Spinal Tap: One Night Only World Tour

Wembley Arena is no stranger to comedy. Rob Newman and David Baddiel made history by playing the venue 15 years earlier (despite not being on speaking terms), since when it's been a beacon for stand-ups with a bestselling DVD in mind. Its musical heritage is obviously in little doubt, so it's the perfect place for comic rockers Spinal Tap to perform their one-night-only World Tour - only tonight's heavy on the metal, leaving fans of Rob Reiner's 1984 film somewhat short-changed.

[gallery]Support comes from The Folksmen, the acoustic alter-egos of Tap stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, from their Guest-directed 2003 reunion-of-sorts mockumentary, A Mighty Wind. They stand at the front of the stage, in candy-striped shirts, and do a goody-goody New Englander routine between their mining-disaster anthem 'Blood On The Coal' ("Ol' 97 went in the wrong hole / Now my number 60 has blood on the coal...") and their "only hit" 'Old Joe's Place'.

As at the end of the film, Shearer's double-bassist Mark Shubb is now a post-operative transsexual, so there's the added ridiculous thrill of seeing the hairy Simpsons mainstay in tights and a blond wig, as McKean and Guest prove impressive on mandolins and banjos. It's a glimpse at the low-key tour the trio recently did out-of-costume in the US, 'Unwigged & Unplugged' and, for aficionados of their character skills, it's an all-too-brief treat.

As is obligatory in Tap Land, technical hitches abound for the headline set. We're treated to the sight of McKean's David St Hubbins and Shearer's Derek Smalls enjoying a pre-gig game of Left 4 Dead, but the audio is absent; throughout, the video screens either side of the stage are a second or more out of sync. But hey, no matter. There's an airing of the none-more-'90s promo for comeback track 'The Majesty Of Rock' and then they arrive - tubbier than in 1984, of course, but somehow still the same. Guest's Nigel Tufnel has become an off-duty Ozzy Osbourne, all sleeveless tees and general bewilderment, while St Hubbins still has a main of blonde waves and a leonine allure. Smalls is strap-less but still encased in leather, his greying hair and beard invoking Lemmy on Horlicks.

And the fun sort of stops here. The amps have, of course, been cranked up to 11, so any bon mots between full-length versions of the songs enjoyed in snatches during the movie are lost in a haze of feedback and drunken bawling from the all-ages crowd, who appear inexplicably thrilled this is now a Proper Rock Gig and not a rare opportunity to see comedy icons inhabit their most famous roles live on stage.

Metal and fun are rarely bedfellows - it's one of the reasons cited for the demise of The Darkness and the first-time-round failure of Anvil - but here they meld into one big in-joke that, by the time the second encore of 'Break Like The Wind' wafts from the speaker stacks, isn't that funny any more. Emma