09. This Is Spinal Tap with Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley Transcript

[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Music]

SAM  0:20 Hello, I'm Sam Clements and welcome to the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest. This is a podcast that celebrates films with a 90 minute or less runtime and is entirely curated by guests on this podcast. Today, we're joined by not one but two guests, Elizabeth Sankey, and Jeremy Warmsley, the duo behind one of my favourite bands Summer Camp. Jeremy is also a solo musician and film composer. Jeremy's new project "A Year", an ongoing project for 2019 will see a new song released every month this year, January was a banger. And Elizabeth, you're an actor and now a film director and at a time of recording your debut feature Romantic Comedy has just had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Fest. And your film's runtime is 79 minutes long. Perfect for the 90 Minutes or Less Film Festival. Welcome both. 

ELIZABETH:  1:11 Yeah, I'm not gonna talk about my film. It would be really awful if I was like, I want to submit my own film.

JEREMY:  1:16 How did we not think of that?  It would have been a great press angle. 

SAM  1:19 We have not had a filmmaker on the show, and I don't know if we'll have one on anytime soon, who's made a film which is also eligible for the film festival. So it's a podcast first. 

ELIZABETH:  1:28 Keep it short and sweet, that's what I kept saying when I was making it.

JEREMY:  1:32 Well, I would say to anyone, anyone who's thinking of coming on the show that you are welcome to submit Romantic Comedy, Elizabeth's film as as your entry, we would be fine with that. You don't need to get our permission or anything, you know. 

ELIZABETH:  1:43 Well I'd want permission. I'd want, I want written, I want to give my written consent. 

SAM  1:47 From that bit of blurb at the top, you guys are quite busy. Do you get time to watch movies in between your various projects? 

ELIZABETH:  1:53 Yes, I watch so much. I watch so much because I always watch things while I'm cooking. And in general, I just, I've always just managed to find time. Well, so I don't really go out that much. So I, we tend to stay in and watch things. And we go to the cinema all the time. We're both a bit film obsessed I think.

SAM  2:14 When it comes to deciding what you watch, does runtime ever come into it?

JEREMY:  2:18 Completely. So often, if we're thinking about watching something, I'll just pop on Wikipedia and have a look at how long it is. And if something is two and a half hours long, it makes you, it makes you question your choices. 

ELIZABETH:  2:30 And especially like at a film festival, or something where you're, you've got like a limited amount of time, you're definitely going to be more likely to go and watch something that is shorter. But also we plan our days out around films, and sometimes can see two films a day. And so it's like, well, no, if we do this, then we can't get lunch in between and then...

JEREMY:  2:47 And then I guess in principle, I'd rather watch one long film, one good long film than two bad short films, but it is close. That was a joke, but it obviously didn't land! Just if you think I'm awful that was a joke.

SAM  2:57 I was just thinking yeah, that's fair, yeah I completely agree. It's like film Tetris, I think it's quite good to see what fits together when you have those filmy days. When it came to us asking you to guest curate the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest, how did you approach choosing a film, especially as it's two of you choosing one movie? 

ELIZABETH:  3:14 I'm really embarrassed to say I think we just looked at like what films were under an hour and a half and then picked out, then I picked one, because I was going to come on on my own and then Jeremy decided to tag along.

JEREMY:  3:27 And for reasons that will become clear later, I could not believe that our film choice was under 90 minutes. 

ELIZABETH:  3:33 Yeah, yeah. But also Spinal Tap is a very, very special film for me. I watched it on the morning of our wedding. I woke up at five o'clock just like, 'Oh, god, today's the day I have to have to go through with it!' Sorry, Jeremy. 

JEREMY:  3:48 Just desperately distracting yourself from your impending doom. I wish I could have watched Spinal Tap on the morning of our wedding.

ELIZABETH:  3:53 I just I've always really, really loved this film. And I think the first time I watched it I didn't realise that it was a mockumentary. I thought that it was a real band, because especially watching it as a sort of teenager it's a period piece. And so it didn't seem that unworldly to me that maybe this was a real band and this is their real experiences up until one point when I was like, oh, no, wait, maybe this isn't real. 

SAM  4:18 So there we have it, This is Spinal Tap is your choice for this festival.

