It was 60 years ago today St. Hubbins and Tufnel taught the band to play

Today is the 60th anniversary of the day that David St. Hubbins met Nigel Tufnel and formed The Originals, which eventually became SPINAL TAP.

From SpinalTap.com:

Nigel Tufnel and David St. Hubbins grew up in the same city block in London's Squatney District, knowing each other only slightly. David played guitar in a skiffle band, the Creatures; Nigel did the same for the Lovely Lads. The two began jamming together outside tube stations, and eventually, formed their first legitimate band, the Originals, later changed to the New Originals when the East End Originals (now the Regulars) threatened suit.

The New Originals collapsed in 1964 without record company support, but David and Nigel were hired by the legendary Johnny Goodshow Revue and played the Seaside Circuit, gigging after hours at local pubs — and it was in a Southampton tavern, The Bucket (now the Bucket and Pail), that they met and jammed with John "Stumpy" Pepys, then drummer for Leslie Cheswick Soul Explosion (now Les & Mary Cheswick).

When the weather turned cold, the three hooked up with bassist Ronnie Pudding from the Cheap Dates (now Cheapdate) and began working in London as the Thamesmen. They released their debut single on Abbey, Gimme Some Money b/w Cups and Cakes, in late spring 1965. It did not hit the charts immediately.

Meanwhile, the band played extensively in the Benelux nations, particularly Amsterdam's Long-Hair Club, where they met sixteen-year-old keyboard prodigy Jan Van Der Kvelk, who did musical charts for the band and used his Dutch music-biz connections to get them work. Leaving Amsterdam and Van Der Kvelk behind, the band returned to Britain as the Dutchmen and found Gimme Some Money climbing the charts. The band quickly changed their name back to the Thamesmen but the single had peaked and vanished from sight.

During the next eighteen months the group performed under the following names: Rave Breakers, Hellcats, Flamin' Daemons, Shiners, Mondos, the Doppel Gang, the Peoples, Loose Lips, Waffles, Hot Waffles, Silver Service, The Mud Below, and the Tufnel-St. Hubbins Group; personnel included: Nick Wax, Tony Brixton, Dicky Laine, and Denny Upham (keyboards); Jimmy Adams, Geoff Clovington (horns); Julie Scrubbs-Martin, Lhasa Apso (backing vocals); and briefly Little Danny Schindler (vocals, harmonica), later with Shvegman-Hayman-Kvelkman Blues Band featuring Little Danny Schindler (Shvegman, Hayman and Kvelkman signed with CPR Records as Talmud).

Continued here...

R.I.P. Sunset Strip landmark House of Blues

The House of Blues is going down. Photo by Alison Martino for Vintage Los Angeles

My favorite night there was September 5, 2000, an evening I memorialized for SpinalTap.com.


Editor's Note: Dennis Wilen, webmaster for Harry Shearer, and Bunezuela, who paid $510 for two tickets to the film premiere, reports from Spinal Tap's triumphant return in Los Angeles, September 5, 2000

No fooling those Sunset Boulevard scenesters!

Despite the House of Blues marquee showing TUES NITE: SUSSMAN BRIS, the can't-fool-me crowd of hepsters packed the HOB for the tour-opening gig of Spinal Tap's 16th anniversary premiere.

The hard rockin', Spinal Tap t-shirt wearing-crowd was like totally ready for an extremely rare appearance by one of England's loudest bands. With tickets to the uber-private HOB "industry preview" gig reportedly going for up to $300 on eBay and September 7 David Letterman taping tickets in the $3K range, there was no question this was the hottest show in Hollywood.

I myself with my own eyes saw swinging stars like Carl Reiner, Al Franken, the inimitable Hef (no ascot tonight!) with two matching blonde bimbettes, and my old Philly homeboy, bass-playin' Freebo, whose mysterious presence was only explained by the show's encore.

