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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
 Posted - 04/25/2007 : 10:39:14
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http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21618510-5006343,00.html
Spinal Tap's green crusade
JAKE COYLE
April 25, 2007 10:50am
SPINAL Tap is back, to help save the world from global warming. If only they were clear on exactly what that was.
The mock heavy metal group immortalised in the 1984 mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, will reunite for a performance at Wembley Stadium in London as part of worldwide Live Earth concerts on July 7.
The original members of Spinal Tap will be there: guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest), singer David St Hubbins (Michael McKean) and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). Rob Reiner, who both directed This is Spinal Tap and played the fake documentarian Marty DeBergi in the film, will also be in attendance.
A new 15-minute film directed by Reiner on the band's reunion will also play at the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York tonight.
The festival is to open with a showing of several global warming-themed short films produced by the SOS (Save Our Selves) campaign.
SOS is also putting on the Live Earth concerts, to be held across seven continents.
Reiner has explained the reunion of Spinal Tap – a band always known more as a parody of rock 'n roll excess than environmental awareness.
"They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming," said Reiner, whose other films include When Harry Met Sally and Stand By Me.
"Nigel thought it was just because he was wearing too much clothing – that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler."
Spinal Tap has reunited several times since the film, but hasn't for a number of years.
For the band – whose last album was 1992's Break like the Wind - the occasion warranted a new single: Warmer Than Hell.
Reiner provided a sneak peak at the lyrics: "The devil went to Devon, it felt like the fourth degree/ He said, `Is it hot in here, or is it only me?' "
The director said the new short film explains what the band has been doing with their lives lately.
Nigel has been raising miniature horses to race, but can't find jockeys small enough to ride them; David is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Derek is in rehab for addiction to the Internet.
Reiner, 60, has for more than 20 years worked with the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action organisation.
Though the Spinal Tap reunion will be a lot of laughs, he hopes the SOS short films program and the Live Earth concerts have a substantial effect.
"What I think is going to be nice about this whole effort is there will be marching orders for people," said Reiner.
"Not only from a personal standpoint of what individuals can do in their lives, but a macro perspective with respect to the public sector and government."
Spinal Tap ... adding some cool to the battle against global warning. |
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OLDMANOTY
= Cult of Ray =
United Kingdom
469 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 07:17:36
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Will probably be the highlight of Live Earth. Maybe Bad News should reform for it too.
Godspeed |
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Jefrey
= Cult of Ray =
USA
918 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2007 : 14:30:19
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Nigel can still rip the guitar. Did you in the UK get the Volkswagon ads for the cars that came with the guitar? One of them featured Nigel playing a solo on top of a Golf or something.
== jeffamerica == |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2007 : 14:31:50
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Guardian Unlimited.
Rock'n'roll to the rescue
They rocked the world in 1984 - and now Spinal Tap are back to save it. As the spoof band prepare to re-form for Live Earth, Dan Glaister meets the film-maker who 'discovered' them, Rob Reiner
Friday July 6, 2007
The Guardian
It is almost a quarter of a century since one of the biggest bands on the planet exploded on to the music scene, their drum-solo-laden, headache-inducing squawk metal thrusting them into a limelight that ultimately burned too bright. But now Spinal Tap, the fictional band that gave its name to the cult spoof documentary, are back, brought together by the threat of global warming.
The original members were persuaded to bury their differences by Marty DiBergi, aka actor-director Rob Reiner, the wily pop svengali behind the original film. This Saturday they play at Live Earth, the series of mega-concerts that will consume a lot of energy around the world and remind us all of the perils of climate change.
But the decades have not been kind to the fictional characters who made up the original power trio: Nigel Tufnel now works on a miniature horse farm, nurturing the hope that he will one day find a tribe of tiny jockeys; David St Hubbins has a hip-hop and colonic clinic; and Derek Smalls is in rehab for his internet addiction.
Marty, however, is doing just fine, as Rob Reiner tells me from the comfort of one of the many sofas in his capacious Beverly Hills office. And while the members of Spinal Tap exude a certain spandex-clad authority, Marty is not about to let them come over all Bob Geldof and act as the anointed voice of a generation.
"Certainly the members of Spinal Tap are not going to be spokespeople for the environment," says Reiner, his round, cheerful face showing momentary concern at the thought. "Spinal Tap really don't know anything about global warming. They really are clueless. But like they say, if they can play some loud music and help the world, they're happy to do it." He tells me that Nigel's solution to global warming is to wear less clothing, perhaps to take off his jacket.
For Reiner, 60, the appearance of Spinal Tap at the Wembley concert represents a happy collision of the two sides of his brain. While the 1984 rock-doc satire opened the way for him to become one of Hollywood's most successful directors, Live Earth gives voice to the political activist, the archetypal Hollywood liberal, the man who can bring the clout of popular culture to bear on serious causes.
But the cross-pollination of celebrity and politics can be perilous, as Reiner acknowledges. "There are very few people," he says, "a handful of people in showbusiness who really understand public policy, understand the politics of it and understand the programmes and how things get done. Most of them are there for self-aggrandising reasons."
