Reddit reviews Noddy Holder--Who's Crazee Now: My Autobiography

Christopher Guest was pretty meticulous in researching the scenarios that would be improvised by the cast. He talked to a number of bands that told him ridiculous stories of life on the road, many of which made it to the film. Among the bands and scenes?

Uriah Heep - They were actually once booked at an Air Force Base.

Slade - Noddy Holder and Jimmy Lea told Christopher a number of stories from the road that all were embellished for the film.

They were the band that got lost backstage. Although, in the case of Slade, they were admittedly drunk at the time and couldn't find the door. A nice security guard eventually helped them to the stage.

At a low point in their popularity, they were billed at an amusement park, second to a magician (changed to a puppet show in the movie; and nothing to do with a girlfriend managing the band in real life).

In fact, most of Slade's "low period" of the late 1970s is what inspired Christopher Guest to create Spinal Tap in the first place. For those who don't know, Slade was a heavy rock band that was absolutely huge in Europe in the early 1970s that then found their popularity severely decline after the punk revolution.

This particular scene from Slade's film "Slade In Flame" is what inspired Spinal Tap overall. In the movie, Slade vocalist Noddy Holder is stuck in a casket and can't get out. This was based on a real-life thing that happened to Holder when he sang for another band. The "pod scene" in Spinal Tap came from this.

When Chris discovered that this scene was based on a real-life event, that started the ("are you serious? that REALLY happened?!") conversation and then got the ball rolling for Spinal Tap.

Slade eventually rebounded quite nicely during the Heavy Metal years of the early 80s...but Chris and Mike McKean have said that Slade and their hilariously awkward fall from rock superstars to suddenly "who?" was a big inspiration for Spinal Tap.

See these books for more great and very funny details about Slade in general.

Van Halen - Nigel's rant about the bad deli tray was inspired by Van Halen's demand that only brown M&M's be allowed in their dressing room. This was seen a prima-donna move by VH until David Lee Roth later explained that they specifically requested brown M&Ms only because they wanted to be certain that promoters had read through their entire contract regarding safety requirements. If they arrived and saw anything other than brown M&Ms, they knew that the promoter hadn't read the agreement and then got pissed as the audience might be in danger. Thus, the stories of "VH got pissy and trashed their dressing room because the promoter didn't take the time to provide a big bowl of brown M&Ms" - no, they were mad because their very specific requirements for staging were likely also ignored...and the stage could collapse, endangering thousands of fans. But I digress...

Saxon - Contrary to what others have said in the thread, actually it wasn't Sabbath that inspired "Stonehenge" (their album and the debacle that came with it was released a year after This Is Spinal Tap). It was the British heavy metal band Saxon that inspired the scene.

In this case, it wasn't a Stonehenge set. Vocalist Biff Byford told Chris Guest of a similarly ridiculous story of the band ordering a stage piece (a giant anvil) that was supposed to be dramatically lowered to the stage at a key point in their rocking-out-ness...and they looked behind them only to find a small, foam-like anvil being sheepishly lowered to the stage.

Guest brought the story to the table and during improv, Stonehenge was born. This was Mike McKean's baby as he built the backstory.

But one of my favorite artist reactions to the film was Tom Waits': "I can't fucking watch that movie. It hurts. It's too real."

Source? I'm a huge fan of the movie, Christopher Guest in general and here's an additional one if you're picky.

Turn it up to 11!!