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Director Marty DiBergi is following the hard rock band Spinal Tap on the tour of their new album, to make a documentary about the band. Various issues and situations arise during this period.
The Spinal Tap is a semi-fictitious band, in the sense that the group was created specifically for television sketches and later for this fake documentary, but in reality, the members (comic actors and authors/screenwriters) actually played the instruments and recorded some albums, so much so that they later did live performances. "This is Spinal Tap" really seems like a documentary about an existing band, but it is actually one of the first "mockumentaries" in American cinema. A satire of the music world and a blatant parody of rock and metal bands, but not only. Just think of the beginnings (around 1966) when the "Spinal Tap", after changing several names (as is tradition in rock music), were musically born as psychedelic pop-rock, following in the footsteps of various Beatles, Stones, Kinks, etc...
In this "Rockumentary" (as dubbed by director/actor Rob Reiner) there are star tantrums, groupies, censorship issues with album covers, rivalries with other artists, internal conflicts, concert date shifts. A film that is, in its own way, brilliant and fun, definitely delicious, sometimes almost ridiculous but never crossing the line, playing with rock stereotypes. Hilarious moments are some renditions of songs (with side-splitting lyrics) and the tragedies befalling various drummers.
What emerges about the "Spinal Tap" from this fake documentary? A good band, delivering a lot live but anything but essential, slaves to musical trends and on the decline. In short, like Kiss if they hadn't painted their faces and if they hadn't had that great business acumen (let me keep this one). But there are also references to AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Queen, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Hair Metal, and so on.
"This Is Spinal Tap" is a worldwide cult, but unknown in our parts, absolutely unmissable for any rock music enthusiast.
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