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72-473: Spinal Tap (stylized as Spın̈al Tap , with a dotless letter i and a metal umlaut over the n ) are a fictional English heavy metal band created by the American comedians and musicians of The T.V. Show , who wrote and performed original songs as the band: Michael McKean , as the lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins ; Christopher Guest , as the guitarist Nigel Tufnel ; and Harry Shearer , as

144-634: A promotional audition for a new drummer attended by Stephen Perkins of Jane's Addiction , Gina Schock of The Go-Go's , and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac , who auditioned in a fireproof suit. Despite the auditions, Parnell was retained as "Ric Shrimpton" and remained the band's drummer. Kaff did not return, and consequently the "reunited" band consisted of Guest, McKean, Shearer and Parnell (all in character) and new keyboardist C. J. Vanston (under his own name). A promotional concert tour followed, which included an appearance at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , where they performed "The Majesty of Rock",

216-410: A "Unwigged and Unplugged" show in the city. In 2018, Shearer released an album in the persona of Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls. The single "It Don't Get Old" was, as per the credits, co-written by David St. Hubbins. On the 27 of April 2019, the band reunited at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival for the 35th anniversary of the film. In May 2022, it was announced that the principal cast and director of

288-553: A 1984 episode of Saturday Night Live to promote the film. The character of Mick Shrimpton having died in the film, Parnell played his "twin brother" drummer Ric Shrimpton for these and later appearances. Kaff dropped out shortly after the Saturday Night Live appearance. In 1984, the band (Guest, McKean, Shearer and Parnell) issued the single "Christmas With The Devil". In 1985, McKean and Shearer (in character and credited as David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls) participated in

360-533: A Magical Place celebrating their 25th anniversary. The video is distributed through INgrooves and is available only on iTunes . The short film depicts the founding members of Spinal Tap making a pilgrimage to Stonehenge for the first time. On October 18, 2022, Spinal Tap star Michael McKean shared a deleted scene from the movie on his Twitter account and added: "Wow, thanks. Unseen by me, anyway, Lo these many years." This list contains both fictional former members of Spinal Tap and celebrities that have played with

432-439: A decade after his death and remain available to local stations, through Talent Farm as of mid-2020. In 2024, as part of a oldies format marking its 85th anniversary, XEPRS began to carry the remastered recordings. In his early days, Wolfman Jack made sporadic public appearances, usually as a master of ceremonies for rock bands at Los Angeles clubs. At each appearance, he looked a little different because he had not decided what

504-502: A discography and a list of the band's former members. Within the context of the band's fictional history, Spinal Tap began as a beat group called the Thamesmen in 1964 and released one single, "Gimmie Some Money" with "Cups and Cakes" on the B-side, in 1965. They changed their name to Spinal Tap in 1966 and became a psychedelic pop band, before reinventing themselves as a heavy metal band in

576-410: A made-for-TV movie Deadman's Curve based on the musical careers of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean . Smith appeared in several television shows as Wolfman Jack, including The Odd Couple , What's Happening!! , Vega$ , Hollywood Squares , Married... with Children (his final public performance), Emergency! , The New Adventures of Wonder Woman , and Galactica 1980 . He

648-458: A mini rock opera and at least one musical 7-inch single. Also in 1979, Guest and McKean were members of Lenny and the Squigtones , a band that was fronted by characters from the hit television series Laverne and Shirley . Guest, on guitar and clarinet, was credited as "Nigel Tufnel", the name he would eventually use as a member of Spinal Tap. The appearance on The T.V. Show eventually led to

720-628: A montage of skits by the comedy troupe The Committee . Wolfman Jack started his recording career in Minneapolis while working at KUXL Radio in 1965 with George Garrett, who helped record the album Boogie with the Wolfman by Wolfman Jack and the Wolfpack on the Bread Label. He was also responsible for engineering, producing, and assembling the band. Wolfman Jack also released Wolfman Jack (1972) and Through

