Latest news with #DavidStHubbins


The Herald Scotland
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Paul McCartney describes Spinal Tap song as ‘literature' in first sequel trailer
Speaking in the trailer, Sir Paul says: 'Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really.' The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (played by real life director Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for 'an evening with Stormy Daniels' which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: 'Would you settle for a coma?' Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas in the UK on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. As Spinal Tap, the film follows the group as they release the album Smell The Glove, which retailers refuse to sell due to its sexist cover, and plan a large-scale, Druid-themed glam rock show, but a replica of Stonehenge which was supposed to be 18ft high, ends up being 18 inches after they get the measurements wrong. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe real bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase 'turn it up to 11' after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie.


The Guardian
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel to This Is Spinal Tap has been released, showcasing the venerable rockers' supposed last hurrah in a film called Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Spinal Tap II reunites Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls (played by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) as they get together for a final concert, more than 40 years after the 1984 mockumentary that made their name. In between, Spinal Tap released the album Break Like the Wind in 1992, appeared on The Simpsons, played the Live Earth charity concert in 2007 and Glastonbury in 2009. The trailer shows Marty DiBergi (director Rob Reiner's totally on-point mickey-take of Martin Scorsese) is on hand to record the band's doings, and megastars including Elton John, Questlove and Paul McCartney drop in to add their two-penn'orth to the Tap mythos. Filling in for An Evening with Stormy Daniels has to be the high point of anyone's career, right? Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is out on 12 September in the US and UK, and on 25 September in Australia.


The Guardian
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel to This Is Spinal Tap has been released, showcasing the venerable rockers' supposed last hurrah in a film called Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Spinal Tap II reunites Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls (played by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) as they get together for a final concert, more than 40 years after the 1984 mockumentary that made their name. In between, Spinal Tap released the album Break Like the Wind in 1992, appeared on The Simpsons, played the Live Earth charity concert in 2007 and Glastonbury in 2009. The trailer shows Marty DiBergi (director Rob Reiner's totally on-point mickey-take of Martin Scorsese) is on hand to record the band's doings, and megastars including Elton John, Questlove and Paul McCartney drop in to add their two-penn'orth to the Tap mythos. Filling in for An Evening with Stormy Daniels has to be the high point of anyone's career, right? Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is out on 12 September in the US and UK, and on 25 September in Australia.


New York Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘This Is Spinal Tap': So Bad, They're Great
Thank cinéma vérité for the rockumentary. D.A. Pennebaker's 1967 'Dont Look Back' came first. And thank those for spawning the faux vérité mockumentary that arrived in the form of Rob Reiner's 1984 'This Is Spinal Tap' — a parody which, legend has it, was taken by a credulous few for a vérité portrait of an actual rock band. First a critical favorite, then a VHS cult film (for rock bands in particular), and finally a Library of Congress certified classic, Reiner's film returns for the holiday weekend in a new 4K restoration. Introducing himself as the filmmaker Marty DiBergi (and fatuously taking credit for the term 'rockumentary,' already in circulation), Reiner expresses his longtime admiration for Spinal Tap, 'one of England's loudest bands,' a group of amiable dimwits touring the United States to promote their new LP, 'Smell the Glove.' As documented by DiBergi and punctuated with bombastic, bare-chested performances of casually ludicrous (but catchy) numbers, their Tap Into America tour is rife with quarrels, snafus, canceled bookings, hissy fits and spectacular onstage malfunctions. The fictional band was created by boyhood pals David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and so in a sense was the film: McKean and Guest met at New York University and developed a riff that was picked up on by Reiner and Harry Shearer (who plays Derek Smalls, another band member) for an abortive TV comedy show and thereafter evolved into the movie. As such, 'Spinal Tap' is a rich feast of clichés ranging from kinescopes of the band's early incarnations to backstage shenanigans and ham-handed intrigue. The glibly incompetent manager (Tony Hendra) quits, leaving David's pushy, astrology-minded girlfriend (June Chadwick) in charge as engagements drastically decline. Nigel departs in the wake of a U.S. Air Force base mixer, leaving the band without a lead guitarist for a gig at an amusement park second billed to a kiddie puppet show. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.