Movies You Might Have Missed: Sacha Gervasi's Anvil! The Story of Anvil

The rockumentary follows the metal band as they embark on a truly catastrophic tour

Robb Reiner and Steve 'Lips' Kudlow in Sacha Gervasi's documentary 'Anvil! The Story of Anvil'

As a teenager in 1982, Sacha Gervasi attended a concert by the heavy metal band Anvil, and introduced himself as “England’s number one fan”. The group were obviously enamoured with the youngster and he subsequently became a roadie for the band on their 1982, 1984 and 1985 tours.

Gervasi and Anvil then spent 20 years apart until 2005 when the former began shooting a rockumentary about his erstwhile heroes. The result is one of the finest films ever made about music, collaboration and friendship.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil begins with some context and lists the headlining acts of Japan’s Super Rock festival in 1984. The likes of Bon Jovi and Whitesnake went on to sell millions of records but there was an anomaly: Anvil. Fast forward to the present day and, although an array of rock icons readily admit just how influential the band were, singer and guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow (a dead ringer for Barcelona legend Carles Puyol) delivers food to schools for a living while drummer Robb Reiner works in construction. Things look bleak for our heroes until a European fan emails suggesting a long overdue tour of the continent.

The documentary follows Anvil as they embark on a truly catastrophic tour. The nadir comes when one club-owner attempts to pay the lads in bowls of goulash and tempers flare. The parallels with Spinal Tap are startling: Rob Reiner (rather than Robb) directed the comedy classic, the band’s album covers are eerily similar while both films have an inspiring denouement in Japan after increasingly chaotic tours.

Above all, this is a portrait of a friendship between two extraordinary men who never gave up on the thing they love most. Reiner’s father survived Auschwitz and he talks movingly about the experience of being a second-generation survivor before waxing lyrical about a painting of poo hanging on the wall of his family home. Kudlow is a gentle, earnest soul who has a tendency to play his guitar with a sex toy and tells his bandmate he thinks of him as a “brother” between sobs when arguments threaten to derail recording of a new album.

This is as much about heavy metal as The Big Lebowski is about bowling and the result, touchingly, was renewed interest in the band and their music. The frontman later commented: “One of my heroes is Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, and he came up to me in Heathrow airport and told me the movie had completely inspired him to keep playing music, and he just kept thanking me for all of the inspiration my band gave him. I mean, this is Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull – how cool is that?”

Very cool. And proof that nice guys don’t always finish last.