The five craziest on stage criminal offences
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Credit: Warner Bros
The comical real-life ‘Spinal Tap’ moment of Black Sabbath
When This Is Spinal Tap was released in 1984, music changed forever. Never before had a parody of the excess and eccentricities of the music industry been so sharp. People had known for a long time that rock ‘n’ roll was a farcical world, with the stories in abundance about the world’s most famous rock stars being totally off the rails.
Whether it be the stories about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Aerosmith, by the time This Is Spinal Tap was released, many people were left in hysterics, as the idea of what a rock star should be and do had now changed. It wasn’t cool to be a rock star in the traditional sense anymore, and self-awareness was now becoming a requirement for any musician worth their salt.
There’s a well-known anecdote about the legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen watching the film, confused about why his friends were all falling over in fits of laughter. He thought the movie was bang on with its amps that could be turned up to 11, and tantrums about bread being too small. Surely anyone in the right mind would protest at miniature bread?
This wasn’t an isolated incident, though. Many of Van Halen’s status missed the point when they first watched the film. However, they soon realised that the joke was on them and had to run with it. Otherwise, audiences would never take them seriously again. Rock stars were now standing on the edge of the void, and the future was telling them: “Get your head out of your rectum or face total annihilation.”
For the most part, after 1984, discounting the terrible hair metal scene, musicians were different. By the end of the decade, figures such as Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and J. Mascis were the heroes, and artists such as Van Halen and The Stones were relics of the past and incredibly un-cool. Punk had finally got what it wanted, the demise of classic rock.
Even though things had changed, it didn’t stop the endless hilarious stories from the heyday of classic rock from existing, serving as a reminder of just how stupid the industry was. One of the best tales comes courtesy of the progenitors of doom, Black Sabbath, who ended up having a stage prop built that was so ridiculous, it could quite easily have been a scene in This Is Spinal Tap.
Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler explained: “We had Sharon Osbourne’s dad, Don Arden, managing us. He came up with having the stage set be Stonehenge. He wrote the dimensions down and gave it to our tour manager. He wrote it down in metres, but meant to write it in feet. The people who made it saw 15m instead of 15ft. It was 45ft high and we just had to leave it in the storage area. It cost a fortune to make, but there was not a building on Earth that you could fit it into.”
The thought of the band looking on, dumbfounded, at this life-sized replica of Stonehenge is brilliant. One can only imagine what the conversations were like as it was first towed into view. If you google it, you’ll see a picture of Sabbath drummer, Bill Ward, playing in front of the prop, and it is so Spinal Tap it makes you realise just how genius a parody the film is.
Watch then-Sabbath frontman Ian Gillan discuss the incident below.
