer were all accomplished musicians, they decided to make a 20-minute short, Spinal Tap: The Final Tour, and use it as a showreel to raise funds for a feature. Prospective backers were suspicious when they realised that the shooting script was only 59 pages long and was comprised of two tightly scripted passages and a list of scenes whose content was defined by their title - as Guest, McKean, and Shearer planned to improvise to give the film a feeling of spontaneity. In addition to directing, Reiner would also play on-screen documentarist, Marty DiBergi, whose name was seemingly a homage to Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Steven Spielberg. He was more than happy for his stars to wing it on camera, but he insisted that the pre-history of Spinal Tap was agreed in advance so that no contradictions could arise between scenes. All they needed now was a budget. And, while he waited, Reiner directed McKean and Bruno Kirby (who had been cast as the band's chauffeur) in the TV-movie, Million Dollar Infield (1982).

Tap Into America

When the British band, Spinal Tap, sets out a 1982 tour of the United States to promote the album, Smell the Glove, film-maker and die-hard fan Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), tags along to make a fly-on-the-wall documentary. However, he is also keen to chronicle the band's history, as David St Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) are childhood friends from London, who had previously been in the skiffle bands The Creatures, The Originals, The New Originals, and The Originals (again) before enjoying a minor hit as The Thamesmen with 'Give Me Some Money'.

With bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) now a key component of the newly minted Spinal Tap, the combo had a Summer of Love hit with 'Listen to the Flower People'. But this proved a musical dead end and Tap started playing heavy metal in the early 1970s. The transition was fraught, however, as three drummers perished in unusual circumstances. John 'Stumpy' Pepys (Ed Begley, Jr.) died in 'a bizarre gardening accident' that the police opted not to investigate, while Peter 'James' Bond spontaneously combusted on stage, and Eric 'Stumpy Joe' Childs (Russ Kunkel) choked on vomit - but, as Derek explains, no one knows whose it was because the police can't dust for vomit.

Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell) is wielding the sticks on this tour, while Vic Savage (David Kaff) has been recruited on keyboards. Overseeing the tour is manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra), who carries a cricket bat around to corral the band members into a drinks party that has been arranged by publicist Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) so that the band can meet Sir Denis Eton-Hogg (Patrick Macnee), the chairman of their new label, Polymer Records. At the gathering, Marty interviews Morty the Mime (Billy Crystal), who is catering the event with his mumming waiting staff (Dana Carvey and Julie Payne).

As irreverent rockers, the band members aren't interested in the Frank Sinatra recollections of limo driver Tommy Pischedda (Bruno Kirby) and insult him by winding up the dividing window. But they're on fine form during a rendition of 'Big Bottom', which is followed by Marty quizzing the trio about their recent slump in form and why so much is resting on the success of Smell the Glove. However, there are problems with the cover image and Nigel and David are less than impressed by Ian's handling of the matter.

Nigel's mood scarcely improves when he sees the sandwiches in the dressing-room at the next gig. But he brazens out having to be helped up by the roadies after getting stuck while lying back during the guitar solo on 'Hellhole' and enjoys showing Marty his collection of instruments, one of which is so precious that he won't even let the director touch it. He then draws his attention the amplifier that goes up to 11 to give him that extra oomph on stage. However, the cancellation of their next concert in a city where old rival Duke Flame (Paul Shortino) is playing to a packed house puts added pressure on Ian, who gets into an argument with hotel desk clerk Tucker 'Smitty' Brown (Paul Benedict).

When Marty questions Ian about the Memphis cancellation, he denies that the tour is going badly and insists that Spinal Tap's appeal has become more selective. With time on their hands, Nigel, David, and Derek visit Elvis Presley's grave at Graceland and abandon a tribute version of 'Heartbreak Hotel' when they have problems harmonising. David's mood improves when model girlfriend Jeanine Pettibone (June Chadwick) joins them on tour, which puts Nigel's nose out of joint, as he jealously regards David as a brother. Derek compares them to fire and ice and sees his own role in the band as being lukewarm water.