792-554: A pill called Florex, which was supposed to enhance one's sex drive, was sold. "Some zing for your ling nuts ", the Wolfman would say. XERB was the original call sign for the border blaster station in Rosarito Beach , Mexico, which was branded as The Mighty 1090 in Hollywood , California . The station boasted "50,000 watts of Boss Soul Power". That station continues to broadcast under the call sign XEPRS-AM. XERB also had an office in

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864-514: A replacement. Because of new laws passed in the UK in 1967 ( Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 ), the sales operation needed to be situated outside of the UK. For a time, Don Kelley, Wolfman Jack's business partner and personal manager, acted as the West Coast agent for the planned new Radio Caroline, but the deal eventually fell apart. As a part of this process, Wolfman Jack was set to deliver

936-531: A separate letter as is ì in Scottish Gaelic. Though historically Irish only used an "i" without a dot, so as to not confuse with "í", this dotless "ı" should not be used for Irish. Instead a font with "i" in the normal location should be used that has no dot. See other old-style Irish letters and the symbol for & still used in modern Irish text and Irish orthography . In some of the Athabaskan languages of

1008-692: A show at Carnegie Hall in New York City and ended in Montreal in mid-July at the Just for Laughs festival. The opening act for some of these shows were the Folksmen, the folk trio seen in the film A Mighty Wind , and also performed by Guest, McKean, and Shearer. In 2007, Tap reunited again, this time to help combat global warming . "They're not that environmentally conscious, but they've heard of global warming," said Marty DeBergi (portrayed by Reiner). "Nigel thought it

1080-457: A song they dedicated to Mercury. The band also released the single "Bitch School", which became a genuine chart single in the UK, as did follow-up single "The Majesty of Rock". The band also appeared on The Simpsons in the episode " The Otto Show ", which aired in the United States on April 23, 1992. The episode was written by Jeff Martin and directed by Wes Archer . Harry Shearer , who

1152-472: Is a regular Simpsons cast member, reprised his role as Derek Smalls . On July 1, 1992, Spinal Tap crossed five time zones for three performances in St. John's , Newfoundland ; Barrie , Ontario; and Vancouver , British Columbia, for MuchMusic and Molson's Great Canadian Party. For each performance of "Stonehenge", the miniature monument prop was delivered on stage in a courier envelope. Parnell dropped out of

1224-419: Is claimed that police described the "bizarre gardening accident" as a mystery "best left unsolved". The band Spinal Tap first appeared in a video aired as part of a 1979 sketch comedy special called The T.V. Show , a project spearheaded by Rob Reiner and Michael McKean. The video was for the song "Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare", in a sequence that was intended as a spoof of The Midnight Special . Participating in

1296-536: Is now working as a farmhand looking after miniature horses. He plans to race them. David St. Hubbins is currently working as a hip-hop producer, and Derek Smalls is in rehab for being addicted to the Internet . A new album, Back from the Dead , was released on June 16, 2009. The album consists mostly of re-recordings of songs from the original film's soundtrack, along with some new, previously unrecorded numbers. The album

1368-596: The BBC Two program The Culture Show , Christopher Guest broke into Nigel Tufnel, and considered what his wife and kids would make of the Mark Kermode -shaped award. On July 7, 2007, Spinal Tap played at Wembley Stadium in London along with many major bands and groups as part of Live Earth , a Climate Change awareness concert. Their set included a new song written for the occasion, "Warmer Than Hell". During their final number,

1440-519: The Glastonbury Festival . The trio also portray the fictional American folk music revival band the Folksmen ; some Spinal Tap concert appearances have featured Guest, McKean and Shearer opening for Spinal Tap as the Folksmen. Although the 1984 film portrays the band hailing from the United Kingdom, the three actors who play the principal band members—Guest, McKean and Shearer—were born in

1512-500: The National Geographic show Stonehenge Decoded , expounding his nonsensical theories about Stonehenge and who was responsible for building it. His claims to have invented "decoder" experiments capable of unveiling the true purpose of the monument are, as yet, unproven. McKean, Guest and Shearer have made several appearances as their alter egos the Folksmen, including the television shows Saturday Night Live and Mad TV and

