Spinal Tap keyboardist, musician and actor David Kaff dies at 79, what was the cause of his death?
David Kaff played keyboardist Viv Savage in Rob Reiner’s mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.
Tributes have been paid to British musician and actor David Kaff following his death at the age of 79. The news was confirmed by David Kaff’s bandmates on Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom Facebook page, the statement read: “Our brother David Kaffinetti passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday.
“We are devastated by this event.
“David always had a kind word and a quick wit that would slay you where you stand. Then he’d make you smile doing it!
“RIP dear brother.”
In response to the Facebook tribute, one fan wrote: “RIP Dave. You’re missed by so many,” while Josh Paxton said: “Condolences to all who loved him. Ironically, just yesterday I started preparing for an upcoming Spinal Tap tribute show in conjunction with the new movie, so I was charting out his keyboard parts and looking up stills and clips to see what he wore onstage in the film. RIP.”
David Kaff was born David Kaffinietti in Folkestone and Joe Ranger made reference to Folkestone in his tribute to him on Facebook. He wrote: “I’m very sad to report that one of Folkestone’s finest and legendary musicians, David Kaffinetti passed away at a local care home on Friday. Dave was a member of million selling prog-rock band Rarebird and was also a member of Spinal Tap.
“Both Rarebird and Viv Savage have recently been inducted onto the Rock’ n Roll Wall of fame. I very recently spoke to Dave, and he was extremely happy to know that he was remembered for his contribution to Folkestone’s musical heritage. RIP Dave.”
David Kaff was only in his twenties when he founded the group Rarebird who are best known for their hit Sympathy in 1969. David Kaff played the part of Viv Savage, the keyboardist of the fictional band in ‘This Is Spinal Tap.’
Variety reported that “The band continued to play after the film’s release, where Kaff appeared as Savage in the band’s “Saturday Night Live” performance in 1984. He was known for his lines including “Quite exciting, this computer magic!” and his life motto “Have a good time…all the time.”
This Autumn, a sequel to the music mockumentary ‘This Is Spinal Tap,’ is set to be released, it is called Spinal Tap II: The End Continues and will once again be directed by Rob Reiner. He told Empire that the idea for the sequel “came from a very real place, which was that Tony Hendra, the actor who played Ian Faith, their manager in the movie, passed away. And in reality the guys — Harry, Chris and Michael — hadn’t played together as Tap for 15 years.”
Rob Reiner went on to say that “So we thought, “Maybe there’s something in that, a reunion concert. And we came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance. She thinks initially, “Well, this is not really worth anything, because the band hasn’t played together.” But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”