- 4 months ago
Spinal Tap join GQ to reveal their 10 Essentials. The recently reunited rock band break down their daily essentials: from a compass (“Nigel, where’s west?!”) to their mittens (“it’s like my hands are going through an MRI”). Watch the full episode of GQ’s 10 Essentials, as Spinal Tap reveals 10 things they can’t live without.
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Director: Kristen DeVore
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Phil Ceconi
Talent: David St. Hubbins; Nigel Tufnel; Derek Smalls
Producer: Sam Dennis
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Production Manager: James Pipitone
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Hollie Ortiz
Post Production Supervisor: Jess Dunn
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Additional Editor: Jason Maliza
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
----------
Director: Kristen DeVore
Director of Photography: AJ Young
Editor: Phil Ceconi
Talent: David St. Hubbins; Nigel Tufnel; Derek Smalls
Producer: Sam Dennis
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Production Manager: James Pipitone
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins
Camera Operator: Shay Eberle-Gunst
Sound Mixer: Kari Barber
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Hollie Ortiz
Post Production Supervisor: Jess Dunn
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Additional Editor: Jason Maliza
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00So what... Oh, don't start with the snorting. I was snoring, not snorting. Snorting is essential. Well, we are Spinal Tap. We are. And these are our essentials. Eleven essentials. You can count on me yourself. Oh.
00:16Yeah. Always having a compass. And that's invention where you know where you are and where things are in relation to you. Not you. To me, in this case. Let's say you wake up in the morning. Wake me up. Thank you.
00:42Night, night. What's going on? It's morning. Where am I?
00:46Do you tell me? Ah, yes. I wish I knew where north was.
00:57No. There it is. Yeah. So what you can do, you can turn this dial. You can't get a close-up. That's a microphone. That won't.
01:05Yeah, let's... But I can hold it up in case it picks it up. It won't. It won't. No, because it's a microphone.
01:10But you can put this on a map itself and align it with this arrow here. Yeah. And then you dial this in to where you're going.
01:21If you're camping out, what they call camping out, not the way you do it. That's a different thing.
01:29Being provocative. I'm talking about going in the woods and all that, which I like.
01:32I am too.
01:33Some of the people on the street will say, Nigel, where's West? Easy. Go like this.
01:40Why not use a phone?
01:43Hello.
01:43No, no, no, no, no, no.
01:45You know, he's saying on a phone.
01:47On a map.
01:48On your phone.
01:49And there's also a conference on your phone.
01:51Yeah, well.
01:52Nah.
01:52This little item, I don't know how close you can get.
01:59I can get right here.
02:00No, no, no. I'm talking about the camera.
02:02This, it's a green apple.
02:05A little green apple.
02:06Yes.
02:07And Lord made it.
02:08Or in this case, the Beatles, close enough.
02:11It says the Beatles on it.
02:12This was their logo for Apple Records and et cetera.
02:16Inside, if you pull the little stem, it's a flash drive containing the complete...
02:22...outworks of the Beatles.
02:24Amazing.
02:25This makes your computer dance, or at least jump up and down in place.
02:29It's troubling at first, but then you go, that's what I want from my computer.
02:33Bit of action.
02:34Very rare, isn't it?
02:35Yeah, you can't get this anywhere.
02:37This is an essential, and I don't leave home without it.
02:41Where do you keep it?
02:43Well, never mind.
02:45Well, we did just recently work with Paul McCartney.
02:48Who's talking now?
02:49Oh, the same one.
02:51Yes, hello.
02:51Someone else handle this.
02:53No, I've got a problem with Paul.
02:55It's all right.
02:56We're working it out by not speaking.
02:59That's healthy.
03:00I think so, too.
03:01It's a way of engaging without getting too close, is ignoring each other.
03:05These are essentials as part of your stagecraft.
03:11All of us are in a very man-heavy business, the business of hard rock and heavy metal.
03:18There's a certain stance that's required to project, let's call it hyper-masculinity.
03:25A lot of people have said, Derek, we saw in that hatchet job movie that you had to pull out a cucumber out of your pants.
03:34Well, mistake number one, it's a courgette.
03:37Now, if you do your research in the grocery store, you'll see that a cucumber has usually a more warty surface than would be desirable for the effect.
03:48Pro tip, if you put a naked courgette up your trousers or down your trousers and you get on stage and start performing, you start sweating, you've got a sweaty, messy zucchini by the end of the show.