[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]

SAM  4:26 'The funniest film ever made' The BBC. This is Spinal Tap is Rob Reiner's (Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally) directorial debut that is often named as one of the funniest films ever made. A fly on the wall look at the comeback tour of the world's loudest heavy metal band. The original mockumentary celebrates 25 years with This Is Spinal Tap: Up To 11 Edition. And it is the Up To 11 Edition. 

ELIZABETH:  4:51 Jeremy pointed out the other day when we were watching this, that the BBC iPlayer goes up to 11.

JEREMY:  4:57 Yeah, the volume on the iPlayer goes up to 11, which I guess is their little tribute. I mean, I find that a bit irritating.

SAM  5:04 It's funny isn't it, it's a small sort of American, at the time like small American indie directorial debut from Rob Reiner. But it has sort of like seeped into pop culture to the point where they built the iPlayer volume controls around this movie.

JEREMY:  5:16 A lot of actual guitar amplifiers now go up to 11 or even up to 12 to be like, you know, even one further than that. It must be amazing for those guys knowing that what they've done.

ELIZABETH:  5:27 But I also love how much it's been embraced by especially musicians. When it's like no guys, this is people laughing at you. Like there are people I know who love this film, and I'm like, but you are like one of these characters and they don't see it and that's what's so brilliant about it is such a successful skewering of a particular very like real type of music person. I love it so much. 

JEREMY:  5:52 I think it's the same thing you know, people in politics love The Thick Of It or VEEP you know, any anything that takes a real close look at what you are and what you do and celebrates it as well as poking fun at it is always going to be amazing. We've had as a band some of the experiences they have like getting lost backstage.

ELIZABETH:  6:10 Always happens. 

JEREMY:  6:11 Yeah, numerous occasions.

ELIZABETH:  6:12 Especially like at big arenas and stuff. I've definitely got lost at Brixton Academy. And you do have that thing of you're amped up and like you're going to go on stage, so you want to keep that energy but then you're like, but where am I? And getting annoyed with the rider I have, like had tantrums over riders backstage.

JEREMY:  6:28 It wasn't a tantrum. 

ELIZABETH:  6:29 Uh, it was one of my most embarrassing moments as a human being. I thought that somebody had eaten an Easter egg of mine. And I like lashed out at these two people in the room who I thought were the support band who'd eaten my Easter egg. And then it turned out they were two fans who bought me like a homemade mix CD. And I was like, 'well, I know that like...' I tried to kind of bring it back and like backtrack I was like, 'yeah, I know it wasn't you guys. I'm just saying it's like really difficult as a musician when you haven't got your Easter egg'. It was honestly one of the worst things that I've ever done.

JEREMY:  7:00 I feel like you could tell that story in context where it would make you sound less awful but when you put it like that it does sound pretty bad.

ELIZABETH:  7:06 It was awful! It was terrible. 

JEREMY:  7:07 I'm really starting to rethink my life choices today. Just so much of it rings true really.

SAM  7:14 Elizabeth, you said you were a fan of this film before choosing it, and watched it on your wedding day, is that because you are musicians and it speaks to you?

ELIZABETH:  7:22 No, I think I loved it before...it's very sweet that you call me a musician I really don't feel like one. But I definitely watched it before I got into music and loved it which I think is the other amazing thing about it. It's not kind of, there are things about it that are real for musicians, but it's not sort of in-jokey or you need to know about this. It's so inclusive. I just loved it because, I don't know, there's so many amazing subtle things in it. When we were watching the other day, this won't work because it's a visual joke. But Rob Reiner, when he's introducing himself, he does this thing where he half folds his arms and then like puts them down again out of awkwardness. And there's just so many lovely little touches like that. And like the cold sore, and these little elements that they just have sort of weaving into it and it just makes it feel so layered and textured and real. It's such an incredible world that you enter into in this film. 

SAM  8:18 It's surprising as well. So for the background to this, these characters were created in the late 70s and they sort of created it for a skit. And that was in like '78. And this film was '82. So I think they just they stuck with these characters.  They've lived with them for four years, by the point they come to doing the film. And then this whole film is improvised, which is why the director and the writers all have sort of and the actors have the writing credits. I think improvised comedy can sound really fun but it can be a bit of a double edged sword if it's a bit too in-jokey. But what works for this film, as you say is, they feel real. 

