Harry Shearer Recalls Spinal Tap’s Bonkers One-Day Canadian Tour

Earlier this week, on July 1st, America’s hat celebrated Canada Day, which is basically just like America’s Independence Day, except if they ever make a disaster movie called Canada Day, it will probably end with the army politely asking the invading aliens if they wouldn’t mind leaving whenever it suits them best. No rush.

To mark the occasion, Simpsons voice actor and Spinal Tap bassist Harry Shearer took to social media to remind us all of the time that the fictitious heavy metal band played three massive concerts, in three Canadian cities, all in one day: July 1, 1992. He noted in the comments that they didn’t even lose a single drummer on the hurried tour. 

To celebrate Canada’s 125th birthday, a massive all-concert event was planned, featuring three outdoor stages spread all across the country. Dubbed “The Great Canadian Party” the whole thing was televised on Canada’s MTV equivalent MuchMusic, and sponsored by a beer company, because of course it was.

Most of the acts were Canadian, including bands like Crash Test Dummies and The Tragically Hip. But the big star of this Canada Day event, for some reason, was Spinal Tap. That may sound kind of odd, but in 1992, the mockumentary subjects (played by Shearer, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean) reunited to release an actual, not at all fake album called Break Like the Wind. 

Spinal Tap was the only act booked for all three “Great Canadian Party” concert stages, a fact that may have rankled some Canadian performers. One Canuck musician bemoaned the fact that the only “unifying factor” of the Canada Day concert was “an American joke,” referring to the U.S. humorists who, to be fair, were pretending to be British. 

Spinal Tap’s intense schedule required them to travel across five different time zones — from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Barrie, Ontario (just North of Toronto), and finally to Vancouver, British Columbia, playing for over 100,000 people in total. In retrospect, it was especially funny to entrust this daring plan to a band that famously got lost inside of a theater.

To further hype Spinal Tap’s involvement, concert organizers held a contest in which winners could “party” with the band on their private plane. 

Judging from surviving footage of the tour, the constant attention from fans and reporters meant that Shearer, McKean, and Guest had to stay in character as Derek Smalls, David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, respectively, as they hustled from coast to coast. 

The ambitious plan didn’t totally work out. One review of the Vancouver show noted that Spinal Tap “didn’t hit the stage until an hour-and-a-half after its scheduled time” — so much for that legendary Spinal Tap “punctuality.” The review did admit, though, that the band “actually rocked quite well.”

Sadly, these concerts didn’t inspire Canada to alter the flag to feature a tiny replica of Stonehenge instead of a maple leaf.

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