In the film, Harry Shearer's character finds himself stuck in a pod while the comedy rockers attempt to make a grand entrance on a futuristic stage set - and White insists he was the inspiration for the famous scene.

He tells UltimateClassicRock.com, "The people who made the movie based the idea on me getting stuck in a drum kit in one of the Yes tours of the '70s. We were playing Tales From Topographic Oceans onstage, and we used to have this butterfly kind of thing. It was a very majestic part of the show.

"It used to open up and close, but one night, it closed the wrong way and I wasn't in the next bit onstage. I usually had to get off the drum kit and not be on my drums, but I couldn't get off. I had to lie on the ground so nobody could see me, and I was locked in the drum kit, basically. I couldn't get out. It was very weird.

"The (Spinal Tap) producer read about that, and he did the scene where the bass player gets stuck inside the mummy case."