GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
🅻🅸🆅🅴 Episode
Episode 122: The End Continues with Uncle Meat and Dan Chartrand
In September of 2024, Marco D’Auria, Dan Chartrand, and Uncle Meat joined us to celebrate 40 years of This Is Spinal Tap. This comprehensive and loving analysis needed a followup episode once the sequel, The End Continues, had come out. Now it has, and we have all seen it. Dan and the Meat are back tonight to discuss the sequel, and the sequel soundtrack! Tonight we’re gonna rock ya tonight!
Though we have not had 40 years to study up like we did last time, we have done our homework and will be addressing the below topics and more:
What were your hopes and fears going into this movie?
Where and when did you see it?
The new drummer – our impressions.
Favourite scene.
Favourite cameo / callback.
Soundtrack thoughts: New songs, old songs, and CD vs the movie.
The big question: Did it live up to the Spinal Tap legacy?
Please join us live tonight in the comments. There will be blood to let!
Friday October 24 at 7:00 PM EST, 8:00 PM Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 84: Lost Videos & Shorts – A Grab A Stack of Rock Special Friday Presentation!
While not a live episode, this special presentation was put together by yours truly, with me as your host through these forgotten and lost videos from years gone by. I have been making videos for 36 years now, and this collection of mini-episodes run from 2013 to the present day. These videos were made primarily for this blog, but also for other channels, my old show the LeBrain Train, and Grab A Stack of Rock. Some of these individual clips would require lots of determined scrolling and searching to find otherwise, so I thought it would be nice to take a viewing of some favourites of mine, and add in some that are now new and exclusive. It is certainly amusing to watch my look change, from bearded to clean and back to bearded and clean again.
New, previously unseen, and “lost” topics covered in this special episode: Rare rock and metal CDs sent from friends, rare books and rock magazines, rock band branded playing cards, a discussion on iTunes, video reviews of rare CDs, a updated check-in at the HMV/Toys R Us store, my collection of M.E.A.T Magazines, and the very first video I made in 1989. But that’s not all – stick around for Easter eggs.
I hope you can check it out tonight for this very special episode of Grab A Stack of Rock, assembled with care for your enjoyment.
Friday January 3 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or onFacebook!
Johnny Metal earned a new nickname tonight: Johnny Homework! His meticulous research and notes provided a solid backbone of knowledge on which we arranged an awesome discussion. The topic: the now-classic Christopher Guest mockumentary A Mighty Wind!
Together with Uncle Meat and Dan from Off the Charts, we tried to cover every aspect that we love about this movie. We went deep on the following topics:
The cast
Our favourite bands
Our favourite songs
Favourite scenes
Fred Willard
The Kiss at the End of the Rainbow
The ending
Additionally, we looked at CDs, vinyl, and a very nice songbook from Johnny Homework. Gotta get that physical product in.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 73: A Mighty Wind Appreciation, with Dan Chartrand, Uncle Meat & Johnny Metal
In 2003, Christopher Guest unveiled his third improv comedy movie, following Waiting For Guffman (1996) and Best In Show (2000). While each film has its focus (a small town play; a dog show), it was 2003’s A Mighty Wind that “tapped” into the spirit of music that made Guest a fan favourite in the first place. This time it’s folk music!
The Folksmen are a fictional folk band that actually opened for Guest’s “other” band, Spinal Tap. Ironically, all three members are the same: Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. Together with Mitch & Mickey (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara) and the New Main Street Singers (Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Paul Dooley et. al.), the bands have reunited for a big folk show in New York City. As he often does, Fred Willard stole the show in this film.
This hilarious comedy boasts an incredible soundtrack of originals and one cover (“Start Me Up”), and tonight I’ll be joined again by Dan Chartrand and Uncle Meat to discuss it. With them will be John “Johnny Metal” Clauser, who has wanted to do this topic with us for some time now.
You might not be as family with A Mighty Wind as you were with This Is Spinal Tap, but you won’t regret spending an hour with us tonight. It may not be heavy metal, but good music is good music, and this soundtrack is loaded with great songs. Join us tonight!
