The fight against global warming suffered a setback yesterday when the legendary rockers Spinal Tap announced that they are reforming to save the planet.

The mock heavy metal group, immortalised in the 1984 film This is Spinal Tap, will perform at Wembley Stadium as part of the worldwide Live Earth concerts on July 7.

Al Gore, the organiser, persuaded the classic Tap lineup of Nigel Tufnel (the hapless guitarist played by Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (singer, Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (bassist, Harry Shearer) to perform.

The warring band have even recorded a new song, Warmer Than Hell, to mark the occasion. Its lyrics read: “The Devil went to Devon, it felt like the fourth degree/ He said, ‘Is it hot in here, or is it only me?’ ” There will also be a 15-minute “consciousness-raising” film, shot in collaboration with Rob Reiner, director of This is Spinal Tap. An insider said: “It shows them driving around in 4X4s, leaving all the lights on in their mansions and generally sticking two fingers up to the problems of climate change. But they soon realise the error of their ways.”

Devotees of the 1984 film, hailed as the funniest ever by Ricky Gervais, will be keen to learn what the band members have been doing since their 1992 opus, Break Like the Wind.

According to the new film, Tufnel has been raising miniature horses to race, but cannot find jockeys small enough to ride them; St. Hubbins is now a hip-hop producer who also runs a colonic clinic; and Smalls is in rehab for addiction to the internet.

Reiner said: “They’re not that environmentally conscious, but they’ve heard of global warming. Nigel thought that it was just because he was wearing too much clothing.”

Motley crew

This is Spinal Tap chronicled the attempts of a fading British heavy metal band to stage a comeback in America

The band formed in 1961 as the Originals, but as there was another band of same name they became the New Originals

The lurid cover art for the band’s Smell the Glove LP was inspired by Whitesnake’s 1978 Lovehunter album

John “Stumpy” Pepys, the drummer, died in 1969 in a bizarre gardening accident

Between 1970 and 1976 they released eight albums, including Intravenus de Milo, Jap Habit and Tap Dancing

Tufnel set up a charitable foundation called On Your Toes to support “people with high insteps”

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