By Erin Free
As the highly anticipated sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues powers into cinemas, we get up on stage with a second set of some of the best fictional movie rock bands of all time.
Rock music has always had a role to play in cinema, ever since Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around The Clock” blared out during the opening of the JD classic The Blackboard Jungle. Rock music, however, has not just provided the soundtrack, but has also taken cinematic centre stage, with seminal concert flicks like Gimme Shelter and The Song Remains The Same. Rock stars have also become actors (Elvis Presley, Sting, David Bowie and many, many more), and have played themselves in their own cinematic projects (The Beatles, The Foo Fighters, Tenacious D, The Ramones and others).
There have also been a number of great (and not so great) fictional bands in films, and in honour of the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – featuring the long awaited return of quite possibly the most seminal of all on-screen fictional rock bands – we are going to strap on our guitar and step up to the mic to name-check some of the best. Importantly, because this is a celebration of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, we are going to limit our discussion solely to fictional rock bands, so apologies to the great cinematic fictional solo singers (Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine in A Star Is Born, Ricky Gervais’s David Brent in David Brent: Life On The Road), country music performers (Rip Torn’s Maury Dann in Payday, Jeff Bridges’ Bad Blake in Crazy Heart), pop stars (Connor4Real in Pop Star: Never Stop Stopping), rappers (Eminem’s Jimmy Smith in 8 Mile, the title crew in CB4), and those who took to the stage on television (Cotton Candy, Daisy Jones And The Six), who deserve a feature all of their own.
Okay, here we go. Testing, 1-2, testing 1-2…check, check, check…
SPINAL TAP…FROM SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUES (2025)
“What we were doing was not only satirising heavy metal, we were satirising the documentary form and the way in which documentaries were presented,” This Is Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner told National Public Radio of his 1984 classic, which now gets the official sequel treatment in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. “The beauty of these guys, the members of Spinal Tap, is that in all those years, from their twenties, thirties up now until their seventies, they have grown neither emotionally or musically. There’s no growth. They basically are in a state of arrested development for, like, fifty years. And the only growth that there is, is maybe their skin tags.” Though there have been albums (1992’s Break Like the Wind, 2009’s Back From The Dead) and various concert performances and tours since This Is Spinal Tap, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is the band in full-blown cinematic mode. “After fifteen years of not working together, we came back and started looking at this and seeing if we could come up with an idea, and we started schnadling right away,” director Rob Reiner told National Public Radio. “It was like falling right back in with friends that you hadn’t talked to in a long time. It’s like jazz musicians…you just fall in and do what you do.”
DOGS IN SPACE…FROM DOGS IN SPACE (1986)
Most famous for featuring the only screen performance of note from late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence (he only appeared in two other films: Roger Corman’s deliriously ill-advised Frankenstein Unbound and the barely released Limp), Dogs In Space remains a vital piece of local cinema. Directed with gritty flair by video clip maestro Richard Lowenstein (and based largely on the experiences of his friend, drug ravaged rocker Sam Sejavka), the film looks with a keen, unforgiving eye at the post-punk scene in Melbourne of the late seventies, complete with raw, throbbing music; chaotic party scenes; unconventional characters; and a loose, freewheeling narrative. Ragged and louche, the charismatic Hutchence is a shambolic mess as Sam, who fronts the equally shambolic eponymous post-punk rock band. Staggering around the stage and barking over a caterwauling wave of bleeps, blips and screeching guitar, Hutchence is miles away from the polished pop-funk-rock of INXS, crafting a fascinating distillation of Sejavka’s band The Ears. “Funnily enough, I remember, as a devoted fan, watching The Ears play at The Crystal Ballroom in 1979,” Richard Lowenstein told FilmInk. “Some friends came down from the upstairs Ballroom saying, ‘There’s someone up on stage imitating Sam!’ It was a very early INXS playing upstairs, while The Ears played downstairs. INXS were from Sydney, so we sneered at them, but that similarity was always there.”
