Liam Gallagher Once Stormed Out of Spinal Tap Show, Band Had Hilarious Response

Meeting your heroes can be tough, as Liam Gallagher learned the hard way at a special Spinal Tap performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The “British” rock ‘n’ rollers’ show was part of the annual Toyota Comedy Festival, an appropriate event for a fake band featured in a mockumentary. The frontman of Oasis, however, didn’t think of the event as a laughing matter.

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According to his older brother and bandmate, Noel Gallagher, the Oasis singer was a huge fan of the heavy rock band, which included David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls, Viv Savage, and Mick Shrimpton…that is, until that fateful night in the Big Apple.

Liam Gallagher Stormed Out Of Spinal Tap Show

The American actors behind the legendary characters in This is Spinal Tap performed a 20-song, 90-minute set at Carnegie Hall on June 4, 2001, to the delight of fans who happen to love rock ‘n’ roll and tongue-in-cheek satire. Special guest performances included Elvis Costello, further bridging the gap between the mockumentary and real life that some people—like Liam Gallagher—never even knew existed. For Gallagher and likely countless other folks, they believed Spinal Tap was a real band.

So, when actors Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel), and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) took the stage as a fake folk trio called the Folksmen, the Oasis frontman was unaware that they were continuing the joke that served as the foundation for their entire film. The Folksmen came from a different mockumentary, A Mighty Wind. But Gallagher was under the impression it was just a poor billing choice. “We were laughing, and [Liam] said, ‘This is s***,’” Noel Gallagher recalled in a 2005 interview with The Guardian. “We said, ‘No, those three are in Spinal Tap. You do know they are American actors?’”

Noel recalled Liam asking, “They’re not even a real band?” To which they replied, “They’re not even English. One of them is married to Jamie Lee Curtis.” (That one is Christopher Guest, by the way.) Noel continued, “‘I’m not f***in’ ‘avin’ that,’ he says, and walks off right up in the middle of Carnegie Hall. He’s never watched Spinal Tap since. He’d seen the film and loved it and thought they were a real band.”

The Mockumentary Actors Respond To The Oasis Walk-Out

To be fair to Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, he isn’t the only one who fell for the Spinal Tap ruse. The actors and musicians starring in the mockumentary were so convincing in mannerisms, accents, and musical ability that many people believed they were an actual band. Multiple bands have claimed with absolute certainty that the filmmakers wrote the movie about them. Simply put, it was a believable lie. So, we think Gallagher gets a pass on this one, even if he was unwilling to go along with the joke (once he knew about it) that night at Carnegie Hall. But the lead singer of one of the biggest bands of the time walking out of their performance didn’t bother Spinal Tap.

In fact, they responded exactly the way you might think a mockumentary musician would. “It’s fair enough,” Harry Shearer, who played bassist Derek Smalls, said of Gallagher’s walkout. “I was under the impression for some time that Oasis was a real band.”

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