Comedy? I thought it was a documentary. 
A rockumentary, if you will.
Yet people here keep trying to explain it. :rolleyes:
Rod Stewart’s reported reaction when it struck a little too close to home was, “I thought it was supposed to be a comedy, not a documentary.”
That’s it.
And don’t worry: Boston isn’t a big college town. 
But what I want to know, is has anybody started selling amps that do go to 11 since the movie?
That’s beautiful. Fucking beautiful!
I read some musician talking about a time when his band suffered some mishap similar to one that had been used in the movie. He said that while there was some amount of coolness if having Spinal Tap imitate your band, there was nothing but embarassment in having your band imitate Spinal Tap.
There have always been amps that have knobs with different numbering schemes; 10 just is the most common. There are some that go to 12, some that go to 8, 5, etc. Some have most knobs that go to 10, with a few knobs that go to other numbers based on what that knob controls.
Now - is there a specific amp that has knobs that go to 11 based on Spinal Tap? I can’t remember if Marshall - the only amp Nigel would ever play, except perhaps for a vintage Fender or Vox - ever released a Tufnel Stack or anything, but in this world, it’s certainly possible…
Even knowing that, it’s still cooler to have amps that are “one louder.” It’s just more satisfying to know that you’ve got it cranked to 11. Some folks can’t get past the logic. Others are unburdened by it.
The bands reasoning for the 11 setting is the perfect example of their idiocy.
Not to my knowledge, but according to Wikipedia, the Marshall Company makes faceplates for all of its amps that top the scale at 11, in keeping with the spirit of Spinal Tap. Also, the Allen & Heath DJ mixer model XONE: 92 has a headphone volume control with the scale going up to 11.
The brilliance of the movie is that it’s not really exaggerated all that much. It’s amazing the number of musicians I’ve heard quoted about the film who say “That was us. That happened to us.”
The scene where the band gets lost trying to find their way from the dressing room to the stage is evidently a pretty common real life occurence. Ozzy said it’s happened to him more than once.
And appearantly Nigel later got his own special amp that goes to infinity.
There was an episode of The Powerpuff Girls where Bubbles, tired of practicing with the virtual-reality training system set to 2 (fluffy bunny run amok), sneaks into the Professor’s lab and runs it on her own set to 11.
Later, when Mojo Jojo fires his destructo-ray at her, he uses the same setting…
As an “almost, but different enough to be effectively useless” answer, before each song on Guitar Hero 1, the loading screen uses amp dials to indicate the progress. They go to 11. It made me laugh the first time I noticed it. 
Better still, you can now get aftermarket knobs that go to 11 and stick them on any amp you like.
\m/:mad:\m/
Point of order: Ozzy and “real life” do not necessarily have a one-to-one correspondence.
I agree, by the way. The brilliance of the movie is not in having the band do or experience stupid/funny things that a real band wouldn’t. It’s in having them do all of the stupid/funny things real bands do, while any given real band would only be expected to do a few of them.
There’s actually some interesting info on this on Wikipedia. Apparently, the flange effect has been used in recordings as early as 1959, but the “flange” spoken of in the Lennon anecdote refers to something different than today.
HARD CORE!!!
Hehe…love that one.
Why, it’s the infinite onion ring, obviously!