The politicians, apparently, are little better. "They say that politics is Hollywood for ugly people," he says. "Politicians want to be thought of as glamorous, not as wonky types who are only interested in public policy. A lot of the showbusiness people want to be legitimised. They don't want to be thought of as frivolous people who wave their ass at the camera and get some money. But it's dangerous. Politicians can look frivolous, the very thing the entertainers are trying to get away from, and the entertainers can look like morons if they don't understand the issues that they're espousing."
For Marty DiBergi, Reiner's alter ego, however, the event offers no such dangers. "Marty's a committed careerist," says Reiner. "This is a meal ticket for him. Spinal Tap was his claim to fame, so he's figuring that any way he can wend his way back in there is a good thing."
Spinal Tap also provided a meal ticket of sorts for Reiner, although for him it was the ticket to travel from actor to director, and from TV to film. He was born into the Hollywood establishment - his father, Carl Reiner, was a TV regular in the 50s and 60s and has a role in Ocean's 13, and young Rob grew up around Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. Reiner made a name for himself as Meathead, the bigot's son-in-law in All in the Family, the US version of Till Death Us Do Part.
It was that show's producer, Norman Lear, who stumped up the $2m Reiner needed to spoof what at the time was a highly regarded documentary form. "We looked at a ton of rock'n'roll pictures," he says. "We looked at The Last Waltz, The Kids are Alright, The Song Remains the Same, Let It Be, Don't Look Back. My character, the idea of interviewing the band members and putting myself in the film like Marty Scorsese did, was taken from The Last Waltz [Scorsese's film about The Band]. But a lot of the things we took from actual experiences. The thing about being lost backstage - we had heard that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had got lost one time and couldn't find the stage."
The irony was lost on some. Early preview audiences didn't understand that the formula of long hair, guitar solos and codpieces was satire. Some wondered why the film had bothered to focus on a band that was not only obscure, but not very good.
The joke was even lost on some of those making the film. The cameraman, a veteran of rock documentaries who had been at Altamont, failed to see the funny side. "The whole time while we were making the movie," remembers Reiner, "he kept saying, 'What's funny about this? This is exactly what goes on.' "
Reiner went on to make a series of more conventional films: Stand by Me, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men. He still acts, although this is more of a hobby than a serious career. And then there is politics. Long a liberal activist, Reiner is one of the names routinely mentioned when the Democrats are looking for a candidate to stand against California's Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. But tangles with party politics have left him convinced that elective office isn't for him. Reiner was behind a California ballot proposition that saw voters approve an increase in the tax on tobacco to fund early childhood programmes. But when he was put in charge of the state commission to implement the legislation, he was forced out by opponents. When he talks about it, the jovial banter is replaced by anger.
"I paid a big price," he says, his voice rising. "They went after me, they spread lies about me, they tried to discredit me and they threw all these lies in the paper. They had me investigated and all this stuff. They viewed it as a slippery slope: 'If he gets this done, he's going to go after rich people. What's the next thing they're going to tax in order to get something done?' "
So Reiner stepped back from the political frontline, preferring to deploy his energies behind the scenes. Helping his old friend Al Gore to spread the global warming message is the most high-profile of these efforts.
"I was a kid in the 60s and my generation was very active over Vietnam," he says. "But our motives were selfish. You could get drafted and you could get killed. That gives you a lot of motivation to go do something. Twenty-year-olds today are starting to recognise that they could be dead. They're the first generation that's starting to really internalise the idea that in 50 years' time, if things aren't done in the next 10 years or so, they could actually be dead."
But what, as Geldof and other critics of Live Earth have asked, can they actually do? How will a concert featuring a lot of overpaid celebrities change the world? Reiner speaks the Live Earth speak, but it is difficult to gauge how much, if anything, any of it will add up to: "This effort will be the springboard to a very big global conversation," he says. "We're going to engage an awful lot of people to get involved, not only from a personal standpoint - what can you do in your lives? - but from a policy standpoint, to be able to lobby and pressure leaders in your country."
Might Al Gore become one of those leaders? "I think it's a slight possibility. I don't think it's a big possibility," he says. "I'm a very good friend of Gore's, and I was very involved in the 2000 campaign. I'm waiting to see what he's going to do. If he decides to jump in, then I will do anything to get him elected. I think he's clearly a visionary and clearly the best suited."
If we are on the eve of destruction, we need all the help we can get. And it could just be that amid all the earnestness to be unleashed tomorrow, Spinal Tap's doctrine of "exuberance, raw power and punctuality" will help to save the world.
· liveearth.org |
Edited by - Carl on 07/06/2007 14:32:21 |
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HeywoodJablome
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1485 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2007 : 16:27:21
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Will Sir Dennis Eaton Hog be there?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
OFFICIAL INTERNET TOUGH GUY |
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Ziggy
* Dog in the Sand *
United Kingdom
2462 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2007 : 17:13:26
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| "And so say all of us... tap into Am-er-ica!" |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
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coastline
> Teenager of the Year <
USA
3111 Posts |
Posted - 07/08/2007 : 22:14:54
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Carlos, your linking skillz are unsurpassable.
 Please pardon me, for these my wrongs. |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
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Spinal Tap to fight global warming!