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1584-524: The Northwest Territories in Canada, specifically Slavey , Dogrib and Chipewyan , all instances of i are undotted to avoid confusion with tone-marked vowels í or ì . Lowercase dotless ı is used as the lowercase form of the letter Í in the official Karakalpak alphabet approved in 2016. Both the dotted and dotless I can be used in transcriptions of Rusyn to allow distinguishing between

1656-576: The Park Slope section. His parents divorced while he was a child. To help keep him out of trouble, his father bought him a large Trans-Oceanic radio, and Smith became an avid fan of R&B music and the disc jockeys who played it, including Douglas "Jocko" Henderson of Philadelphia; New York's "Dr. Jive" ( Tommy Smalls ); the "Moon Dog" from Cleveland, Alan Freed ; and Nashville's " John R. " Richbourg, who later became his mentor. After selling encyclopedias and Fuller brushes door-to-door, Smith attended

1728-632: The Volkswagen logo and pre-amps that allow it to be played through the car's stereo system. Also in 2006, the song "Gimme Some Money" was used in a TV commercial for Open from American Express , "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" appeared in Harmonix 's video game Guitar Hero 2 and "Christmas with the Devil" appeared in BBC One promo spots for the network's Christmas program. In 2007, while accepting an award from

1800-482: The 1980s, he did a brief stint at XEROK 80 , another border-blaster station that was leased by Dallas investors Robert Hanna, Grady Sanders, and John Ryman. He also hosted a TV show at Little Darlin's Rock n' Roll Palace, which was eventually renamed Wolfman Jack's Rock'n'Roll Palace. Ryman then moved Smith to Scott Ginsburg -owned Y95 in Dallas, Texas. Recordings of Wolfman Jack's old shows were reintroduced to syndication

1872-557: The 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap , which was accompanied by a soundtrack album . In the years following the film's release, the actors have portrayed the band members at concerts and released music under the Spinal Tap name. Guest, McKean and Shearer toured in the United States in April and May 2009 and performed as Spinal Tap in a "One Night Only World Tour" on June 30, 2009, at Wembley Arena in London, three days after playing

1944-637: The Ages (1973) on the Wooden Nickel label. In 1973, he appeared as himself in George Lucas 's second feature film American Graffiti . Lucas gave him a fraction of a "point", the division of the profits from a film, and the extreme financial success of American Graffiti provided him with a regular income for life. He also appeared in the film's 1979 sequel More American Graffiti , though only through voice-overs. In 1978, he appeared as Bob "The Jackal" Smith in

2016-461: The Continental Kids . Wolfman Jack was regularly parodied on The Hilarious House of Frightenstein as "The Wolfman," an actual werewolf disc jockey with a look inspired by the original The Wolf Man movies. A few years earlier, Todd Rundgren recorded the tribute "Wolfman Jack" on the album Something/Anything? ; the single version of the track includes a shouted talk-over introduction by

2088-563: The Folksmen and others from throughout the trio's career. On April 1, 2009, Guest, McKean, and Shearer played on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as the musical guest. On June 15, 2009, Spinal Tap performed on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as the musical guest. On Saturday, June 27, 2009, Spinal Tap performed on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival with Jarvis Cocker guesting on bass during "Big Bottom", and also inviting Jamie Cullum on stage to play keyboards. One of

2160-705: The National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. After graduating from NAB in 1960, Smith began working as "Daddy Jules" at WYOU in Newport News, Virginia . When the station format changed to " beautiful music ", he became known as "Roger Gordon and Music in Good Taste". In 1962, Smith moved to country music station KCIJ/1050 in Shreveport, Louisiana , as the station manager and morning disc jockey, "Big Smith with

2232-546: The Prowl", and thousands of small, tombstone-shaped paperweights were distributed that said, "Cousin Brucie is going to be buried by Wolfman Jack". After less than a year, WNBC hired Cousin Brucie, and Wolfman Jack went back to California to concentrate on his syndicated radio show, which was carried on KRLA -Pasadena (Los Angeles) from 1984 to 1987. He moved to Belvidere, North Carolina , in 1989, to be closer to his extended family. In