Jeanine's arrival coincides with the delivery of the new album and Ian gets it in the neck when they loathe the shiny black cover. Things go from bad to worse when Derek gets stuck inside a giant pod during 'Rock'n'Roll Creation' and only gets free as the song ends. But the show rolls on, with Derek snuggling on the bus with his special new friend, Cindy (Victory Tischler-Blue), and David feeling like a chump in a woollen sweater that Jeanine has bought for him.

Alone with Marty, Nigel plays a melodic piano piece that he claims has a 'Mach' vibe because it's a mixture of Mozart and Bach. The title suggests something less sophisticated, however, although it leads neatly into the scene in which Derek has trouble with an airport security guard (Gloria Gifford) because he's shoved a courgette wrapped in tin foil down his pants. Following a performance of 'Heavy Duty', the band meet Chicago promoter, Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer), who is desperate to impress them and invites them to kick him up the backside when no one attends a signing session at a downtown record store.

Having got lost backstage with the Cleveland crowd chanting for them, Tap hold a crisis meeting in a diner. Jeanine criticises Ian for the snafus and presents the band with some costumes she has designed based on their zodiac signs. Resenting her interference, Nigel holds his counsel until Jeanine avers that the album mix would have been better in 'Dubly' (meaning Dolby). Imposing himself, Nigel suggests that they could turn the tour around by adding 'Stonehenge' to the playlist. He briefs designer Polly Deutsch (Anjelica Huston) about the scenery that they require, only for him to mix up the symbol for feet and inches and the tiny trilithon gets kicked over on stage by the dwarfs dancing around it. This leads to a confrontation between Ian and Jeanine that culminates in the latter taking over as the band's manager.

At an airport lounge, a sulking Nigel shrugs at the astrological charts that Jeanine has drawn up. But, while he hides his annoyance when she books them into a USAF base to play what Lieutenant Bob Hookstratten (Fred Willard) calls an 'at ease' weekend, Nigel is livid when chatter from the flight tower comes through their speakers during 'Sex Farm' and he storms off stage. Heavily sedated, David reassures Marty that he will not be working with Nigel again and, when they find themselves getting second billing to a puppet show during an outdoor gig, David and Derek decide to play the experimental 'Jazz Odyssey' rather than any Tap hits.

Embracing their new creative freedom, David and Derek consider resurrecting their Jack the Ripper musical, Saucy Jack. But Ian sends Nigel to inform the others that 'Sex Farm' has charted in Japan and David beckons him back on stage as he watches the gig from the wings and the mockumentary wraps with a series of interview snippets and footage from the Japanese tour, with Ian back in charge and Joe 'Mama' Besser (Fred Asparagus) pounding the skins after Mick had exploded.

Rock'n'Roll Creation

Having a good idea was one thing. Raising the money to bring it to the screen was altogether trickier. Hearing about the project, Sir Lew Grade offered $600,000 in seed money to get a script written. But the plan to improvise made it difficult to produce the kind of conventional screenplay that would reassure backers. Reiner and his cohorts decided to make the 20-minute promo, Spinal Tap: The Final Tour, to convey their intentions. They shot it in just four days. But, by the time it had been edited, Grade's Marble Arch film company had collapsed as a result of the poor box-office performances of Jerry Jameson's Raise the Titanic (1980) and William A. Fraker's The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981).

United Artists picked up the option, only for it to be dropped when the company was bought out by MGM. Fortunately, producer Norman Lear, who knew Reiner from All in the Family, offered to fund his friend's first feature through his newly founded Embassy Pictures company. As a comedy veteran, Lear had no problem with the 59-page script, which was now bookended by speeches to camera from documentarist Marti Di Broma, who would be played by Reiner, who had originally been cast as a band member. However, it was agreed that he didn't really look the part and the renamed Marty DiBergi was modelled on Martin Scorsese's starstruck appearances in his acclaimed profile of The Band, The Last Waltz (1978).