Friday October 4 at 8:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 9:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTube or on Facebook!
THIS IS SPINAL TAP – The Official Companion(2000, Bloomsbury, London)
You have the soundtrack. You have the DVD (maybe even the Criterion edition). You have the breakfast cereal. What else do you need? The Official Companion book, that’s what!
We begin with a “Prepilogue” by Michael McKean, who plays David St. Hubbins, offering some background on how Spinal Tap came to be, in the real world. From a 1979 TV appearance, to a 1982 demo film (not a script, like most movies, but a demo film!) to the 1984 finished masterpiece, McKean sums up the history and his gratitude from the start.
Next up is one of the funniest and most essential chapters. “Tap’istory” is a fictional timeline of Spinal Tap, from Derek Smalls’ birth in 1941, to a 2000 appearance with Mick Fleetwood on drums, and a remixed and remastered version of the film. This section is fascinating as it has release years for all of Spinal Tap’s fictional albums, including Brainhammer, Nerve Damage, and Blood to Let.
I found this book in the screenplay section of the book store, but Spinal Tap didn’t have a screenplay like most movies do. Instead of a screenplay, the bulk of the book is made up of a cool transcription of the film. This is done to extreme accuracy, to the point of transcribing Nigel’s final line, “wh-wh-what are the hours?” exactly as you read it here. If you ever wanted to quote This Is Spinal Tap as a hobby, this is how you do it to perfection. At the conclusion of the film transcription are several deleted scenes, such as David St. Hubbins meeting up with his now-punk rocker son.
Then we get to the lyrics, for basically every Tap song, including obscurities like the then-unreleased “Celtic Blues”, and stuff I’ve never heard like “Just Spell My Name”. Following this is an incredibly detailed glossary of everything Tap related you can imagine, including Rob Reiner, Steve Lukather, lukewarm water, and Walter Becker (who scribed the liner notes to Break Like The Wind, also included here).
For those Spinal Tap fans unable to read, the book also includes some full colour photo pages, with behind the scenes shots and rare promotional photos.
For any seasoned fan of Spinal Tap, this is an obvious augmentation to your collection. Tap into your local bookstore today and ask for a copy.
A huge thank you to Marco D’Auria of the Contrarians, Dan Chartrand of Off the Charts, and the near-legendary Uncle Meat for comprising our expert panel tonight. The subject was Spinal Tap, the band and the music. It may be fair to call Dan a “superfan”, as he had some Spinal Tap rarities that I don’t. Dan provided some cool physical product, including CDs and LPs of This is Spinal Tap, Break Like the Wind, and he even unfolded his Back From the Dead CD packaging to show us what it looks like when it’s a little paper stage set.
Taking a cue from another big Spinal Tap fan, Peter Kerr, I stole a tactic from Rock Daydream Nation and did some discussion questions in rounds. Here’s what we tackled:
Were you ever in the blissful unawareness that Spinal Tap was a fake band? Or were you always in on the joke?
Evaluate the musicianship of Tap.
Pick a favourite song from the soundtrack.
Pick a favourite song from Break Like the Wind.
And a quick discussion of Back from the Dead.
Along the way we discussed the history of Tap, both real and fictional. We had a look at the DVD for the Return of Spinal Tap, and had a chat on that subject. I peppered the panel with trivia throughout the night. We had an insightful discussion about talent, and the three actors who played the central characters: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer. We speculated on director Rob Reiner’s role in the songwriting, and technical aspects of the writing and playing. Did Harry Shearer play fretless bass on “Break Like the Wind”? I don’t know, but we do know he can play upright bass thanks to his role in A Mighty Wind. In short, the music and movie were given as much appraisal and analysis as we could do in an hour.
Meanwhile in the comments, Pete Jones provided quote after quote after quote, from a variety of Tap interviews and performances. Thank you Peter! And thank you to everyone who watched and joined in.