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2304-517: The Records". He married Lucy "Lou" Lamb in 1961, and they had two children. Cleveland's Alan Freed had originally called himself the "Moon Dog" after New York City street musician Moondog . Freed both adopted this name and used a recorded howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character. Smith's adaptation of the Moondog theme was to call himself Wolfman Jack and add his own sound effects. The character

2376-466: The Soviet Union. At XERF, Smith developed his signature style (with phrases such as, "Who's this on the Wolfman telephone?") and widespread fame. The border stations made money by renting time to Pentecostal preachers and psychics, and by taking 50% of the profit from anything sold by mail order. The Wolfman did pitches for dog food, weight-loss pills, weight-gain pills, rose bushes, and baby chicks. Even

2448-742: The TV special Garfield in Paradise in 1986. Jim Morrison 's lyrics for "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" were influenced by Wolfman Jack's broadcasting. He is mentioned on Sugarloaf 's 1974 hit single " Don't Call Us, We'll Call You " and on the Grateful Dead song "Ramble On Rose". He furnished his voice in The Guess Who 's top-10 hit single " Clap for the Wolfman ". In 1976, he furnished his voice on "Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)" by Flash Cadillac &

2520-495: The UK charts in May 1986. As part of the promotion surrounding Break Like the Wind , Spinal Tap was portrayed in " The Otto Show " episode of the animated series The Simpsons , for which Shearer is a principal voice actor. The Simpsons follows the approach of the original film by presenting the group as if they were a real group. During the disastrous performance, a massive devil balloon on

2592-477: The United States. Guest was, however, raised in both the U.S. and Britain, and would later be granted dual citizenship and an inherited title of nobility as the 5th Baron Haden-Guest . David Kaff (as keyboardist "Viv Savage") and R. J. Parnell (as drummer "Mick Shrimpton"), who have smaller roles in the film, are both British. Fans of Spinal Tap have assembled details about the band based on fictional film, albums, concerts and related promotional material, including

2664-460: The Wolfman should look like. Early pictures show him with a goatee, but sometimes he combed his straight hair forward and added dark makeup to look somewhat "ethnic." Other times he had a big afro wig and large sunglasses. The ambiguity of his race contributed to the controversy of his program. His audience finally got a good look at him when he appeared in the 1969 film A Session with the Committee ,

2736-454: The Wolfman, but on the album version, Rundgren performs that part himself. Canadian band The Stampeders also released a cover of " Hit the Road Jack " in 1975 featuring Wolfman Jack. From 1975 to 1980, Wolfman Jack hosted Halloween Haunt at Knott's Berry Farm , which transforms itself into Knott's Scary Farm each year for Halloween. It was the most successful special event of any theme park in

2808-465: The all-star charity recording "Stars" by Hear 'n Aid . They both sing on the record, and are seen in character in the behind-the-scenes "Making of" video. The group reformed on January 18, 1991, for a performance at the Disneyland Hotel that included new material. This featured on the 1992 release, Break Like the Wind , an album produced in part by T-Bone Burnett . The album was accompanied by

2880-558: The band members. In 2000, while promoting Tapster.com, Spinal Tap appeared and performed on the short-lived series VH1 The List (with Mick Fleetwood on drums) and appeared on the Late Show . On January 19, 2001, Spinal Tap played a "one night only" tour at the Hilton ballroom in Anaheim, CA. This was during the annual NAMM Show , and sponsored by Shure . Free earplugs were provided, Stonehenge

2952-402: The band played St. John's, Newfoundland, Barrie, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia. That evening, during a performance of "Stonehenge", Tap received their signature, triptych set-piece via Canada Post in a small, bubble-wrap envelope that Derek Smalls signed for onstage. Bemused, Smalls tore open the packaging, and revealed to the cheering crowd the prop which looked to be half the size of

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3024-399: The band. Dotless i In scholarly writing on Turkic languages , ï is sometimes used for /ɯ/ . The dotless ı may also be used as a stylistic variant of the dotted i , without there being any meaningful difference between them. This is common in older Irish orthography, for example, but is simply the omission of the tittle rather than a separate letter. The í is

