RIP Spinal Tap...?

I'd love a new movie that shows them as old men still grinding out the metal in a parody of the Rolling Stones. Christopher Guest could do great stuff with this.

 

It's not so much "a habit" as it is a way to keep their ownership of the characters. I read something years ago - and I forget the specific details - but the crux of it was this: the original deal for the film stated that if the characters were inactive for a substantial period (something like 7 years), the rights of the characters would revert to the film studio. One of the primary actors stated that they were very aware of this, and that's why Tap would "come back from the dead", so to speak, every so often...

Perhaps someone here as a more detailed memory of that clause than I do (?).

 

There's a fine line between clever and stupid.

 

Well, then hopefully they stick with this and get their personal issues put aside for just a bit next year.

 

Even if Shearer and the other main cast members had been "stuck with" $30,000 per episode to date, each one would've earned more than $17 million since the series started!

Not saying they didn't deserve their raises, of course - given how much money that show makes, of course they did - but I just thought it was astonishing to think how much they've earned from that gig...

 

Keelhauling?!

 

Probably one of the finest, and easiest gigs in the universe from what I've heard.

 

I hope they are done. I don't really need to see any 70 plus year old geezers trying to rock...

 

The original movie is genius. The videos that accompanied the vinyl soundtrack were amusing, as were some of the interviews they gave in character around that time.

Everything else has been mediocre or worse (sometimes a lot worse). If they put it to bed for good at this point, it will be no loss...

 

I think they are past their sell-by at this point, but I loved that 1992 tour, seriously one of the best arena/amphitheater-size concerts I ever saw. I was hoping for years they'd bring the live Tap show around one more time. I even enjoy the Break Like the Wind album from that year, though it's far from solid gold.

 

Which is why Harry might be hard to get along with. You can afford to be independent, opinionated and stubborn with that kind of money.

 

Yeah, I've always gotten the impression that voice work is a very good gig. Of course, it requires talent - I don't want to imply it's chump work or anything - but it doesn't take nearly as much time as live-action acting does and voice actors can knock out a lot of performances in a little time.

I'm too lazy to calculate it myself, but I'd be curious to figure out the total Shearer and the other main actors have made across the series' run - gotta be upwards of $30 million!

 

1) What's the veracity of these salaries?

2) Why the insinuation about Harry being "opinionated and stubborn"?

 

Someone should make a movie spoofing Spinal Tap.

 

Tell me that scenes of senior citizen rockers dealing with the indignities of age doesn't sound like a rich vein of humor.

OK, how's this for a scenario - Tap has been re-discovered by a new generation, and has to go back out on tour after years of idleness. Derek Smalls has been utterly impoverished (as he was never one of the songwriters) and is desperate for the tour money. Nigel Tufnel is not particularly interested, as (due to a fluke), it turns out that he is now a member of the House of Lords (Christopher Guest is Baron Haden-Guest) and is enjoying this, and is frankly embarrassed by his rock past, with a new girlfriend who is concerned with being part of "society". David St. Hubbins took the "Saint" part of his name too seriously, and is now the guru of a religion centered around him (love to see the way Bono and/or Sting could be skewered).

They go out on tour, and there are groupies again - who have to deal with the fact that the armadillos are no longer rampaging, colostomy bags, geezer rockers who need to use a walker, etc.

I have to get back to work, but seriously - if they put these guys in front of a camera again, it could be something even funnier than the original.

 

If handled right, this could be brilliant. Do an album and/or tour just like an over-the-hill band that can't stand each other but is forced to work together for financial reasons.

 

In the Maron podcast he said he's criminally underpaid.

 

That's pretty much what This is Spinal Tap was 30 years ago

 

oh, they'll get back together when Hell Freezes Over... maybe they could sign up Don Felder while they're at it

 

Squiggy, Lenny/St. Hubbins AND Smalls all worked together in the early '70s, in a comedy troupe called The Credibility Gap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Credibility_Gap



Even more crazily, Guest, AS "Nigel Tufnel," played guitar on the Lenny and the Squigtones album in 1979, a few years before the Spinal Tap movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Tufnel

(But, 1979 was the first Spinal Tap skit, so it may have been after that.)

 

I hear they are going to be the Fall next time Mark books a US tour as those transatlantic flights are getting pricey

 

It's been all downhill since the critically acclaimed Shark Sandwich anyway.

 

Stonehenge remains my very favorite Spinal Tap song. It's so epic!

 

I remember reading a two word review of that