I started the show with a quick unboxing, from Australia’s Ash Geisler, who has been a huge supporter of the show. Thanks again Ash for watching, and for sending me this awesome package. I guarantee some of them will be getting a review.
One topic I didn’t get to mention on the show, but did come up among the viewers: Spinal Tap II is coming to theaters in 2025. How do you feel about this? Let us know in the comments. I for one don’t think it’s necessary or a good idea. The cameo-laden cast seems gimmicky, but Rob Reiner is back is the director’s chair.
Thanks for watching, and if you didn’t, the link is below. This is one I’ll be watching over again.
NEXT WEEK: A Mighty Wind with Dan Chartrand, John Clauser & Uncle Meat!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man Episode 72: 40 Years of Spinal Tap: The Music with Marco D’Auria, Dan Chartrand and Uncle Meat
Tonight we’re gonna rock ya, tonight!
Formed as the Thamesmen in 1964, Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins scored a hit with the single “Gimmie Some Money” / “Cups and Cakes”. The band soon employed bassist Derek Smalls. After a name change to Spinal Tap, the band wandered through progressive rock, jazz fusion, funk, reggae, hard rock, and heavy metal. In 1984 they became a household name with the release of the documentary film by Marty DiBergi, called This Is Spinal Tap. It is hard to believe it has been 40 years since that film brought Tap to the silver screen.
Tonight, Contrarians Marco D’Auria and new face Dan Chartrand will join Uncle Meat and I, as we Tap into the history of this great band’s music.
From rock and roll (“Gimme Some Money”) to hippie flower power (“Listen to What the Flower People Say”, “Rainy Day Sun”) to heavy metal (“Stonehenge”), few bands have struggled to find a direction like Spinal Tap has. Now with DiBergi back on board, the band are primed to release a new documentary film on their more recent exploits. Our panel tonight will try to avoid talking about the drama (puppet shows, air force bases, girlfriends) and focus on the music. And what music it is! Nigel Tufnel is one of the most critically acclaimed guitar players in the world, not just for volume but also for pioneering the art of double his guitar solos with voice. David St. Hubbins is such a legendary lead singer, that Ronnie James Dio wouldn’t allow him to sing lead on Hear N’ Aid’s “Stars” for fear of breaking the board. And Derek Smalls? His solo album Smalls Change proves he’s not a one-trick moustached pony.
Join us tonight, and Tap into the music of Spinal Tap.
Friday September 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy onYouTube or on Facebook!
One of the many recurring themes here has been the awful experiences of being a metalhead in Catholic school. A story that has somehow escaped being told until now is the one where those bastard kids gave me the name “Fag Boy” for a whole school year.
Grade 8, the 1985-86 year, had to be the worst. It was kicked off by a huge fight with the school bully Steve Hartman, a total piece of shit, but at least I won. Not that it helped. I was teased relentlessly all year for my love of Kiss and Judas Priest. Then I had mono. Incidentally, Catholic school bullies are the worst and the teachers didn’t give a fuck. When one kid, Ian Johnson, got into a fight with another bully, the teachers made them walk around the schoolyard together hand in hand. What was that supposed to do?
The only thing that made life easier that year was beating Hartman in September of ’85. That kept him off my back for the school year, although there were other bullies waiting in the wings. Jeff Brooks, who stuffed snow down my jacket every Thursday after shop class. Kevin Kirby, who copied my homework. Towards the end even Hartman was campaigning for a “rematch”.
My sister used to call that school the “Hell Hole”. She would sing Spinal Tap’s “Hell Hole” when we drove by. This is a little kid in grade 4 calling her school that name.
At the start of the eighth grade, to learn social responsibility, we all had to volunteer for something. There were a limited selection of slots for each role we were offered. I cannot remember all of the duties that were set out on our menu of options. Volunteering at the church was definitely among them, but I volunteered for the one I thought would be the most interesting: security! On a regular basis, we were to walk around the school when it was closed to make sure all was well. Keep an eye out for anything wrong, like vandalism. It was perfect because I was always biking around that direction anyway. It was really the most appealing of all the options to me.
