David Kaff, Who Played Viv Savage in This Is Spinal Tap, Dies at 79

David Kaff, who performed keyboardist Viv Savage in Rob Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Faucet, has died. His band Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom shared the information to Facebook yesterday (July 13), writing “David at all times had a form phrase and a fast wit that will slay you the place you stand. Then he’d make you smile doing it!” A explanation for dying was not given, although the assertion mentions that Kaff “handed away peacefully in his sleep.” He was 79.

Born David Kaffinetti in 1946, Kaff acquired his begin as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock band Uncommon Fowl. The group was among the many first to signal to Charisma Data, later the label residence of Genesis and Peter Gabriel, and put out 5 studio albums between 1969 and 1974. Uncommon Fowl’s sole U.Okay. chart hit, 1970’s “Sympathy,” encompasses a outstanding organ line courtesy of Kaff. In 1972, Kaff additionally went into the studio with Chuck Berry for The London Chuck Berry Classes, which yielded the No. 1 single “My Ding-a-Ling.”

In Spinal Faucet, Kaff portrays the frizzy-haired keyboard participant in fictional metallic band Spinal Tap. Regardless of a smaller position relative to guide actors Christopher Visitor, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, Kaff’s Viv Savage left his mark because of a mixture of bodily comedy (particularly throughout the movie’s staged concert footage) and quotable one-liners. At one level, requested by McKean’s David St. Hubbins if he’s capable of play Nigel Tufnel’s (Visitor) bass line on “Huge Backside,” Savage quips again, “I’ve acquired two fingers, yeah I can do it.”

Kaff performed on This Is Spinal Faucet’s accompanying soundtrack and, in Might 1984, carried out in character alongside his co-stars on Saturday Night Live. He left the group by the top of the 12 months and didn’t return for the recording of their subsequent studio albums—1992’s Break Just like the Wind and 2009’s Again from the Useless—however continued to play music with Oakland’s Mannequin Citizenz and, most lately, psych-rock outfit Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom.

Nonetheless, Kaff maintained his fondness for Viv Savage through the years, telling BAM in 2011, “I performed him very near my coronary heart…just a bit bit dimmer. If individuals like that character, chances are high they will like me.” Kaff received’t seem in Reiner’s forthcoming Spinal Tap sequel, however perpetually holds the excellence of delivering the unique movie’s last line: “Have a great time on a regular basis—that’s my philosophy, Marty.”