Turning it up to 11/11/11: it's Nigel Tufnel day

Guardian ^ | 11/11/11 | Adam Boult

[Pan_Yan]

Hundreds of years before the dawn of history, bloggers declared 11/11/11 to be Nigel Tufnel day. We mark the occasion with 11 Spinal Tap quotes

Eleven is the magic number for fans of Rob Reiner's much-loved rock mocumentary This Is Spinal Tap, who have decided to mark today's auspicious date of 11/11/11 as Nigel Tufnel Day, in honour of the great man's specially-made guitar amps.

The Nigel Tufnel Day blog, purportedly run by the the Nigel Tufnel Day Appreciation Society and Quilting Bee, puts it thus:

"Only once in every century are we given the perfect opportunity to honor one of the greatest artists and philosophers of our time. This day, this apex of epic riffs, this nirvana of noise, this valhalla of virtuosity, this bodhi of broken eardrums, this moksha of mach, that you know as 11 November 2011, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to collectively experience the enlightenment of Eleven.

It is a day when we may gather with loved ones and break bread into tinier pieces of bread for small sandwiches. It is a day for the admiration of guitars, and also for the not touching of them. And finally, when the haberdashery plays are all acted, we celebrate the freeing of the enfoiled trouser vegetables."

While this obviously ought not to interfere with the important business of Rememberance Day, we thought it a good opportunity to reel out 11 key Spinal Tap quotes, as recommended by @guardianmusic Twitter followers.

[Oratam]

If ever there was a line from the movie that could serve as its subtitle, that's it. I watched the movie this past summer on a transatlantic flight for the first time in 20 years. With earphones and the screen only inches from my face, I watched it with a focus I never had before. It was funnier than I remembered.

Rob Reiner's Marti DiBergi has got to be Martin Scorsese. There's a moment in his rockumentary "The Last Waltz" where Scorsese's asks Levon Helm a question that never needed asking. Marty's nerdy self came shining through. That's who Reiner was channeling, I think.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“Listen, listen to that! Listen to that sustain.”

“I’m not hearing anything”

“You would, though... if it were playing.”

[CholeraJoe]

“Y’see, we’re not exactly University material, y’might say.”

[El Sordo]

[El Sordo]

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

So much truth in that....

I own a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp; the knobs on all of Fender’s Hot Rod amps go to 12 (interestingly, the lowest value is 1).

Also, back in the early 1990’s Marshall introduced a line of amplifiers that went to 20. They even had Nigel on hand for their unveiling at the NAMM show that year.

[dayglored]

Funniest movie ever made, if you're a rock-n-roller of that era.

I bought a 3-pickup black/gold Les Paul Custom ("Black Beauty") a while back, and came to realize that there are three kinds of people in the world. Those who say, a) "Nice guitar, what is it?", b) "Wow that's Peter Frampton's 'Comes Alive' guitar!", and c) "Wow that's Nigel Tufnel's wireless guitar!".