Harry Shearer, who co-wrote and co-starred as cucumber-enhanced bassist Derek Smalls in This Is Spinal Tap, is seeking $125 million in damages from Vivendi S.A., the Universal Music and StudioCanal parent company who acquired the cult classic in 1989.
“Almost 40 years ago Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner and I created the somewhat legendary band Spinal Tap,” Shearer says in a statement accusing Vivendi of withholding profits. “We thought there was something real and really funny about the characters, and between that inception and the theatrical release of This Is Spinal Tap in 1984, we poured ourselves into nurturing and perfecting the paean to rock loudness that has entertained so many people, even today. But despite the widespread success of the film and its music, we’ve fallen victim to the same sort of fuzzy and falsified entertainment industry accounting schemes that have bedevilled so many other creators. Also, this time, it was personal.
“This is a simple issue of artists’ rights,” he continues. “It’s stunning that after all this time, two cinema releases, all the various home-video format releases, all the records and CDs, and all the band-themed merchandise still widely available worldwide, the only people who haven’t shared Spinal Tap’s success are those who formed the band and created the film in the first place.”
Shearer stuck to the positives when talking about Spinal Tap a few weeks ago to Hot Press in a major interview gracing our next issue.
"Spinal Tap was born not out of a desire to take the piss out of the industry, but the shared frustration that movies kept on getting rock ‘n’ roll wrong," he noted. "That was the animating spirit that set us going on that project."
In Dublin on November 4 and 5 with his singer wife Judith Owen who's performing in The Avenue in Temple Bar, Shearer also talked about his involvement in Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons; ran the rule over Hilary and Donald and recalled close encounters with Richard Pryor and James Brown.

I’m going up against @vivendi and @studiocanal to ensure #fairplayfairpay for the movie #SpinalTap - #fairnessrocks pic.twitter.com/fTG23OMbsW

— Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) October 18, 2016