ELIZABETH:  8:49 Yeah. And I think it's partly because the music industry has this terrible/incredible thing of musicians are always trying to sell this image of like their aspirational lives and the glamour, especially in this period, like the Golden Age legendary period, when actually the reality of being a musician is that you're always mainly like asleep, you're working for one hour a day and the rest of the time you're just exhausted and like staring your bandmates in the eyes in a van. And then you kind of, you get off stage and you're amped up and you're like, that's when you would have fun, but you've got to like, at our level like pack down, load up the van...

JEREMY:  9:27 Drive to the Travelodge.

ELIZABETH:  9:28 ...drive to the Travelodge, then you've got a lobby call at eight or nine in the morning. So there's very little glamour. And but I think and I think at this period, they did try. There was more of that. But I think even then it was a bit fake. I remember like, there's this photo of Led Zeppelin, and I went to look at this photo because there was an article that was talking about how like they were so rock and roll at one of their album launch parties, they had a live sex show. I was like, Oh my god, there was a photo of it. And then the photo is just like Robert Plant in like these kind of really sad looking flares and this quite ugly kind of crappy looking hotel room. And there's just like a couple having sex on the bed. And it's like, and he's just standing there with a beer just looking like 'what is my life'. And there's just no glamour and it's even those even though stories with TVs out the window and like I guarantee that they were actually all just like really exhausted and not really having that much fun. But you have to keep up this pretense of like, Oh, it's the most wonderful career in the world. What was the thing? 

JEREMY:  10:30 Oh, what's that band 'it's got a CD player?'

SAM  10:33  Feeder!

JEREMY:  10:34 Feeder! Apparently, when they play shows these days, apparently, before they go on stage, their tour manager peps them all up by like saying to them 'you've got the best job in the world'. And like repeating that over and over like a mantra. Is that actually the thing? Which I actually think I wish our tour manager would... I wish we had a tour manager.

ELIZABETH:  10:52 But that's what's so great about it is that yeah, it's this world that's supposed to have the appearance of craziness, when actually you're like, oh my god, I'm losing my voice. I'm really exhausted. I just want to sleep. And where's my Easter egg? 

SAM  11:08  You do see that in the film though, there is the manager character, and he's like 'alright guys, this is really exciting'. And they're just like, 'where's my sandwiches? What's going on with the records?' And he's dealing with all that stuff, keeping a lot of information from them.

ELIZABETH:  11:21 Oh, I've definitely, we've definitely had that. That's definitely a thing that happens with like, 'a bit of news. This is this isn't happening anymore. This has been cancelled' and your’e kind of like hang on? No, this isn't, this is really bad news. Why are we only finding out about this now? And why are you telling us in this way? That's like, Oh, no, but don't worry, it's a good thing. And that's definitely, especially now that the industry is in a decline.

JEREMY:  11:44 Yeah. I remember when I released, back before we did the band, I was a solo artist. And when I released my first ever single, I called up the label to see how it's doing. And the A&R guy was like 'great news, great news, you've outsold, you outsold Paul Simon's new single this week. So you know, fantastic, well done we're really pleased'. Okay, so how many copies have I actually sold? And there's a lot of umming and ahhing you know, and finally he was like, 'well, yeah, okay, it's sold, you know, thruppence and ha'penny to a, you know'

ELIZABETH:  12:10 Jeremy has been around for a long time. 

JEREMY:  12:13 It's that thing of like trying to pretend to the artist that stuff is fine when it's not. That I mean, that's, that really rings true. It's not just in the music industry, I'm sure.

ELIZABETH:  12:25 And also the other thing that's really real is Janine. I love Janine so much. I can't believe that actress never kind of did much after that. I think she's brilliant. She's so brilliant. But that thing of like, how devastated Nigel is when he finds out Janine is coming. And like, because I know a lot of bands have like no partners allowed backstage. They're not, you know, they can't come on tour. Like it's a big no-no to have like, I mean, obviously, we broke this rule by being a married couple on tour, but it's big no-no to have your romantic partner in the world with you. Because it does really create divisions. And especially because they're like, 'well, you know, he should really be singing lead on this, or he wrote this really great part'. And yeah, that again, is just, it's so realistic and so honest.