MUNCHAUSEN BY PROXY…FROM YES MAN (2008)
In Yes Man, a largely forgotten 2008 comedy from future Ant-Man director Peyton Reed, Jim Carrey is Carl Allen, a cynical junior loan officer in LA. After going to a seminar run by self-help guru Terrence Bundley (Terence Stamp), he’s railroaded into taking a covenant – he must say “yes” to absolutely anything that life presents. Things go Carl’s way when he complies. When he doesn’t, he feels the covenant’s wrath…and so it goes. While Yes Man is fairly middling Jim Carrey gear, it does have one very important card up its sleeve: the wonderfully named Munchausen By Proxy, the freaky art-rock band fronted by Carrey’s love interest in the film, Allison, played by the singularly charming Zooey Deschanel, an accomplished actress (Elf, the TV series New Girl) and singer (in the duo She & Him). Munchausen By Proxy is basically Deschanel fronting the all-girl band Von Iva, who got the part of the fictional ensemble in the film after the movie’s music supervisor, Jonathan Karp, saw the cover of their CD in an LA record store. With their oddball stage costumes, super catchy tunes (four were recorded for the film, and feature both on the soundtrack and in the DVD’s deleted scenes in their entirety), and hilarious, feminist-themed lyrics, Munchausen By Proxy are a perverse joy, and the undoubted highlight of Yes Man.
STRANGE FRUIT…FROM STILL CRAZY (1998)
One of the many (many) joys of the much-loved 2003 rom-com Love Actually is Bill Nighy’s enjoyably louche turn as Billy Mack, an ageing, crumpled rock star who sells out by recording a cheesy Christmas song just to get to the top of the charts. This, however, was not Nighy’s first run at playing rock star. In 1998, the actor – whose loose limbs and lived-in face practically scream of years on the road – starred as Ray Simms, the lead singer of the fictional rock band Strange Fruit in the big-hearted comedy Still Crazy, penned by Brit TV comedy vets Dick Clement and Ian La Fresnais (The Likely Lads, Porridge) and directed by Brian Gibson. A classic 1970s rock band in the Stones and Faces style, Strange Fruit – played by stellar Brit actors Timothy Spall, Jimmy Nail, Stephen Rea and Billy Connolly – are persuaded to reunite twenty years after breaking up. Now largely settled in older age and deeply changed, these creaky rockers have to pull together to make it happen, with Nighy’s Ray Simms – a recovered addict now gripped with fear and near-dependent on his wife – a particularly rusty cog in the machine. “I seem to have the legs for it, apparently,” Nighy told The LA Times. “In the 1970s, you had to have legs so thin you could get into those skin-tight pants.”
THE CARRIE NATIONS…FROM BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (1970)
When you think of cult movies, they don’t come more classic or more cultish than 1970’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls. Directed by famed cinematic extremist and even more famous breast fetishist Russ Meyer, this kaleidoscopic genre-defier is an audacious, over-the-top spectacle that has gleefully earned its place in the annals of cult cinema history. With its larger-than-life characters, wild storylines, and unforgettable performances, it’s a wonderfully freaky time capsule of a movie, beautifully signifying its times with a salacious mix of campy charm and shock value. The film follows the trials and tribulations of the all-girl band The Carrie Nations, who encounter – deep breath – drugs, sex, pregnancy, lesbianism, suicide, transvestites, murder, porn stars and more. Played by Dolly Read, Marcia McBroom and Cynthia Myers, The Carrie Nations play a scintillating brand of psychedelic rock, performing a number of songs during the film. Most of the film’s music was written by Stu Phillips, while the vocals for the lip-synced songs were performed by Lynn Carey, an LA soul singer, together with Barbara Robison, the lead singer of Peanut Butter Conspiracy. “I wish I could sing,” said actress Dolly Read. “My fantasy in life was to be a rock singer so when I did the movie it pressed a lot of good buttons for me. The music in the movie was outstanding. But I couldn’t sing. My husband said to me, you know you changed keys in the middle of one of your songs, but of course it was Lynn’s voice singing, not mine.”