3096-423: The bassist Derek Smalls . They are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands". Spinal Tap first appeared on the 1979 ABC television sketch comedy pilot The T.V. Show , starring Rob Reiner . The sketch, actually a mock promotional video for the song "Rock and Roll Nightmare", was written by Reiner and the band, and included the songwriter-performer Loudon Wainwright III on keyboards. The band starred in

3168-531: The country, and often sold out. In 2012, the estate of Wolfman Jack released a hip-hop single featuring Wolfman Jack clips as the vocals. In 2016, clips from the Wolfman Jack Radio Program were used in the Rob Zombie film 31 . When the one surviving ship in what had originally been a pirate radio network of Radio Caroline North and Radio Caroline South sank in 1980, a search began to find

3240-400: The creation of a film, tracing a disastrous tour undertaken by the aging British metal band Spinal Tap. Reiner hosted the film in the character of filmmaker "Marty DiBergi", while Guest, McKean and Shearer took on character names for the project, and further developed their Spinal Tap personas. (Respectively, Guest was guitarist "Nigel Tufnel"; McKean was vocalist "David St. Hubbins"; and Shearer

3312-540: The early 1970s, the style for which they are best known. Over the years the band has also performed progressive rock , jazz fusion , funk and reggae . They have also been classified as hard rock , glam metal and rock and roll . Spinal Tap's fictional history documents a succession of drummers, all of whom are said to have died in strange circumstances: one in a "bizarre gardening accident"; another who "choked on vomit", but possibly not his own vomit; and two from " spontaneous human combustion " onstage. Additionally, it

3384-549: The event in character as David St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls, appearing in the behind-the-scenes videos and interacting in character with many real-life metal stars, many of whom were huge fans of Spinal Tap. "David St. Hubbins" and "Derek Smalls" are part of the vocal chorus heard on the record (and seen in the video), and are credited under those names on the Hear 'n Aid single's front cover (alongside many real-life heavy metal stars). The ad hoc supergroup's single "Stars" rose to No. 26 on

3456-633: The film The Return of Spinal Tap . On March 2, 2009, Guest, McKean and Shearer held a press conference at the House of Blues in Los Angeles to announce their forthcoming album of new and old Spinal Tap songs, plus a 2009 "Unwigged & Unplugged" tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film, This Is Spinal Tap . According to an L.A. Weekly report, when MTV News' Kurt Loder asked the trio "if they had plans beyond an album and tour, Shearer answered, 'We're gonna bomb Iran .'" The tour also features songs from

3528-535: The group in the 1990s, leaving Spinal Tap to use session drummers. In 2000, the band launched a web site named "Tapster", where their song "Back from the Dead" was made available for download. Tapster was a parody of Napster , a peer-to-peer file sharing network. In 2001, the band "reunited" for the nine-city "Back from the Dead Tour" that began on June 1, 2001, at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The tour included

3600-452: The letters Ы and И , which would otherwise be both transcribed as "y", despite representing different phonemes. Under such transcription the dotted İ would represent the Cyrillic І , and the dotless I would represent either Ы or И, with the other being represented by "Y". Wolfman Jack Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack ,

3672-505: The more popular, 'Hit the road, Jack.'" In 1963, Smith took his act to the border when Inter-American Radio Advertising's Ramon Bosquez hired him and sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF-AM at Ciudad Acuña in Mexico, a station across the U.S.-Mexico border from Del Rio, Texas , whose high-powered border blaster signal could be picked up across much of the United States. In an interview with writer Tom Miller , Smith described

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3744-479: The morning shows on the new station. To that end, he recorded a number of programs that never aired, because the station did not come on air according to schedule. (It eventually returned in 1983 from a new ship, which remained at sea until 1990.) Today, those tapes are traded among collectors of his work. On July 1, 1995, Smith died from a heart attack at his house in Belvidere, North Carolina , shortly after finishing

