Rock Stars' Spinal Tap Moments
Def Leppard, Skyclad, Down and KOOPA's Most Embarrassing Stories
Every rock band has had its Spinal Tap moments and in an exclusive interview, members of Def Leppard, Skyclad, Down and KOOPA reveal theirs.
The stars and subjects of the mostly fictitious 1984 'rockumentary' This Is Spinal Tap might have been a parody but every gigging rock band has its own collection of ludicrous stories to tell. Here Suite101 interviews Def Leppard, Skyclad, Down and KOOPA and asks the question: What is your most Spinal Tap moment?
Joe Elliott from Brit Rock Giants Def Leppard
Joe: “We've all got lost on the way to the stage when you have to go underneath via the basement – the 'hello Cleveland' moment has probably happened to a lot of people. I think the most Spinal Tap moment if we're talking about extreme embarrassment was when we were playing Wolverhampton Lafayette Club in 1979, I think. It was just before we went out with AC/DC and Cliff Bernstein, who was to be our manager but at the time was A&R for Mercury Records, came over to see us. It was a pretty important gig and about two seconds before we went onstage my trousers split right up the back. I had no option but to stand facing forward all night with gaffa tape holding them together. That's what happens when you've got no money and you're wearing these black plastic leather-look things. I just taped 'em up and thought of England!”
Martin Walkyier of Folk Metal Originators Skyclad
Martin: “The backdrop we got made for Skyclad was kind of the opposite of their version of Stonehenge. I think we put the wrong dimensions down and we ended up with a backdrop – we'd paid a couple of grand for it, this awesome painted thing and it was about the size of a football pitch. We could never fit it into any of the gigs we did. Suddenly we were a band trying to grow into our backdrop.”
Sludge Metal Legend Kirk Windstein
Kirk: “I’m not sure I’ve got one major Spinal Tap moment but junior Spinal Tap moments have been pretty commonplace. I’ve fallen flat on my face onstage, I’ve had the amps fall over on top of me, I’ve had my mouth busted up ‘cause people are stage-diving, we’ve gotten lost trying to find the way to the stage. These things happen all the time but one of the funniest things was when I was playing with Down at the Ozfest. The monitor in front of me and Rex literally caught fire. There were flames shooting out of the top of it and some jackass got the brilliant idea to pour water on it. It’s kinda like electrical bro’…unplug the cable if you’re going to do that! I saw the bucket of water coming and backed right up to the other end of the stage.”
Joe Murphy from UK Pop-punks KOOPA
Joe: “That would be in an underground station once and we got off a train and into a lift and we went upstairs. We went in through one set of doors but the other side opened at the top and we went back down some stairs and ended up at the same lift again. It took about 4 or 5 times before we realised that we weren’t actually going anywhere and we had to ask for help to get out of an underground station.”
For more on Kirk Winstein, read Kingdom Of Sorrow interview.
For more on KOOPA, read KOOPA Record With Mark Hoppus.