According to Reiner, Scorsese was initially furious at being lampooned. But, by the time they collaborated on The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Scorsese admitted that he had finally come to see the funny side. By contrast, the musicians whose heavy metal lifestyle was being spoofed were in on the joke from the off, with several later coming forward to confirm that some of the mishaps that had befallen Tap had also happened to them.

During the research period, Guest, McKean, and Shearer went to gigs by AC/DC, Judas Priest, Saxon, and Mötley Crüe to study their stage craft. Having debuted opening for Iron Butterfly (a key influence) at Gazzari's on Sunset Strip, the trio played a number of gigs as a support act in Los Angeles and Anaheim in order to tighten their technique and few rumbled them as anything other than a real combo. They were helped in this regard by Reiner's insistence on the trio following 'The Bible', which was a detailed breakdown of Spinal Tap's history. As Reiner didn't divulge Marty's interview questions in advance to make the responses more spontaneous, this document ensured that Guest, Shearer, and McKean knew about the group's various names, as well as its album titles and all 37 personnel changes.

Jettisoning an idea to follow the tour through the eyes of a couple of roadies in the manner of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which the playwright would direct on film in 1990 ), the cast and crew assembled for a 30-day shoot across 18 cities. Peter Smokler was chosen as director of photography because had been a cameraman for the Maysles at Altamount and he worked in 16mm to give the footage a documentary feel (although it would be blown up to 35mm for screening). Lighting designer Richard Ocean was recruited to supervise the concert scenes, as he had helped create shows for Boston and The Stray Cats. Some of the equipment used on stage, as well as Nigel's axe collection, was loaned by Norman Harris from Norman's Rare Guitars, which was the subject of a 2025 actuality by Devin J. Dilmore. In return for the 30+ collectors' items, Guest wore a Norman's t-shirt for one of his on-screen interviews.

Guest, McKean, Shearer, and Reiner had worked with Bruno Kirby on the TV series, Likely Stories (1981), one of which had featured limo driver, Tommy Pischedda. Cast as the miming caterers, Billy Crystal and Dana Carvey had no priors with the Tap quartet, nor did Fred Willard, although he would become a key member of Guest's stock company, June Chadwick was also unconnected and was cast at the eleventh hour after quitting Sam Firstenberg's Revenge of the Ninja (1983). She created Jeanine's distinctive fashion sense by mixing and matching items from her own wardrobe. Chadwick also devised the horoscopes herself after speed- reading some books on the subject.

Reiner has admitted that there were occasional rows on set, as well as the odd flouncing off. But the atmosphere was largely relaxed, with Reiner showing the rushes to the actors at the end of each day so that they could refine their performances. As the dialogue and the blocking were improvised, no two takes looked the same. Despite the claim in the voiceover commentary that the unscrupulous Marty had employed a hidden camera, Reiner shot the interviews and the backstage scenes vérité style with a single camera. A couple more were employed on the stage sequences, which required the stars to mime to the 10 songs that had been recorded in a studio beforehand.

A number of scenes that had been listed in the original script outline were left unfilmed. Many more were filmed, but ditched, including one in which Bobbi Fleckman offers the band some 'powdered refreshment'. However, it was decided that any drug-taking should be implied, as it would detract from Tap's doofusian likeability. Similarly, it was agreed to drop any references to David's estranged teenage son, as it made him look like a neglectful father. Dressed as a punk, Sean Frye does appear as Jordan St Hubbins in the outtakes, however, as do a VHS clip of Derek's scene in Marco Zamboni's poliziotteschi, Roma 79, and covert recordings of his telephone conversations with the lawyer handling his divorce from an irate wife who is threatening to take out a full-page ad in the New Musical Express to humiliate him.

Another lost scene featuring Derek has him and Viv lying face down in a Memphis hotel room having plaster casts made of their buttocks. This incident references a 1960s group known as The Plaster Casterers who famously made casts of the genitals of pop stars like Jimi Hendrix. Also failing to make the cut were David's theories on the threat to civilisation posed by slime molds, Nigel's fixation with cartoonist Art Clokey's Gumby character, and a radio phone-in that saw Mick the drummer settle an argument for a baseball fan who had called thinking the station was broadcasting a sports show.

