Twenty-five years ago this month, the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap arrived in cinemas for the first time, not only providing the world of film with a high-water mark in the spoof genre, but almost single-handedly demythologising the rock’n’roll lifestyle. Malfunctioning equipment, disastrous gigs, irritating label sycophants, meddling girlfriends and cold-sore outbreaks are all much more intrinsic parts of the touring life than any kind of decadence or revelry imaginable.

It was all a joke, of course, but as so many musicians have testified, the power of This Is Spinal Tap lies in the painful truth of its punch lines. It’s this accuracy that makes it a film to live, not just watch, for so many in the music business. To mark the occasion, the “band” have recently announced an American tour and are due to release an album in the summer.

For our own celebration, we asked six practising musicians to exercise extreme humility and illustrate just how closely the ridiculous adventures of Derek Smalls, David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel have come to resemble their own lives.

James Allan, Glasvegas

“We’ve only been a band for a couple of years, but we’ve already had quite a few incidents that match Spinal Tap for comedy value, which just goes to show how accurate the film is. I remember seeing Rab (Allan, guitar) fall off the stage in Liverpool once, but he left one leg behind him, so he almost ended up doing the splits in mid-air. It made my eyes water just looking at him. It was definitely something I could imagine happening to Derek Smalls.

But the funniest thing was watching Paul (Donoghue, bass) and Caroline (McKay, drums) discussing ‘artistic differences’ — a bit like David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, but more cartoon-like. Caroline was talking about an artist she really liked, and Paul was saying that artist was really shit, but only to wind her up, and she took the bait. Eventually, it got a bit heated — Caroline was spraying Paul in the face with a bottle of water, but Paul happened to have a kebab in his hand, with all the sauce on it and everything, and he just threw it square in her face. The funniest thing was that Paul picked it all up and threw it in her face a second time. I think she was still picking kebab out of her hair the next day. We don’t really talk about it any more, but I think we’ve got some footage of it on video somewhere.”

Wayne Coyne, the Flaming Lips

“The movie can be really hard to watch sometimes, because while it is funny, it is also so true. But you have to laugh at yourself, and that’s the key to getting the most out of being in a band, and life in general. We have quite a few different stage props, and almost everything is a potential Spinal Tap moment. The space bubble, in particular, is part of that. The first time I tried that out was in my front yard, and I had my wife standing close by with a pair of scissors in case I suffocated. I could see the headline: ‘Stupid Flaming Lips Singer Dies in Giant Plastic Bubble.’ It was very Derek Smalls, but there is plenty of air in that thing, so there’s not much chance of anything fatal happening.

Back in 1999 or 2000, we were supposed to be using a giant gong on stage that was about 5ft high, and I would slam it dramatically, as though I were Roger Waters in Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii film. But at one show in Barcelona, we turned up to find the gong was more like one of those pathetic little dinner gongs that a Chinese restaurant would use to tell everyone dessert was being served. I mean, short of blowing up a drummer, I don’t know how much closer to Spinal Tap you could get! Instead of having a big argument and firing our tour manager, we sort of embraced it. Frankly, I’m not sure anyone even noticed, because I think the Flaming Lips are the kind of band that could easily make our fans think, ‘Well, I guess Wayne just wanted to play a dinner gong tonight. That’s cool.’ ”

Ronnie Vannucci, Jr, The Killers

“Spinal Tap works on every level — it doesn’t matter if you’re a big band or just starting out. I remember the guitar player in one of my old bands at high school trying to be a real badass by playing with his teeth, like Hendrix, but he had braces and the guitar strings got stuck to his face. We’re all in our thirties now, but we still laugh about that.

The Killers have been on tour a lot recently, and there seems to be a Spinal Tap moment every other day. Just the other night, I was walking on stage and got blasted by the fog machine, to the point where I couldn’t even see my drum kit and had to wait for it to clear just to figure out where I was.

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