FILM CLIP from This is Spinal Tap 13:14  
Marty DiBergi:  In 1966, I went down to Greenwich Village, New York City to a rock club called the Electric Banana. Don't look for it; it's not there anymore. But that night, I heard a band that for me redefined the word "rock and roll". I remember being knocked out by their... their exuberance, their raw power - and their punctuality

SAM  13:38  The device of having Spinal Tap, do their first American tour in 6 years and show them in all of these different situations like the party, the successful live dates, the not so successful live dates, hotels, travel. And then when partners start to come in, and people from the record label start to come in is such a smart idea for this type of comedy.

ELIZABETH:  13:56 Yeah, I also can't believe, I mean, I know that they are obviously, I think they're all very talented musicians. But I can't believe that, like they've never been, to my knowledge, like in a touring band, because there's so much of it that is just... how could you know that without actually having experienced it? 

JEREMY:  14:15 And it must have been meticulously researched. I mean, it helps that the music is absolutely brilliant. You know, I love the joke of a song about bottoms, and they're all playing bass. That's hilarious.

SAM  14:28  I think, in the late 70s, we started to get lots of rock-umentaries, there's the Bob Dylan one that was the Scorsese, Bob Dylan one was quite a famous one, then and it feels like this is probably like a genre which is getting a bit popular. So there is, you can probably research this without having been in a band, you could watch those. Those late 70s docs, the Zeppelin docs, Bob Dylan, etc. And start to see what the troupes are, I guess.

ELIZABETH:  14:53 And just watching any group of people who take themselves too seriously is always hilarious. And you're punching up as well, which is the great thing about it because they are successful, and they do, you know, have these kind of careers that have gone somewhere and will go somewhere in the future. So it's very safe comedy. I'm sort of astounded like, how well it's it's still feels, it's not there's nothing too problematic in it. Even like the smelling the glove thing. It's like, well, they have a feminist being like, no, this is awful. You shouldn't be doing this. And then also, it's kind of depressing because the industry hasn't changed either.

JEREMY:  15:28 Yeah

ELIZABETH:  15:28 In so many ways. 

SAM  15:30  I think this is probably the most famous sort of mockumentary, which was a phrase that did exist before this film I discovered, but Rob Reiner used it in all of the promotional stuff for the film, so mockumentary mockumentary even on the back of the box, mockumentary. So there was some early mockumentary examples, most notably BBC Panorama in 1957 did an April Fool's joke about a Swiss spaghetti harvest. I highly recommend checking out if you've not seen it, it's a very straight delivery of how Swiss people are suffering due to a poor spaghetti harvest. Because it's the 50s and BBC it's a very proper voiceover.

ELIZABETH:  16:04 There's all this footage of spaghetti hanging from trees. Like cooked spaghetti.

SAM  16:10  But I think before this film, there aren't that many big screen examples of it. But after this, you see things like Borat and Bruno and Sasha Baron Cohen. In terms of film, this kind of changed comedy.

ELIZABETH:  16:21 I think so. And I think as well, it also kind of has been the shadow hanging over any depictions of bands, now, forever. One of my favourite music documentaries is the one about The National. Have you seen that? Yeah. And that and I think that even they now have to like find a way to reframe the sort of the story of the documentary about a band because if you were just to show a band like this, I think it would invariably have like so many Spinal Tap connotations just naturally because of how like brilliant and realistic Spinal Tap is. There haven't really been that many, that many more music documentaries like this, because it's just, it's impossible because every band, I think, is terrified of coming across like Spinal Tap.

FILM CLIP from This is Spinal Tap  17:06  
Do it with the harmony parts. Well, since my baby 
The same key, though, I think. 
Well, since my baby left me 
If I'm going: Since my baby left me 
- Me
- No, you can't hit that note. 
Since my baby left me , well I found a new place to dwell 
- That's all right.
- Not really. 
- It sounds raga. You don't wanna go raga.
- Not with this, it don't. 