THE HONG KONG CAVALIERS…FROM THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION (1984)
In W.D Richter’s wild 1984 cult favourite The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension, Peter Weller is the titular Dr. Buckaroo Banzai, physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star, who leads his band/science team, The Hong Kong Cavaliers, on a mission to save Earth from an interdimensional invasion by Red Lectroids led by the villainous Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow). Featuring a fantastic cast of character actors and cult heroes, including Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Dan Hedaya, and more, this truly bizarre pulp curio throws everything into the mix and expects the audience to keep up, thrusting us into a world of weird science, warring aliens, rock shows, mysterious twins, and more. It’s a genuine headscratcher, which is probably why audiences were left nonplussed, with the confidently promised sequel never eventuating. It’s certainly a singular slice of high weirdness, though, and features a great fictional on-screen rock band in the form of The Hong Kong Cavaliers, who play a groovy kind of blues rock. Peter Weller, an accomplished musician, played the guitar and pocket trumpet, did his own vocals, and learned to mime piano playing for the film, while much of the music comes courtesy of legendary producer Bones Howe. Travis Johnson
A.D.D…FROM THE ROCKER (2008)
In the largely forgotten 2008 comedy The Rocker (from The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo), comic character actor Rainn Wilson (The Office) channels a little School Of Rock-style Jack Black as the eponymous wild man Robert “Fish” Fishman. Back in the eighties, Fish was a drummer about to make the big time with on-the-verge over-the-top rock group Vesuvius, but he was kicked out of the band, who then went on to make it big without him. Fast forward twenty years and Fish is still unable to deal with his massive missed rock star opportunity. Suddenly single and jobless, he eventually tumbles onto the doorstep of his no-nonsense sister’s house. There he finds that his shy nephew, Matt (Josh Gad), has rock dreams of his own, and soon Fish is drumming – and creating crude havoc, like playing naked, for instance – in Matt’s teen band A.D.D, who eventually go viral and find success. But Vesuvius still hover in the background, forever haunting Fish. A.D.D. deliver solid indie-pop tunes, with musician Teddy Geiger as singer Curtis and a pre-superstardom Emma Stone as bassist Amelia. The tracks credited to Teddy Geiger and attributed to the band A.D.D. in the film were recorded mostly by singer/songwriter Chad Fischer, with Geiger providing only lead vocals.
CRUCIAL TAUNT…FROM WAYNE’S WORLD (1992)
In 1992, Penelope Spheeris (The Decline Of Western Civilization) directed a teen comedy music flick for the ages with Wayne’s World, a big screen version of the popular Saturday Night Live skit about two suburban metal heads (creator Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) who host a community access TV show in their basement. This uproarious charmer introduced a whole new cultural lexicon (“Schwing!”, “A sphincter says what?”, “Extreme Close Up!”, “No way!” “Way!”), and made millions at the box office. It’s also undoubtedly one of the funniest films of the nineties…and it also features a great fictional rock band in the nicely named Crucial Taunt. Fronted by the exotic, sexy, self-possessed and utterly transfixing Cassandra Wong (played by Hawaii-raised Tia Carrere, who is of Filipino, Spanish and Chinese descent), Crucial Taunt are a hard-driving rock band, and perform four songs (“Ballroom Blitz”, “Fire”, “Touch Me”, “Why You Wanna Break My Heart”) in the film, two of which appear on the soundtrack. It’s no surprise that when Mike Myers’ Wayne sees Crucial Taunt playing at local club The Gasworks, he falls for Cassandra on the spot. Though Wayne’s World is noted for cameos by real rockers Meat Loaf and Alice Cooper, Crucial Taunt bring it big time, with the talented Tia Carrere also doing all of her own singing. “I’m not really this rock’n’roll chick,” Carrere has very surprisingly said of playing ultimate rock’n’roll chick Cassandra Wong.