There were lots of other celebs, I am told, plus many industry weasels in attendance. Surprise opening act was The Folksmen.

Dressed in matching khakis and vertical red and white candystripe shirts, the group played their one hit, what had once been several traditional ballads, and, to show they're no strangers to that rock and roll music you kids like to listen to, closed their set with a rousing version of Boston's More Than A Feeling.

Even if you think you've heard this rock classic in every possible setting, you would have probably been as dumbfounded as the audience was upon hearing it on string bass with two acoustic guitars. Stunning.

Finally, as the velvet curtain rose on the laser lit, smoke-filled club stage, the thundering intro to Hell Hole, cut one side one on Tap's debut LP, filled the room, and Tap was Back from the Dead, in a mighty big way.

 From left to right, dark, hairy and menacing Derek Smalls, as always, on bass. In the center, on vocals and rhythm, blonde and beautiful David St. Hubbins. On the right, as flashy as ever, Nigel Tufnel sent out the soaring leads on his artlessly played Japanese Stratocaster copy with lots of buttons.

The band never stopped to rest or chat much or even tune up as they hammered hit after hit across the proscenium to the screaming horde. Bitch School. Christmas With the Devil.

Whatever that song was during which Derek had gotten trapped in the pod, but not this time. The British Invasion hit that started it all off for Tap: Listen to the Flower People. And then, unbelievably, as the lights flashed and the thunder rolled, a prop Stonehenge is lowered to the stage. It was easy to forget, at that moment, the huge, bald spot in the middle of Derek's flowing tresses, the crusty cold sore on Nigel's lip and the fact that St. Hubbins was made up like a geisha whore on crack.

The magical musical tale began. This was Progressive Rock at its perige! Or is it apogee? I never remember.

And, apparently as part of a personnel compromise that got the band back on the road, the part of the midget was danced by a woman (Jeanine?) who might have been St. Hubbins' bird, ya know watteye mean wink wink nudge nudge? But I'm not sure.

As the epic ended, the crowd was silent. The 'Henge retreated into the lights. What could possibly follow this? Cheers. Cheers. Cheers as Freebo, carrying a goddamn tuba, and a famous bass player with a bald head, wire-rim specs and a long gray ZZ Topish beard (I am spacing on the name) came on to join the Tapsters, and, in a fitting finale, together they layed down the bottom-heaviest version of "Big Bottom" you'd ever want to hear.

And I don't say that lightly. My ears are still ringing. And my mind is still spinning — in a good way.

#TBT 2001: My new Spinal Tap website goes online

‪#‎TBT‬ July 2001.

Fifteen years ago I built a new website for Spinal Tap and their 'Back from the Dead' tour (and I've been the webmaster of record ever since.)

My version followed a glitzy shiny version by MGM. I went 180 degrees in the other direction with an ASCII art logo. It is this website that gives me the right to say that I built a website that went to 11.

This version of the website was notable for having no actual photos of the band members. All the artwork was photos of Spinal Tap action figures.

Meta meta meta. A website for a fictional band that exists only in a movie illustrated with digital photos of dolls modeled after the actors.

There's a pretty good version of the site at Archive.org.

This was the night I introduced Elvis Costello to Spinal Tap

Backstage at UCLA's Royce Hall for the Folksmen's June 1, 2001 gig at the Harry Smith Tribute Concert, I photographed Elvis Costello hanging out with my bud Beck. Later I took Elvis downstairs to Spinal Tap's dressing room and left them alone to get acquainted. (I was/am Tap's webmaster.)

Costello joined Spinal Tap/The Folksmen onstage later that year when the Back from the Dead Tour brought the world's loudest band to Carnegie Hall.

When I designed and built a website for Spinal Tap, it started out something like this...

Black. Very restful on the eyes.

Posted by Dennis Wilen on Sunday, May 31, 2015

 

You can see the original Flash file in action at ARCHIVE.ORG with Flash coding by Frank San Filippo.