JEREMY:  17:36 So when we were watching it the other night, I like I said earlier, I'd really not been able to grasp that it was under 90 minutes. And as we were watching it, there was loads of stuff that I remembered from having seen it before, that wasn't in there. And I worked out that the version of it that I'd seen before was the four hour bootleg work print that apparently has made the rounds at some point. And I'd watched that, in good faith thinking about was the actual film that someone must have put it on, or something I don't remember when or where it was. So I couldn't believe when we submitted for the festival, it was under 90 minutes, because the version of it I'd seen before wasn't so that was very confusing for me for a while.

ELIZABETH:  18:13 They filmed like hundreds of hours.

JEREMY:  18:14 Yeah. Which is why it's so full and and replete with goodness.

SAM  18:19  Is there anything that sort of drags for you? Or is it quite a full 82 minutes and it just flies by? 

JEREMY:  18:25 Oh, yeah, love the pacing.

ELIZABETH:  18:27 I think the second half is a bit slower. I was just struck by how it is just this wonderful period piece, like to see New York at that time to see the music industry, those parties that they keep going to the label parties, the hotel rooms, like the gear coming into the venue, the backstage, you can kind of see like the Almost Famous-ness of it, but it was also real. And it's just yeah, I really enjoy it from that perspective, as well. Like when they're sitting in that kind of, looks like it's an English country garden, and Nigel was like wearing his kilt. And then Marty is reading them the review of their last albums. But the detail of that as well, like the album covers, the fact they're on purple velvet. It's just the attention to detail is just fantastic.

SAM  19:14  That scene that they cut back to, that must have been one long day shooting and they pepper it throughout. It's so good, because it's them all together with Marty. And it's like the four of them work so well.

ELIZABETH:  19:24 Yeah. Well, there's the bit like where Nigel is saying he's, they've said something about... It is like a review of Shark Sandwich. And it's like, just two words 'shit sandwich'. And Nigel's like 'that's not real! No you've made that up!'. And it's, you can tell that that is just them so deep in character and Marty's probably just like throwing stuff at them. 

JEREMY:  19:45 Can we just rest for a moment on calling your album Shark Sandwich? 

ELIZABETH:  19:49 The album cover as well as amazing.

JEREMY:  19:51 Yeah, it's like a sandwich with shark's fins on a picnic table.

SAM  19:54  Illustrated sandwich.

JEREMY:  19:56 Is that like, oh, it's something that you think you want and then you get it and it bites you, is that what it is?

ELIZABETH:  20:01 I think it's just like a really gnarly image like 'ooo a shark sandwich'. Obviously, that came from an improvisation that Rob Reiner was doing and he just wanted the gag of shit sandwich. 

JEREMY:  20:11 So you think he improvised Shark Sandwich? And then later on, they mocked up the album? That makes sense.

SAM  20:17  I think a lot of the stuff is like that throughout the film, like things that they say stick and then they have to keep working it into the film. The title of the album that they can't get released, I think that was improvised. So then the rest of the film focuses around an improvised line. And I think that might be why when it's revealed that they just have the black cover, it's just black because they didn't know the album would be called anyway. They could improvise around what it might be always gonna have a black album, which is none more blacker.

ELIZABETH:  20:46 Yeah, it's like really black.

SAM  20:48  Did that scene with Marty and the band talking, did that remind you of anything that you've had to do in the music industry, of having a critic come and sort of talk to you about previous records and all that sort of stuff?

ELIZABETH:  20:59 I mean, definitely. Now, though, it's funny, I, we haven't done the band for a couple of years. And we've been working on a new album. But now I'm like, I would love to talk to and do some interviews and do some press. But in general, I mean, journalists are lovely and I've never had a bad experience with a journalist. But you definitely just get like the same questions over and over again. And that thing as well of like, people reading your negative review to you, and then you having to comment on it, I've never had that. But I have had people like send me reviews and things like that and you're like I don't want to read this.

JEREMY:  21:40 They say 'Oh, I saw this. I didn't agree with it'.

ELIZABETH:  21:41 It's like my Mum, I remember, one of our albums, like our first album was like streaming on the Guardian on the day came out. And my Mum called me was like 'they're writing such horrible things about you in the comments. It's really upsetting me' and I was like Mum, I love you, but I really don't want to go and read Guardian commenters and she's like, 'I'm gonna I'm gonna make an account and reply', and I was like, please don't do that. So do you remember Tom Odell's Dad? I don't know if you know that this is a public thing. Tom Odell's Dad when he got a really bad review in the NME, like his dad called the NME, and I completely understand that...