Elsewhere, all that remains of a subplot involving an all-female New Wave support act called The Dose are brief shots of the cold sores that the Tap members sport at various times during the tour. Cherrie Currie of The Runaways had been cast as lead singer Stellazine, who got to belt out a song entitled, 'Video Games'. But this has yet to make it to an extras package and remains in the vaults. Another casualty of the cutting was Louie Merlino, who played Ricky, the 19 year-old guitar wizard who is hired by Jeanine to replace Nigel. Not only does he show up the others with his virtuosity, but his good looks are not lost on Jeanine and a green-eyed David sends him packing.

Although Chadwick hadn't considered the similarities, Jeanine's impact on Tap resembles the tensions that Yoko Ono and Anita Pallenberg respectively introduced to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. But this is far from the only piece of rock history to find its way into the film. In The Last Waltz, The Band recalled their many name changes, while Uriah Heep's nightmare at a USAF base was related to Guest & Co. by John Sinclair, the keyboard player in the original Tap promo, who had gone on tour with Heep after the Marble Arch financing had fallen through.

Black Sabbath and R.E.M. also claim to have had suffered from frequency interference, while Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Mötley Crüe, and Yes all admit to having got lost backstage. REO Speedwagon once had to share a dressing room with a ventriloquist's dummy, while Van Halen and actors Yul Brynner and Jerry Lewis were notoriously fussy about their backstage catering requirements, with the Passadena combo having a 'no brown M&Ms' clause in their contracts.

The pods idea owes much to a stage set used by the metal outfit Angel in the 1970s, although Screamin' Jay Hawkins famously got stuck in a prop coffin and U2's The Edge had trouble (after the release of the film) with a large lemon. Queen's Brian May and Boston's Tom Scholz had close encounters with stage hydraulic systems, while Black Sabbath fell foul of an outsized piece of Stonehenge scenery. However, it seems to have been a pure coincidence that this fate befell the Brummie band during the Born Again tour in 1984, as This Is Spinal Tap had yet to be released when it occurred. Despite the accusation that Tap must have bugged their bus, it was also serendipity that they and Foghat were hampered by a group member's girlfriend suggesting that the itinerary should be governed by astrological signs and portents.

There are no recorded cases of drummers spontaneously combusting, but 'Stumpy Joe' Childs is part of a select and decidedly sad coterie of musicians who choked on vomit. In addition to Jimi Hendrix, Mama Cass Elliot, and AC/DC singer Bon Scott, there is also another drummer in Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, who had succumbed after a mammoth drinking bender on 24 September 1980.

By the end of the shoot, 50 hours of footage had been amassed, with much of it being in long takes that had been designed to give the extemporising actors time and space to hit their comic stride and retain a brisk rhythm. It took Reiner and editors Kent Beyda and Bob Leighton six to eight months to view and catalogue the takes and then attempt to piece together the best bits into scenes that not only had passable logic and continuity, but also made people laugh. Beyda had worked on musical titles before, including Allan Arkush's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and Get Crazy (1983) and he shared Reiner's contention that a gag had to serve a greater purpose than merely being funny. If it slowed the action or felt indulgent, it was ruthlessly culled and these outtakes have since been sought by Tap aficionados. Some curse the test audience that prompted an entire re-cut that saw scenes being removed, re-ordered, or trimmed. Out, for example, went footage of Polly Deutsch in her studio, but compensation came with the insertion of 'Heavy Duty', with its electric guitar riff on Luigi Boccherini's 'String Quintet in E Major, G. 275: III. Minuetto', which had been made famous by Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers (1955). Eventually, Reiner was able to show Guest, McKean, and Shearer the final cut for their approval. Spinal Tap were ready to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

The End Continues

Prior to the release of This Is Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer appeared on veteran New York TV host Joe Franklin's chat show as their rocking alter egos. No one had tipped off the producers that Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins, and Derek Smalls were fictional characters and Franklin and his late-night audience were bemused by the no-hope Brits whose flop 1982 tour had been made into a movie.