3816-616: The movie are reuniting for Spinal Tap II , a sequel planned for release by Castle Rock Entertainment in 2025. Filming began in New Orleans in March 2024. The band appeared as the musical guests on an episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL) in the spring of 1984. Barry Bostwick was the host. At this time, producer Dick Ebersol approached Shearer, Guest and McKean to join the cast. Shearer and Guest accepted (McKean would not join until ten years later, by which time original producer Lorne Michaels

3888-564: The original 18 inch Stonehenge rock from the film. In 1993, Nigel Tufnel appeared in the rockumentary Joe Satriani : The Satch Tapes . In 1994, The Return of Spinal Tap was released on video; most of this was live material from a 1992 performance at the Royal Albert Hall where the Stonehenge set was shown to the audience on video as being too big to fit through the stage doors, but it also included some interviews and follow-up on

3960-509: The radio, taking away 80% of XERB's revenue. Smith then moved to station KDAY 1580 in Los Angeles, which could only pay him a fraction of his former XERB income. Smith capitalized on his fame, though, by editing his old XERB tapes and selling them to radio stations everywhere, becoming one of the first rock-and-roll syndicated programs (as the tapes began to age, they were eventually marketed to oldies stations). He also appeared on Armed Forces Radio from 1970 to 1986. At his peak, Wolfman Jack

4032-558: The reach of the XERF signal: "We had the most powerful signal in North America. Birds dropped dead when they flew too close to the tower. A car driving from New York to L.A. would never lose the station." Many of the Mexican border stations broadcast at 150,000 watts, three times the U.S. limit, meaning that their signals were picked up all over North America, and at night as far away as Europe and

4104-565: The rear of a small strip mall on Third Avenue in Chula Vista, California just 10 minutes from the Tijuana – San Diego border crossing. The Wolfman was rumored to actually broadcast from this location during the early to mid-1960s. Smith left Mexico after eight months and moved to Minneapolis to run station KUXL . Although Smith was managing a Minneapolis radio station, he was still broadcasting as Wolfman Jack on XERF via taped shows that he sent to

4176-522: The show), Justin Hawkins from the Darkness and others. On July 27, 2009, the band performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as the musical guest announcing their retirement and shortly thereafter their comeback. The next day, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, they were the musical guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart . On August 25, 2009, Spinal Tap released a seven-minute short film titled Stonehenge: 'Tis

4248-522: The song "Big Bottom", St. Hubbins and Tufnel both picked up basses. Spinal Tap was also joined by "every bass player in the known universe", including Nate Mendel (of the Foo Fighters ); Robert Trujillo , Kirk Hammett , and James Hetfield ( Metallica ); Gordon Moakes ( Bloc Party ); and Adam Yauch (a.k.a. MCA), of Beastie Boys . They were also joined on back-up vocals by Annette O'Toole , Michael McKean's wife. In May 2008, Nigel Tufnel appeared in

4320-538: The stage does not inflate properly, and Nigel is temporarily blinded by lasers. Later in the episode, their tour bus is accidentally pushed off a cliff due to Otto 's reckless driving. In a 2016 interview Shearer said this was the only time Spinal Tap had worked to a script, all other movie, television and live appearances being improvised. On July 1, 1992, as part of MuchMusic's Canada Day "Great Canadian Party" festival, Spinal Tap completed an unprecedented tour of Canada in less than 24 hours. Jetting across five time-zones,

4392-643: The station. Missing the excitement, however, Wolfman returned to border radio to run XERB, and opened an office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in January 1966. He recorded his shows in Los Angeles and shipped his tapes across the border into Mexico, where they would then be beamed across the U.S. In 1971, the Mexican government, under pressure from the Roman Catholic church, banned the Pentecostal preachers from

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4464-506: The unexpected highlights for Tap fans was a rendition of the newly written overture from the mythical Jack the Ripper musical Saucy Jack . Also on the bill were Kasabian , Crosby Stills & Nash , and Bruce Springsteen . On Tuesday, June 30, 2009, Spinal Tap performed at Wembley Arena with the Folksmen as support. A variety of special guests featured including Keith Emerson (joined them on organ/keyboards – which he later destroyed during