JEREMY:  22:14 and they reported it as a news story.

ELIZABETH:  22:16 But it's like, No, no, but you do like you, you kind of get so... when you're working a lot, and you're busy in it, in that industry, and especially like with touring and stuff, you do go mad, and you do get a bit sort of hyped up on your own... kind of...

JEREMY:  22:34 Believe the hype? 

ELIZABETH:  22:35 You do. Yeah. Because you're going on stage. And if your tour is going well, and there's people there watching you, you kind of start to think I'm somebody important, which is when you start shouting at people about Easter eggs, because you're also exhausted. And really, like it's, you're always freezing. It's always like very uncomfortable. But you have this like hour of like, I'm, I'm somebody that people care about! And then yeah, and you do kind of go a bit crazy. And then yeah, when you're in those situations where you're doing interviews, that's when I think people will say like, bonkers stuff, I can see how it happens.

SAM  23:07  The Marty DiBergi approach is probably like a, he's going for like a very, like, typical interview of the time isn't he, that long form sort of thing where he's going to go through someone's whole career. And I guess he's quite keen to sort of bring up things from their past, like previous iterations of the band as well.

JEREMY:  23:25 I mean, I assume that stuff is all pretty heavily based on Status Quo, who obviously in the 60s started off as like a hippy dippy band with a song called Pictures of Matchstick Men which is this really like kind of proggy Flower Power hippie song. And then obviously by the late 70s they're doing you know all that like, what's their big... rock and rock around the world? Is that them? Rockin' All Over The World. Yeah. I just yeah, I love...probably my single favourite moment in the whole film is when they remember the first song they wrote together, in the diner. They just start kind of like singing gently.  And my other favourite bit in the film is when they're harmonizing at Elvis Presley's grave. 

ELIZABETH:  24:08 Oh, Jeremy does that to me all the time!

JEREMY:  24:09 What?! You do that to me! I'll be singing something and then you like purposely join in wrong on purpose to troll me.

ELIZABETH:  24:16 They're not doing it to like annoy each other. They're genuinely trying to get the harmony. Nigel is trying to do the harmony. But Jeremy, if I just sing something around the house or in the car, he'll just [singing] come and like try and do the harmony! Then he'll be like, no you sing this part. And so now whenever he tries to harmonize with me, I deliberately like sing off key or like, try and throw him and it drives him bonkers. It's so annoying, but so real again. But I love as well that like thing of seeing a band change, because also, so many bands have several reincarnations, incarnations rather, where they're trying to kind of find success in a different audience, and they do not want to talk about who they were before. Like, no, no, I just want that to not exist. And it's always so fun when you realise like, hang on, wait, you were in an emo band in like 2006. And this is you with an amazing asymmetrical haircut. And now you're pretending that you're like this kind of folky... like the best one is probably...

JEREMY:  25:17 Kings of Leon. 

ELIZABETH:  25:18 Kings of Leon, from like folky, Indie, long hair very kind of deep south to, like that awful video where they're like hanging out with African children. And it's really, really problematic. And it's kind of them trying to be like 'now we're stadium!'.

JEREMY:  25:35 Or the other one I was think of was David Bowie. Who before glam sung The Laughing Gnome. That's a, if anyone out there listening to this podcast hasn't heard that song I urge you to.

ELIZABETH:  25:49 But he embraced it. And I never felt like Bowie was embarrassed about.

JEREMY:  25:52 No, well, obviously he made a virtue of his changes. But I think he was a bit embarrassed about The Laughing Gnome.

SAM  25:57  That sounds like it could be a Spinal Tap song. 

JEREMY:  25:59 Yeah, yeah exactly. 

SAM  26:01  Do you have a favourite song in this film or a favourite sort of musical performance? Because when they when they're on stage, it's shot like a concert. Which is why I think seeing their past TV appearances is quite fun because it's a locked-off camera with them all on different platforms looking straight at the camera and when they're playing on stage there's like shots of their crotch and close-ups on their guitars and smoke.

