Derek Smalls

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Harry Shearer as "Derek Smalls"

Derek Smalls (played by Harry Shearer) is the bass player for mock rock group Spinal Tap. He co-starred in the hit spoof rockumentary This is Spinal Tap with guitarists Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), as well as with a plethora of drummers and keyboardists. He has one solo album, Its a Smalls World.

Derek grew up in Nilford, England and was the son of Donald "Duff" Smalls, who ran a marginally successful telephone sanitization business, "Sani-Fone". He joined Spinal Tap in 1967 after the departure of bassist Ronnie Pudding.

Smalls played killer #1 in Marco Zamboni's Roma '79. He is also a prize-winning gardener, having developed and patented a totally black rose, the Death by Midnight. He was also part of the Christian rock band Lambsblood (which played the "Monsters of Jesus" festival) and the star of a series of comical Belgian television commercials for the snack food Floop. After the band's final breakup in 1992, Derek became employed as a "floater" in an elementary school, with such duties as crossing guard and straightening library books.

The name Derek Smalls appears to come from the cover of the Jethro Tull album Thick as a Brick. The newspaper format of this album cover featured satirical classified ads including an ad for a 4' divan bed, and the offer of a "Dwarf for Rent" both of which instructed the reader to "Contact Derek Small."