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Editor's note: This article was scheduled to appear in the second issue of Painful Procedure, the official Spinal Tap newsletter that died after its first issue. It was supplied to the Spinal Tap Fan Site by former fan club president Bonnie Rose.


In 1982, dogfood peddler Marty DiBergi decided to capitalize on Spinal Tap's first American tour in six years by taking a film crew on the road with them. The ever-trusting Tap let DiBergi and his camera in on their performances, their rehearsals, their trials and their triumphs — their very souls.
By the beginning of their World Comeback Tour, DiBergi had what he wanted, skipped off to the editing room and soon after released one of the most vicious misrepresentations of genius ever to foul the silver screen.
His so-call rockumentary portrays the members of Tap as untalented and dimwitted has-beens. The fact that the film is listed in many guides as a "comedy" proves beyond doubt that DiBergi's intentions were evil from the beginning. Don't be fooled! We asked the lads speak out about the movie. They made it clear that...

This is NOT Spinal Tap

"You saw the movie. You saw us performing on stage, right? We must have found the stage! Logically, right? He doesn't show us finding the stage, he shows us not finding the stage." —Derek

"At first we thought, 'What kind of heroic figures is he going to make us out to be?' It turned out to be nothing like we thought." —David

"It was a hatchetmentary. He was trying to make us look stupid. That's the sort of thing that sells, isn't it? I mean if you see a newspaper and the headline says 'Twins Bor n— Feeling Fine,' it wouldn't sell, cause people don't want to know about stuff like that. They'd like to see something like 'Fat Man Stuck In Toilet, Probably Dead.' DiBergi told us he was our biggest fan and look what he did. It was a total betrayal." —Nigel

" 'Call the Butcher's Union', I said. 'Marty DiBergi? Try the Butcher's Union.' " —Derek

Nigel: We saw the film that everyone else saw and we were quite upset because it was not a depiction that was accurate. You see someone like Derek not getting out of the pod. Most nights...
Derek: Every night!
Nigel: Well, 80 percent of the time...
Derek: But you don't see that.
Nigel: What they choose to show...
David: They chose to show a time when we couldn't get Derek out of the bloody pod.
Nigel: The night there was some mechanical misfunction and we become the brunt of a joke, and not the smooth act that we really were.
David: Skew, eschew...
Nigel: Basically, it's all twisted. "Let me go into my little editing room and twist."
Derek: What do they call that, McCarthyism?
David: It's called McCarthyism.
Nigel: Charlie McCarthyism.
Derek: I call it DiBergiism.
Nigel: This Is Marty DiBergi should have been the name of the movie.

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