JEREMY:  26:21 My favourite musical moment, well apart from the one I already mentioned

ELIZABETH:  26:23 All the way home, that one?

[both singing] Cry cry cry all the way home

JEREMY:  26:27 is probably the guitar, the extended guitar solo.

ELIZABETH:  26:30 Oh my god, Nigel's solo! Another thing Jeremy does around the house.

JEREMY:  26:35 I do occasionally pick up an instrument and follow Elizabeth around relentlessly soloing at her. She particularly hates it when I do that with the flute.

ELIZABETH:  26:43 You can't play! You can't play the flute!

JEREMY:  26:47 I can play it, I can't play it well. 

ELIZABETH:  26:50 He bought a violin as well. The worst one is the banjo. The banjo is in the attic now and it is never coming down.

JEREMY:  26:55 When he gets the violin out and he's rubbing the violin against the guitar then he stops to ever so slightly tune the violin. Heaven. Absolute heaven and the faces.

ELIZABETH:  27:07 I just think like what is it [singing] 'working on my sex farm'.  One of the best lyrics ever. I also love the in the Stonehenge song, I don't love the Stonehenge song but I love that breakdown. Where it's like they all start soloing.

JEREMY:  27:22 Oh, the sort of Celtic bit.

ELIZABETH:  27:23 Yeah, I look to the sun...

JEREMY:  27:26 I think that's a reference to the end of Tubular Bells, which is this good long prog instrumental from the mid 70s that unexpectedly ends with like a Celtic jig. And it's very joyous.

FILM CLIP from This is Spinal Tap 27:38  
Celtic Jig from the end of Stonehenge
David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.

SAM  28:01  I was just thinking, so we're going to do this amazing film festival, a very broad range of movies, and lots of people who've chosen the films are sort of embellishing screenings, and they're bringing extra things in or they're sort of doing stunts or whatever, what would be your ideal This is Spinal Tap screening? If you could do literally anything around this film.

ELIZABETH:  28:20 I'm trying to think if there was a way that you could have it almost be like the screening, their trying to organise... So basically what I would do, I've come up with it, I would make a documentary that's a mockumentary about you trying to organise your film festival. And have you be this insane character, who's very real, I'm sure the same things exist in the film festival world, and, and just have you trying to, like, make it like, this is the most important Film Festival in the world. And I have to get all the great films here and have like, you know, Louise could come in, and she can be a nightmare. And she can be like, interfering with the programming and thinking like, No, no, I really think people are gonna want to take a nap. And things like that. So that's how I would do it. And then I would then have the reveal that actually, this is maybe, not even a reveal. And then you would show that maybe just as like a short, it would just be like a little short before this.

JEREMY:  29:11 Thats cute.

ELIZABETH:  29:13 Oh it's cute? How patronising.

JEREMY:  29:14 Yeah. Well, you've diminished your idea from being like this grand documentary to like, just a little short before the screenings.

ELIZABETH:  29:21 Okay, I'm just like, I can't submit two films.

JEREMY:  29:24 Why not? I think you found the loophole here. Every time you ever submit a film to a festival you also submit the documentary making of, or the mockumentary making of the film alongside it. And then you see which one does better. That's a secret, I think.

SAM  29:38  I think it would add to it, it would make a very unique screening. 

ELIZABETH:  29:41 Yeah, well, especially if you'd had all these like, we could do it as promotion for this for the festival of like, oh, there's this new festival that's been set up and the guy running it is kind of crazy. Like the things that he's requesting we could have all these like press stories of you demanding that the Oscars like change their day, because it's gonna, and you having this huge kind of swell of public support, because you're outspoken about a subject but then actually it turns out, you know, you've done something, like that, I need to work up the ideas. I'll do a treatment.

SAM  30:11  If you could invite any guest along to the screening. Who would it be?

ELIZABETH:  30:16 Christopher Guest?

SAM  30:18  Mr. Guest

JEREMY:  30:20 The band, I think, and ask them to do a little show beforehand or afterwards.

ELIZABETH:  30:25 Do you know that they sued, they had like a huge court case.

JEREMY:  30:28 Madness. Very stressful. 

ELIZABETH:  30:30 Very stressful. 

