Think of an iconic bass player – Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, Hooky from New Order, Lemmy from Motörhead – and you’d be foolish to ignore the low-frequency rumblings of Spın̈al Tap bassist Derek Smalls. Born in the lesser-known town of Nilford on the River Null in the West Midlands, Smalls was raised by his father, Donald “Duff” Smalls (who ran a telephone sanitisation business) after his mother, Dorothy, left home to join travelling all-girls’ jazz band The Hotten Totties.
At 17, Smalls enrolled at the London School of Design (“Mainly because of the letters”), where he first became interested in playing music, joining the all-white Jamaican band Skaface. (“I never even tried to play the guitar, because it had too many strings,” Smalls said.) In 1967, he spotted a notice on a lamppost in Soho: “Bass player wanted” after original Tap bassist Ronnie Pudding left for a solo career after debut single Gimme Some Money failed to chart.
