Spinal Tap Live…No Jokes

Spinal Tap are back for one night only. Rapturous joy.

Posted Monday, 6 April 2009 by Andrew Kelham in

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SPINAL TAP
ANNOUNCE ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY WORLD TOUR’ starring SPINAL TAP at WEMBLEY ARENA
with special guests THE FOLKSMEN

London, England – Monday 6th April 2009 – The loudest Rock band in the World, Spinal Tap, Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls have today announced that they will be returning to the UK this June to kick off their one time only exclusive special show at London’s Wembley Arena with very special guests The Folksmen.

2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the iconic cult classic rock movie ‘This is Spinal Tap’ and Spinal Tap is celebrating this in a big way! By reuniting for the ‘One Night Only World Tour’ the band had the following to say:

“If we're going to do a World tour on only one night, at least it's this world" - Nigel Tufnel

"This show will be dedicated to all of our drummers who have passed on, either to their reward or to middle management at Sainbury's." - David St. Hubbins.

"One night is not enough, and it's way too much!" - Derek Smalls

Spinal Tap formed in 1964 when good friends David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel joined forces and formed The Originals. After finding out that there was already a group of that title, they would go through a series of name changes until finally joining up with bassist Ronnie Pudding and drummer John "Stumpy" Pepys, becoming The Thamesmen. After releasing two minor hit singles, "Gimme Some Money" and "Cups and Cakes", Pudding left to form Pudding People and was replaced by Derek Smalls.

With this line-up, the band recorded "Listen to the Flower People". A surprise hit, the single went gold in the United Kingdom and the band toured worldwide. The band's "success" came to a halt when Pepys died in a bizarre gardening accident in 1969. He was replaced with Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs. ‘Intravenus de Milo’ was released in 1974 and is known to be the first album to ever reach the status of bronze, which a band can only attain if one million copies of an album are returned.

Childs choked to death on an unknown offender's vomit that same year, and was replaced with Peter ‘James’ Bond. Trouble began when the group sued their record label, Megaphone, for back royalties, but the label counter-sued, claiming they had a "lack of talent". When their release, ‘Rock and Roll Creation’, became a surprise hit in the United States. They quickly signed with Polymer Records and began to record a new album, but were halted when Bond spontaneously combusted on-stage. He was immediately replaced with drummer Mick Shrimpton and the group released ‘Shark Sandwich’ in 1980, spawning the hit "Sex Farm."

Spinal Tap's 1982 tour in support of the album ‘Smell The Glove’ got off to a bad start when some of their biggest gigs were cancelled. A mistake in prop sizing would prompt the group to fire manager Ian Faith and replace him with Hubbins' mistress, Jeanine Pettibone. Shortly afterward, Tufnel momentarily quit the band but Tufnel and Faith returned for the band's final U.S. performance and one Japanese gig.

In 1983, the band would split and go their separate ways. It wasn't until 1992, when Spinal Tap seemed almost forgotten, that they had re-formed and were working on a new album. The band appeared on the MTV Music Awards announcing their return to the spotlight along with a new album, ‘Break Like the Wind’. In the year 2000, they popped up on “Back From The Dead” quick tour of USA and Canada. After that, they once again faded away.

In 2002 the shorter Oxford English Dictionary included the entry: “Up to eleven; up to maximum volume” a reference to Nigel’s amp that had controls that went beyond the usual max setting of 10.

In 2007 ‘Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight’ appeared in the best selling video game Guitar Hero II. In July of the same year, Spinal Tap reunited to play the Live Earth Concert at Wembley Stadium in London to show their support for Global Warming. In turn they performed a new song they had written just for the occasion ‘Warmer Than Hell’. Marty Di Bergi directed a new 14 minute film, “Spinal Tap on Glabal Warming”, released exclusively on the Live Earth website, starring Tufnel, St. Hubbins and Smalls. According to Di Bergi, Live Earth was the band’s “26th reunion in 25 years”. On “Big Bottom” almost every bass guitarist in attendance joined Spinal Tap onstage including Nate Mendal/Foo Fighters, Robert Trujillo, Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield/Metallica, Gordon Moakes/Bloc Party, Adam Yauch/MCA/Beastie Boys, among others.

Rumours are swirling around that Nigel, David and Derek have been in the recording studio. Unfortunately, they could not come up with any songs, so they found a new lost album which they plan to release this summer.

The Folksmen are perhaps best known, if at all, for their 1962 Top 70 hit ‘Old Joe’s Place,’ The Folksmen have earned a lasting place in folk music history as the group too popular to be purist and too purist to be popular. Jerry Palter, Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb met as freshmen at Ohio Wesleyan and over the next 26 months played and sang their own brand of ‘eclectified folk’ music. They reunited after more than two decades, and again became a popular late addition to folk festivals within a day’s auto travel of their homes.

A later Folksmen reunion was chronicled in the feature film 'A Mighty Wind' directed by Christopher Guest. They were scheduled to open for Spinal Tap during the 1992 Royal Albert Hall show, but instead, they played a nearby Tube stop for change.The trio did perform with Spinal Tap at NY's Carnegie Hall in 2000, and also paid tribute to the legendary musicologist Harry Smith at a special event at UCLA's Royce Hall in 2001.But fear not, with a new road crew, The Folksmen are set to return to the UK to once again unite with the mighty Spinal Tap.

So crank up your dials to 11, lock up your daughters and dust off your spandex in anticipation of THE rock event of the summer. Spinal Tap Live in Concert for one night only on Tuesday June 30 2009 at Wembley Arena, have no doubt, they are gonna rock you!

SPINAL TAP ‘ONE NIGHT ONLY WORLD TOUR’

Plus Special Guests The Folksmen

JUNE
30 - LONDON Wembley Arena