There’s nowt so queer as folk.

Turning the amp up to 11 just got too damn loud. Director and Spinal Tap musician, Christopher Guest, says that age is catching up with him. “We did a tour about a year-and-a-half ago in the States, played Carnegie Hall in New York and it was still fun, although the constant thud-thud in the ear - it starts to hurt after a while.”

As Mick Jagger and David Bowie prove, no rock musician is going to retire at 55, and Guest follows suit, by simply reinventing himself as a folk musician in A Mighty Wind. There’s just one fart joke in the movie but Guest insists the title is “not a fart joke, it’s about the members of the bands - they’re blowing in the wind.” A clear reference to Dylan then, another musician who doesn’t know when to retire.

As he did with Best In Show, Guest has teamed up with American Pie’s Eugene Levy to write a mockumentary about three bands - comprising all your favourite actors from This is Spinal Tap and Best In Show - who reform to do a memorial concert for their recently deceased manager.

It’s a droll look at how bands and fans cling to their youth. As Guest says, “There were serious people at the time doing great things, and people who thought they were serious doing bad things.” But Christopher, your old age is showing. You forgot to mention your own special category - seriously funny people doing bad things brilliantly. Kaleem Aftab 16 January 04

A Mighty Wind, on national release 16 January 04.

useful link: a mighty wind official site