I’m sure you have already guessed they didn’t give me the security assignment. No, I was given something that was supposed to be better, but was actually far worse. It was such a dubious honour. I was Flag Boy.
I wasn’t athletic, I was a skinny kid who openly listened to Judas Priest. No way were they putting me on security. They gave the two open positions to a couple of the athletic kids. I don’t think either of them did any security that year.
As Flag Boy, I was responsible for putting out and bringing in the Maple Leaf at the start and end of every day for the year. It was worst at the start of the day. When announcements were about to commence, I had to get out of my seat and leave the class, which always seemed to amuse them. Then I had to walk down the hallway past the other grade 8 classroom, who always mocked and laughed and pointed at me as I went. They called me “Fag Boy” from day one. What made it even worse were my boots. My dad gave them to me. I thought they were so cool. They didn’t have laces, they had dual zippers. The boots only made me more a “Fag Boy”.
When the first pair of boots wore out, my dad gave me his second identical backup pair. Ironically those boots would be considered so retro and stylish today.
The abuse that year was pretty bad and I faked sick a lot. I faked sick mostly on Thursdays, which was shop class. They bussed us to another school, St. Joseph, which had a woodworking shop. The supervision was minimal and the bus rides were all but intolerable. At one point or another I just decided I couldn’t take it anymore and faked sick as many Thursdays as I could. By the time I got sick with mono for real, I had several incomplete projects in woodworking. I was home for the rest of the term, and I never had to worry about those Thursday bus trips again.
Having mono sucked a lot, but Thursdays on the bus were far worse. I considered it more than a fair trade.
While sick at home for real, I absorbed as many Pepsi Power Hours as I could. I heard Hear N’ Aid for the first time. I became addicted to “Rough Boy” by ZZ Top because of that damn music video. (I guess I learned from an early age that I’m really a leg man.) My heavy metal credentials grew by leaps and bounds and I listened to more and more songs: “Metal on Metal”, “Never Surrender”, “Turbo Lover”, “Rock and Roll Children”. To this day, I associate those songs with my sick time in 1986. Especially Dio’s “Rock and Roll Children”. The surreal music video suited the way I felt physically. It didn’t look like the real world and I didn’t feel like myself.
My association of heavy metal music with relief from the outside world was cemented that year. I had always come home to the comfort of a few Kiss tapes. In 1986, sick with mono, I was safe from the school and surrounded not by bullies but by Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, and Bruce Dickinson. They didn’t call me “Fag Boy”, in fact their lyrics encouraged me to dig for strength. Recovering from my illness, I had built this wall of metal around me. It would be my armour for life.
I don’t know if those kids remember calling me “Fag Boy”, or if they would admit it. I know I wouldn’t recognize Hartman if I saw him today. They used to talk about forgiveness a lot in Catholic school. You can forgive, but you never forget.
I can admit it. I was only 13 years old, and I thought Spinal Tap were a real band.
How was I to know? A lot of media surrounding Spinal Tap took them seriously. When MuchMusic’s J.D. Roberts interviewed Ronnie James Dio about the Hear N’ Aid project in 1986, he played it straight. David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap appear on the track “Stars”, which Ronnie produced.
Roberts: “I think that one of the great coups of Hear N’ Aid, and I think you’ll have to agree with me, was having David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap enter the project.”
Dio: “Yeah that was a real special moment. I must tell you that there was a little consternation on the part of some of the people who did not turn up, who were asked to take part in ‘Stars’, that the inclusion of those two people, or anyone from Spinal Tap, made this project a laughing stock. I’d like to be able to reply to anyone who thinks that’s a valid point. Again, we are human beings. And part of human nature is to laugh. Probably the nicest part of human nature is to laugh. And these are two wonderful people who made us laugh, not only in this project, but in Spinal Tap.”
Even though Dio actually broke the wall for a moment and entered the “real” world with his answer, Roberts shot right back into the fictional world with his followup question. Dio played along this time.