04:02It also migrates down your leg.
04:04Yes, it does.
04:05Hence the foil.
04:07So, two essentials in one.
04:12Wool mittens.
04:14Now, mittens are different than gloves, as you may know, because gloves have fingers.
04:19Most people have...
04:21Fingers.
04:22Fingers.
04:23And most people have ten.
04:26But someone invented these long ago.
04:29And what these do is keep your hands warmer than gloves, because the air inside circulates.
04:37If you're wearing gloves, these little fingers don't have air around them, you see.
04:44They can't breathe.
04:44They can't breathe on their own anyway.
04:46So, these, and I've worn these since I was a little lad.
04:50Not those.
04:51Not these actual ones, because they were smaller.
04:53But even when I was a child, in Squatney, I would have these little ones, and I would go...
04:58Oh, that's a blur.
05:01That's a blur.
05:02Everything eventually turns into a puppet, Nigel.
05:04Now, my hand is warm now.
05:07Yes, it's warmer now, isn't it?
05:09World of his own.
05:09World of his own.
05:10I didn't know.
05:10So, there's so many things that are better, because it's a little friend, warm.
05:17If I'm playing guitar, I can't have cold hands, because my fingers don't work.
05:21You can't play with mittens.
05:22No, you're missing the point.
05:24And they're easy to pack.
05:25When you go on the road, you put them like this.
05:27It's called marrying mittens.
05:30And you roll them up like this, you see.
05:33Now it's a little bunny rabbit.
05:35Exactly.
05:36I think I'll hop away.
05:37You're going to hop away?
05:38Where?
05:39I don't know.
05:40It's none of you.
05:41Shit.
05:42Don't say.
05:43See, they start cursing.
05:45The bunny curses.
05:46Go, hook it up.
05:47See, this is not okay, bunny.
05:50I can't wear them, because I get claustrophobic.
05:53It's like my hands are going through an MRI.
05:56I remember you saying that when you were.
05:58Yeah.
05:58That doesn't make sense, though.
06:03Harmonicas.
06:03It's all marine band, of course.
06:05All German-made.
06:06Different keys, yeah.
06:08Precision, yeah, yeah.
06:09Are those real marines?
06:10No, no, no, real marine band, yeah.
06:12I've got about 12 or so in there, and it comes in a nice high-impact cloth bag with the poster from a production of The Twelfth Night, which is a Shakespeare play.
06:28Yeah, of course.
06:28He was a writer.
06:30I think they know that.
06:31Even in the States, they know who.
06:33Could Shakespeare play the harmonica?
06:35Yeah.
06:35He was famous.
06:36Yeah, he was famous.
06:37Really?
06:38Yeah.
06:38He invented a lot of words.
06:39That wasn't one of them.
06:40He does reference harps, and these are called blues harps.
06:44Yeah.
06:44Shakespeare connection, once again.
06:46It's like Kevin Bacon.
06:47Yeah.
06:49My favourite marmalade.
06:51What brand?
06:52What is that?
06:52I'm going to get to that.
06:53You see, if you read it.
06:54This is his bit.
06:56Yeah, but what truth?
06:57Well, look, you've seen this.
06:59Frank Cooper, original, and he does different ones.
07:02This thick cut, and I use this every day for breakfast.
07:08No one's talking to you.
07:10You are now.
07:11Oh, yeah.
07:14It works on bread.
07:16It works even with a spoon.
07:18It's fantastic.
07:20I recommend it.
07:21And it works with cheese, I would assume.
07:23Who's talking now?
07:25That's her.
07:25Oh, sorry.
07:26Say again.
07:26It works with cheese, I would think, maybe.
07:29Oh, he loves to get it started on the cheese.
07:31The thing is, not Stilton, but there are types of Gouda and some French cheeses where this
07:37works as a companion piece, sort of, I would say.
07:42Must have.
07:43Great lube.
07:48This was given to me by Ivor St. Hubbins, who is my dad, born Ivor Stubbins.
07:55That's another story.
07:56He says, when you get yourself a coin, don't know what to do with it, don't spend it.
08:00Put it in the bulldog.
08:02Now, you balance your coin on his nose, and then you flip that, and he swallows it.
08:07Now, it doesn't work anymore.
08:08It's out of balance.
08:10It's sort of a...
08:10Well, they don't make coins anymore, really.
08:12No, well, that's not my problem.
08:14But the thing was, I didn't realize that my dad had left off the little cork in the bottom.
