Question 1. Draw parallels between the figures in the film and those you studied from the period of the 1970s.
The movie Spinal Tap has a lot in common with the musicians of the 1970s who inspired the movie. David Ivor St. Hubbins is the lead character in the movie, played by Mckean[1]. David is seen having a childhood friend with whom they end up forming the band Spinal Tap. There are many similarities between the characters David and Theodore Nugent, who inspired this character. Nugent joined a band in 1963 known as the Amboy Dukes, which was a rock band just like Spinal Tap in the movie[2]. The band worked together up to 1978, when St. Holmes and Grange separated. Just like the break up in The Spinal Tap, Nugent went solo after breaking up with the band due to personnel changes leading to serious disagreement, although they reunited again in 2009 at the Detroit Musical Awards [3]. With regard to family life, Nugent married twice, with his first marriage between 1970 and 1979 and the other marriage in 1989. This is similar to what happens in the movie where David divorces and marries a longtime girlfriend, Jeanie, but later divorces her in the year 2000.
Dereck Smalls is another character that represents the bassist for British heavy metal rock. Dereck represents Ian Fraser Kilmister (Lemmy) an English musician and song writer, the founder of heavy metal Motor head band[4]. He wore mutton chops and used bass playing style just like Smalls in the Spinal Tap. Kilmister was also known to have joined bands like the Rainmakers and then the Rockin’ Vickers, Sam Gopal, and Space Rock before he formed Motor Head.
Nigel Tufnell is a fictional character in the movie, but his real setting makes him appear real. For example, he is attached to Gumby, the American animation of the 1950s through the 1960s. Most of the musicians of this time could identify with Gumby, giving the movie realism. There are a lot of parallels between the movie and real Rock Musicians.
Bibliography
Crow, Jonathan, Open Culture, The Origins of Spinal Tap: Watch the 20 Minute Short Film Created to Pitch the Classic Mockumentary (2015), retrieved from, http://www.openculture.com/2015/01/the-origins-of-spinal-tap.html (accessed on April 4, 2018).
Wood m Jennifer Mental floss,15 Things you Might Not Know About This Is Spinal Tap 2014p.1-2 retrieved from, http://mentalfloss.com/article/55369/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-spinal-tap on 6th April 2018.
Jonathan, Crow, Open Culture, The Origins of Spinal Tap: Watch the 20 Minute Short Film Created to Pitch the Classic Mockumentary (2015),pp1-2
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