STEEL DRAGON…FROM ROCK STAR (2001)
Director Stephen Herek’s 2001 music drama Rock Star depicts the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll fantasy, as heavy metal dreamer, Chris “Izzy” Cole (Mark Wahlberg), fronts a heavy metal cover band, only to eventually find himself singing for fictional metal legends, Steel Dragon, and then living the highs and lows of the rock‘n’roll dream. The film was loosely based on the life of former Judas Priest vocalist, Tim “Ripper” Owens, who after fronting a tribute band, was chosen to replace heavy metal icon, Rob Halford, after fans sent the metal legends a grainy VHS tape of Owen strutting his stuff. “I was pretty excited that they wanted to make a movie based on me,” Owen has said, “but Judas Priest pulled away from it.” Indeed, the metal legends walked away from the film after creative license was not granted. “They wanted to see screenplays and stuff,” said writer Andrew C. Revkin, who penned The New York Times article about Owen upon which Rock Star drew its inspiration. “If you were Warner Bros, would you want a bunch of middle-aged former heavy metal stars to have creative control? No.” Sure, they might not be Judas Priest, but the very coolly named Steel Dragon remain an excellent, balls-out, on-screen metal band, performed by big names in ex-Dokken/Foreigner bassist Jeff Pilson; Black Label Society founder and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde; actor Dominic West; and drummer Jason Bonham, the son of legendary Led Zeppelin belter John Bonham. Steelheart frontman Miljenko Matijevic, meanwhile, provided Wahlberg’s singing voice. Matthew Pejkovic
SING STREET…FROM SING STREET (2016)
Something of a go-to man when it comes to music movies, Irish director John Carney has helmed a great film about a folk duo (2006’s Once), two very good ones about burgeoning solo artists (2013’s Begin Again, 2023’s Flora And Son), and a film about a rising rock-pop band. 2016’s Sing Street is set in 1980s Dublin, and focuses on high school boy, Connor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), whose cash-strapped father (Aiden Gillen) takes him out of paid private school and puts him in the rough, tough school in Syng Street, Dublin. Struggling with his parents’ breakup, school bullying, and inspired by his muse – would-be model, Raphina (Lucy Boynton) – Connor forms a band. In gritty buy joyful fashion, we watch this most unlikely bunch of kids pull together a ragtag ensemble, complete with homemade music videos, an array of 1980’s outfits, and original songs. The unknown young actors are accomplished musicians in real life, and Carney has said that pacing their musical development was key. “You don’t want to have them get too good too quickly, or that’s Hollywood, but if they’re shit for too long, you’re bored. I wanted to make a film not just about an ordinary school band but a band that are gonna be good, so you have to sow those seeds.” Much of Sing Street’s music was composed by Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark, with Carney, Ken & Carl Papenfus of the band Relish, and Graham Henderson and Zamo Riffman also receiving writing credits. Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, meanwhile, co-wrote (with Carney and Once star Glen Hansard) and sings on the film’s lead track “Go Now.” Christine Westwood
JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS…FROM JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (2001)
“One of the most underrated satires of all time,” pop culture afficionado and author Maria Lewis told FilmInk of 2001’s Josie & The Pussycats. “Doing more for Girl Power than The Spice Girls Movie and Coyote Ugly combined, this is a meta, fourth-wall breaking, and hilarious slice of pop culture pornography…it’s marvellous. That’s not to mention its album of genuinely great pop-rock songs. This was a comic book movie unlike anything at the time.” Though met with mixed reviews and soft box office upon its release, Josie & The Pussycats – directed by Harry Elfont an Deborah Kaplan (Can’t Hardly Wait), and based on both the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name – has aged surprisingly well, and now even looks decidedly ahead of its time. A biting, snarling satire on the way in which music companies create, package and discard musical talent, Josie & The Pussycats nevertheless features a great all-girl pop-rock band in the eponymous performers, played by Rachael Leigh Cook (as songwriter, singer and guitarist Josie), Rosario Dawson (as tough girl bassist Valerie) and Tara Reid (as ditzy drummer Melody). Not a singer, Cook’s voice in the film was provided by Kay Hanley of the band Letters To Cleo, while backing vocals were provided by Cook, Reid, Dawson, and Canadian singer Bif Naked. Perhaps even something of a precursor to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Josie & The Pussycats is a colourful, cartoonish delight.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is released in cinemas on September 25.
Click here to read “Let There Be Rock…On Screen! Part I”
Once again, don’t storm the stage if we’ve missed an essential on-screen fictional rock band! There will be an encore…even if there’s no cheering or foot-stomping! We’re just going out the back to towel off and abuse the rider. Look out for “Let There Be Rock…On Screen! Part III” in the very near, hard-rocking future!