4536-465: The video (and playing the music) were Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Loudon Wainwright III, and Russ Kunkel ; the segment was introduced by Reiner in character as Wolfman Jack . The Spinal Tap band members were at this point unnamed. McKean and Shearer had previously been members of the Credibility Gap , a comedy troupe that did both spoken word and musical comedy, and had released

4608-674: Was an American disc jockey active for over three decades. Famous for the gravelly voice which he credited for his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes on the table for years for Wolfman and Wolfwoman. A couple of shots of whiskey helps it. I've got that nice raspy sound." Smith was born in Brooklyn , New York City , on January 21, 1938, the younger of two children of Anson Weston Smith, an Episcopal Sunday school teacher, writer, editor, and executive vice president of Financial World , and his wife, Rosamond Small. He lived on 12th Street and 4th Avenue and went to Manual Training High School in

4680-480: Was back at the show's helm). Shearer's stint on SNL the following season—his second, the first having been the 1979–80 season—was to be short-lived, following creative disputes with the show's management. In 1985, at the invitation of Ronnie James Dio , Michael McKean and Harry Shearer took part in the heavy metal benefit project Hear 'n Aid , to raise money for famine victims in Ethiopia. McKean and Shearer attended

4752-427: Was based in part on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin' Wolf . At KCIJ, he first began to develop his famous alter ego, Wolfman Jack. According to author Philip A. Lieberman, Smith's "Wolfman" persona "derived from Smith's love of horror films and his shenanigans as a 'wolfman' with his two young nephews. The 'Jack' nickname was taken from the 'hipster' lingo of the 1950s, as in 'Take a page from my book, Jack', or

4824-423: Was bassist "Derek Smalls".) Also added to the group were David Kaff (as keyboard player "Viv Savage") and R.J. Parnell (as drummer "Mick Shrimpton"). Parnell had previously been in the band Atomic Rooster , while Kaff had been a member of Rare Bird . The quintet played their own instruments throughout the film. The band Spinal Tap became a going concern , with the group (in character) playing gigs and appearing on

4896-800: Was heard on more than 2,000 radio stations in 53 countries. He was heard as far afield as the Wild Coast, Transkei , on Capital Radio 604 based there. In a deal promoted by Don Kelley, the Wolfman was paid handsomely to join WNBC in New York in August 1973, the same month that American Graffiti premiered, and the station did a huge advertising campaign in local newspapers predicting the Wolfman would propel their ratings over those of their main competitor, WABC 's Cousin Brucie (Bruce Morrow). The advertisements proclaimed, "Cousin Brucie's Days Are Numbered / Wolfman Jack Is on

4968-441: Was just because he was wearing too much clothing – that if he just took his jacket off it would be cooler." This reunion also included the release of a new song called "Warmer Than Hell". The band played on the London leg of the SOS / Live Earth concert series, and Rob Reiner has directed a short film (entitled Spinal Tap ) which was released on the Live Earth website on April 27. The film reveals that Nigel Tufnel

5040-429: Was nominated for Best Comedy Album and Best Recording Package at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards . On April 6, 2009, the band announced a one-date "world tour", performing at London's Wembley Arena on June 30, 2009. Support on this night came from the Folksmen. The band unexpectedly also self-confirmed for Glastonbury Festival 2009 during an online interview on May 8, 2009, in the Philadelphia Daily News following

5112-427: Was performed (with small dancers), and tour T-shirts were available the next day at Shure's tradeshow booth. The shirt showed several concert dates, but they were all marked cancelled - except the Jan 19 date. In 2006, Nigel Tufnel appeared in a Volkswagen TV commercial highlighting their offer of a free, exclusive First Act guitar with the purchase of qualifying automobiles. The guitar features knobs and inlays with

5184-466: Was the regular announcer and occasional host for The Midnight Special on NBC from 1973 to 1981. He was the host of his variety series The Wolfman Jack Show , which was produced in Canada by CBC Television in 1976 and syndicated to stations in the U.S. In 1984, Wolfman Jack starred as himself on the short-lived ABC animated series Wolf Rock TV . He also voiced the chief of the Rama Lama tribe on

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