08:19Yeah.
08:20So that he would just come at night, and he'd just go, all right.
08:24He's learned his lesson, put it in his pocket, and off we go.
08:26So this was a great life lesson from my dad, and I love my bulldog bank.
08:31It also works as a lube.
08:32He doesn't smoke a pipe as much as he used to, but he still carries one around.
08:38It's a reminder of what I used to be, which at this age is pretty crucial.
08:44A lot of people play music, and they'd stick cigarettes in the strings of their guitars,
08:49so they could sneak it.
08:50And I used to actually slip the pipe into the top strings of the bass.
08:57I call him Danny, and he's...
08:59Danny Misham.
08:59Yeah, Danny Misham.
09:01This is my past.
09:03Pretty much everything is your past at this point.
09:05Well, that's your only friend.
09:07Don't smoke, kids.
09:08I love cheese.
09:12I have a cheese shop.
09:13You can't eat cheese without slicing it in some way.
09:16What they say in the States is cutting the cheese, but we don't say that in England.
09:21Why does it have holes in it?
09:23To breathe.
09:24You're the person that's claustrophobic when they're in mittens.
09:27You're asking what are holes in it?
09:29I am the person...
09:29Put your finger in it.
09:30No.
09:32So you need it to be clean and sharp, and let's say you pick a cheese.
09:36A lovely cheese.
09:38Flinging that about.
09:39It could be a cheddar.
09:40It could be a gouda, whatever.
09:42Gouda.
09:44You cut it like this.
09:45Gamped out.
09:45Now it's in two pieces.
09:47Oh, look.
09:47And some people have come to visit.
09:49Three people.
09:50One, two, three.
09:51Three pieces.
09:52It's a sharp, good quality knife.
09:55You haven't explained the holes.
09:57If this was one piece of steel, you'd wave it like this, and you'd feel the air.
10:03This, you don't feel the air.
10:05I feel danger.
10:06This happens to be an excellent quality knife.
10:10I won't say the make, because they're not going to send me them for free.
10:13So what's the point?
10:14It says Mattel on it.
10:15No, that's a different thing.
10:17They're made in Germany.
10:19That's where they make these knives.
10:21If you've ever gone to Germany and played, we've played that, but they always say,
10:25Oh, him, a knife thief.
10:27Which means, we have knives here.
10:30And harmonicas.
10:31Yes, at the knife shop.
10:32Oh, flach and loch nof.
10:34It means, we have a severe cold.
10:37Yeah, well, that's true.
10:38Yeah.
10:38So this is an essential.
10:43As the bass player in the band, I always was described as, well, it's sort of the glue in a band as the bass player.
10:50I heard that enough that it started getting me interested in the whole subject of glue.
10:55History of glue.
10:56History of glue.
10:57The nature of glue.
10:58The geography of glue.
11:00The smell of glue.
11:00The agronomy of glue, because sometimes it's vegetable-based and sometimes it's animal-based,
11:06and you don't want to mix the two up.
11:08Long story long, I ended up opening a museum of glue.
11:14And when you're handling glue on a daily basis, there's always the chance that an accident might occur.
11:22Things will get sticky.
11:23Things would get sticky.
11:24Exactly right.
11:25Well, this is called Goof Off, and it is a glue removal adhesive.
11:29So you just spray it on, and boom, then magically you're separated from what you used to be glued to.
11:36You don't play with glue without Goof Off.
11:39And I don't think there is money from the Goof Off.
11:41No.
11:42Just scraping by.
11:43Yeah.
11:43And off.
11:44Yeah.
11:45It's a must.
11:48This is a souvenir of kind of a magical time in recent past for me.
11:54The band had broken up, and I was trying to do something on my own.
11:58Musical.
11:59I mean, I do other things on my own.
12:01We want to hear about that.
12:02I do plenty of things on my own.
12:03It's not anybody's business here.
12:05Walk away.
12:05But musically, Britain went through austerity in the teens of this century.
12:12So there was a lot of money left over, and they formed the British Fund for Aging Rockers.
12:17Privileged to get a grant from the British Fund for Aging Rockers.
12:21They said, what would you like to do with the money?
12:23And I said, I'd like to do something musical.
12:26They said, that's good enough for us.
12:28Can I get one of those?
12:29No.
12:30They're gone.
12:31Labor took over.
12:32Yeah.
12:33You can't get a beetle apple then.
12:35No.
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