SAM:  30:31 Yeah, we have to work out if we're allowed to screen the film The band are currently or not the band, but the people involved are suing the distributor and the UK  distributor specifically, who have released the Up To 11 edition. And that is still ongoing.

JEREMY:  30:44 Destination festival? Maybe we don't do it in the UK.

SAM  30:48  Oh hello, screen at an offshore festival. It sounds like the Fyre Festival. I'm very worried about this.

JEREMY:  30:55 That's the angle! Two competing documentaries. Elizabeth's is going to be the exploitation tie-in. My one's going to be the real deal. But unfortunately, you're...

ELIZABETH:  31:03 Your's is going to be about me trying to like

JEREMY:  31:05 Make a fake mockumentary when it actually there's real....

ELIZABETH:  31:09 And I'm the nightmare. Yeah. And Sam's just like I don't want to do this Elizabeth!

JEREMY:  31:12 Like forcing you to make all these awful comments. 

ELIZABETH:  31:17 And I'm just like, I'm taking over your Twitter.

JEREMY:  31:21 She would do that.

SAM  31:24  Sounds like it's gonna be a highlight of the festival. Or a lowlight! So this film has got an amazing runtime 82 minutes long. Do you think this film should or could be longer?

ELIZABETH:  31:38 I would like more shots of just Nigel and his kilt.

SAM  31:43  Should it be 8 more minutes of it to take up to 90? Or would it go over the 90 mark?

ELIZABETH:  31:49 I was like, weirdly, Nigel's really attractive, like for the first time I was like god, I'm attracted to Nigel. This is that and then it was like there's something wrong with me, there's something dark and black in my soul. 

JEREMY:  32:01 I think the exposure to me doing guitar solos has warped you.

ELIZABETH:  32:06 And it's normalised. Yeah, it's awful. 

JEREMY:  32:10 Well, as I say, I did accidentally watch the four hour version thinking it was the proper film at some point. And actually the only thing I remember from that that I really think was brilliant and I think that we should have been in the in the finished version was there's a bit where after Nigel leaves they get in this other rock guitarist to take his place. But then when they do the show with him, he just completely steals the show. He's like dancing all around whilst doing all these incredible moves while playing. And he when he singing backing vocals, like his voice is so amazing. And he said he just completely steals all the focus away from David St. Hubbins. Is that his name? Yeah. And so they end up you know, kicking them out as well and going on as a three piece and going on to Jazz Odyssey and all that. And that's that's a really great scene. So I think that's probably only 3 or 4 minutes I think it's still be eligible for the festival even if we got them to add that sequence in.

ELIZABETH:  32:59 Maybe a bit more Harry Shearer as well because I never feel like we get enough of him. I'd love him to just like talk about his clothes because his clothes in it are so incredible. There's a bit where he's wearing like a full length, camel coloured puffer jacket, black jeans and white cowboy boots and a baseball cap and then the like football shirt with the leather suede jacket.

SAM  33:20  Shrewsbury Town football shirt!

[90 Mins or Less Outro Bed]

SAM  33:29  Well, there we have it. This is Spinal Tap is in the 90 Minutes or Less Film Festival. It sounds like this is going to be one hell of a screening slash film event that I've been dragged into, but I can't wait for it. It's gonna be great. So we'll see you at the festival. And thank you very much for talking on this podcast. If listeners would like to find out more about what you guys are up to where should they go?

JEREMY:  33:50 twitter.com/romcommovie

ELIZABETH:  33:52 I have a film, which is a documentary about romantic comedies. It is going to have a UK premiere but I can't say where yet. It hasn't been announced. But we might also do a live score which would be really fun. Yeah, I'm sure it will be available around the world very soon. I'm @sankles on Twitter and Jeremy is @jwojwo

SAM  34:12  Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, please do like favourite subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your podcatcher of choice. Love a rating, give us a rating, love a rating, maybe a little review. It really helps as we are a new podcast, independent podcast in iTunes land and iTunes seems to sort of respond well to people interacting with the show rating and subscribing. So hopefully see you there. You can also contact us on Twitter and Instagram @90minfilmfest. The show is produced by Louise Owen and me Sam Clements. Our music is by Martin Austwick. The show is edited by Luke Smith, and our artwork is by Sam Gilbey. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. Goodbye!