A lot of senior film critics also failed to see the joke, with the esteemed Richard Corliss of Time magazine fulminating: 'Until now, rock mockery on the grand scale pretty much began and ended with The Beatles. A Hard Day's Night was in part a joke documentary, while Help! functioned as both parody and prophecy of MTV's slick surrealism, Spinal Tap forfeits the good will associated with The Beatles for something more bizarre and desperate. For all its japes and jokes, the movie is really about exhaustion of the spirit: sitting in a bleak hotel suite at 4 a.m. with the bad taste of last night in the mouth and the feeling that tomorrow will not be a better day. Spinal Tap has as many laughs as any rock burlesque but underneath that rock it plays like Scenes From a Marriage translated from the Gibberish.'

The critic from Forbes magazine admitted that he had only cottoned on that he was watching a spoof halfway through the film. Audiences were also confused and, as a consequence, the mockumentary that had cost between $2-2.5 million only made $4.5 million at the US box office after an initial limited release in just five cinemas. But a trickle-down effect followed, as those who had latched on to the joke told their friends and the picture had already acquired a cult status before it was released on video and then on a Criterion laserdisc that boasted an exclusive commentary by Guest, McKean, and Shearer as themselves, as well as one by Reiner.

In 1992, the band released a new album, Break Like the Wind, which they promoted with a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall. Once again, the critics were unkind, but the show became the centrepiece of the TV special, The Return of Spinal Tap, which accompanied Nigel and David on a sentimental journey to their neighbouring childhood homes in Squatney, while also catching up with Derek helping his father run his home telephone cleaning service.

The year after McKean (Insaniac), Guest (Slamfist), and Shearer (Punch-It) reunited to voice characters in Joe Dante's Small Soldiers (1998), the triumvirate resumed their rocking personas to record a second DVD commentary. In 2007, Spinal Tap came to Wembley Stadium to play 'Warmer Than Hell' at Live Earth. They also hooked up with Marty DiBergi - whose reputation had slumped following Kramer vs Kramer vs Godzilla and Attack of the 52-Foot Woman - to record a 15-minute catch up that opened the Tribeca Film Festival. McKean, Shearer, and Guest also made Stonehenge: 'Tis a Magic Place (which has since vanished) and released another album, Back From the Dead, in 2009. Disappointed by the cool reception accorded the Unwigged and Unplugged tour, the stars opted to focus on other projects.

Guest continued to make masterly spoofs, including Waiting For Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006), and Mascots (2016), all of which are available to rent from Cinema Paradiso. Type Rob Reiner's name into the Searchline and you will see how many acting roles he has taken since directing his first feature. But his biggest successes have been behind the camera and members simply need to click to order The Sure Thing (1985), Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995), The Story of Us (1999), Alex and Emma (2003), Rumour Has It (2005), The Bucket List (2007), Flipped (2010), Once More (2012), Being Charlie (2015), and Shock and Awe (2017).

Over the last 41 years, This Is Spinal Tap has continued to be the gold standard for music mocumentaries and rockumentaries alike. Steven Soderbergh revealed that Yes asked him to make 9012Live (1986) as much like DiBergi's film as possible. Others plead with their directors not to make them look as pretentious, venal, self-absorbed, and shambolic as the loudest metal band in the world. They were who Bart wanted to hear in 'The Otto Show', Episode 22 of Season 3 of The Simpsons (1989-), for which Shearer has been voicing Mr Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Lenny Leonard, Kang, Principal Skinner, Kent Brockman, and Otto Mann since the show's inception (although he no longer does Dr Hibbert).

Now, Tap are back, with Paul McCartney and Elton John for company. A few details have been leaked about what the principals have been doing over the last 15 years. Nigel has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed, when not playing electric solos for the village folk band. David has based himself in Morro Bay, California to write call waiting muzak and podcast scores, while Derek has been composing a musical about Satan's toupée when not acting as curator of London's New Museum of Glue.

We can't wait to see how it all works out and fervently hope that they put the original four and a half-hour cut of This Is Spinal Tap in the extras of the DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K editions. Pretty please!