Spinal Tap celebrated their return with a performance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show on Monday night (8 September 8) and it featured not one but five basses. What did they play? Well, could it be anything else but Big Bottom?
All three core members – Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls – played bass, alongside guests Tal Wilkenfeld and Thundercat. And what a fine array of models were on display – Tufnel plays a Music Man Bongo 4, St Hubbins is on an Epiphone Jack Casady signature model, Smalls is playing a Schecter Stiletto and Wilkenfeld has a Fender Precision.
Then there’s Thundercat’s double-necked Ibanez BTB, which, technically, makes it six basses in one band.
Also in the band were keyboard player CJ Vanston and their new drummer DD Crockett, who thankfully made it through the Kimmel performance unscathed.
Kimmel interviewed Mssrs Tufnel, Smalls and St Hubbins, along with their documentarian Marti Di Bergi, who got a little dig at President Trump into the conversation. When Kimmel was quizzing the band on their rider and whether it includes ice, Di Bergi said, to much applause: “We don’t like ICE to come backstage and take anybody away. These gentlemen are from the UK and they want to be able to go back there.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Tufnel revealed that he has a new amp, a distinct upgrade from his old one too, which, infamously, went up to 11. “The one I have now goes up to infinity. Marshall made it for me. It’s a special one,” he deadpanned.
As you probably know by now, the long-awaited sequel to the original film – Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is out this Friday (September 12), the same day as the band’s fourth album, also titled The End Continues.