Roberts: “It’s a good thing, as Derek says, that you didn’t let them do the lead vocal, because they would have blown everybody away.”
Dio: “Well they did a lot of singing when the tape wasn’t rolling, and they were better than all of us. And they happen to both be the best guitar players I’ve ever heard too.”
Never mind that Derek plays bass!
Shortly after the interview rolled, Much played the video for “Hell Hole” and I had a chance to hear Spinal Tap for myself. Yeah, that blonde guy could sing. It was a decent song. I expected something heavier — more thrash like. Maybe the reason I hadn’t heard of them was they were a thrash band? If they were so highly praised by Ronnie James Dio, I couldn’t understand why I never heard of them. I didn’t have much to go on either.
According to the Dio interview, there were some unnamed rock stars who felt that Spinal Tap would turn Hear N’ Aid into a “laughing stock”. Why? I turned various scenarios over in my head. Were they satanic? Well, they had a song called “Hell Hole” and there was a big demon skull head in the backdrop, but that didn’t make them satanists. Just what was the story exactly with this Spinal Tap?
They did seem arrogant in the Hear N’ Aid “making of” video.
David St. Hubbins: “They asked us to do the leads, but like I said before, I didn’t wanna blow these other blokes away, you know. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than they have. I’ve got pipes I haven’t used yet. Haven’t located them yet.”
Derek Smalls: “He could break the board in there. It’s really an act of mercy to the engineers that he doesn’t sing lead.”
Arrogant yes, but…St. Hubbins has been doing this this a lot longer than they have? Just why haven’t I heard of Spinal Tap before? Analysing the video for “Hell Hole” revealed little. Yes, there was a comedic slant to it, but the song actually rocked. Other bands put comedy in their music videos too, like Twisted Sister. There was no reason whatsoever to suspect the truth.
The only real clue that I had was when Dio briefly mentioned a film. There, the trail went cold. Never heard of it, never seen it, didn’t know anybody who did. It was a couple more years before I eventually put the story together. While continuing my education in KISStory, I learned that their film, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, was shown in a double bill with This Is Spinal Tap for a limited run. This happened in England, a “Headbanging double feature”, around October 1984.* I began to read names like “Michael McKean” and “Harry Shearer”. Eventually a highschool friend named Andy recommended that I see the movie ASAP so I rented a copy from Steve’s TV.
The truth is, I did not like This In Spinal Tap the first time I saw it. I didn’t laugh. It certainly wasn’t a gleeful rock and roll comedy, as I watched the hard times roll out one after another. But then the next day back at school, talking about it with Andy, I started to get the jokes.
“…and then when they’re stuck in those pods for ‘Rock and Roll Creation’ and the bassist can’t get out…they have to bring out a blowtorch…” said Andy.
“Oh yeah, that was pretty funny actually. You know what part I did like, was when they were lost in the basement trying to find the stage. Did you notice Billy Crystal was the mime? Mime is money!”
I finally got it. I rented it again, and this time I dubbed a copy for myself. I understood Rob Reiner’s role in the concept and recognized the actors from other roles. Christopher Guest, the other singer, was Count Rugen in The Princess Bride, only one of the greatest movies ever made. Also directed by Rob Reiner! I watched Spinal Tap again, and again. I think I had a new favourite movie!
There’s no shame in admitting being fooled by Spinal Tap. That was the whole point, wasn’t it? Otherwise the band wouldn’t have continued doing interviews in character. The idea was to always keep it believable enough that you can fool a small minority.
My dad used to say, “If that band is just a bunch of actors, then I guess it doesn’t take much talent to play rock and roll.” But my dad missed something then, that he now understands. Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest are actually excellent musicians on multiple instruments. And that is why Spinal Tap was so believable. When Nignel Tufnel rips a solo in the video for “Hell Hole”, it looks right because Christopher Guest performed that solo. You know, maybe Spinal Tap should be considered a real band after all!
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