On June 4, 2001, English hard rock legends Spinal Tap performed a special show at New York's iconic Carnegie Hall as part of their 'Back From The Dead' celebrations, their first full US tour since 1992's 'Break Like The Wind' trek. Among the excited audience at the storied Manhattan venue that evening were the members of Oasis, on downtime from promoting their then-current album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. But for one of their number, the night would not go as planned.
Liam Gallagher had seen Rob Reiner's classic 1984 'mockumentary' This Is Spinal Tap ( aka This Is Spın̈al Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi) and "loved it", according to his older brother Noel, Oasis' guitarist and main songwriter. However, Gallagher Jnr. wasn't actually aware that the veteran English group, centred around the core of frontman David St. Hubbins, guitarist Nigel Tufnel and bassist Derek Smalls, weren't actually a real band. "He thought they were real people," Noel Gallagher revealed in a 2005 interview conducted with comedian/actor/author David Walliams for the Observer Music Monthly.
Gallagher The Younger's excited anticipation of seeing the men responsible for the timeless rock anthems Sex Farm, Big Bottom and Stonehenge began to unravel when Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, the comic geniuses behind Spinal Tap, came onstage as their own support act, in the guise of The Folksmen, and began strumming through the gentle Old Joe’s Place. Oasis frontman loudly declared to his bandmates that he hadn't come to see "this folk shit", and just wanted to see the mighty Tap.
"They came on as three folk singers from the film A Mighty Wind," Noel Gallagher recalled. "We were laughing and he said, 'This is shit'. We said, No, those three are in Spinal Tap. You do know they are American actors? They're not even a real band? They're not even English! One of them is married to Jamie Lee Curtis."
Clearly this was all news to young Liam, and presumably as embarrassed as he was annoyed, the singer decided that he'd seen enough.
"'I'm not fuckin' 'avin that,' he says, and walks off right up the middle of Carnegie Hall," Noel told Walliams. "He's never watched ...Spinal Tap since."
This story was subsequently related to Harry Shearer aka Derek Smalls, who was most amused.
"It's fair enough," he responded. "I was under the impression for some time that Oasis was a real band."
