Spinal Tap A to Zed

Fufkin, Artie: Polymer Records Midwest promotions rep assigned to push Tap in Chicago area and Cleveland. Sets up Disk 'an Dat autograph session in South Bend, Indiana, then invites boys to "kick my ass, for a man" when it fails miserably. Blames oversaturation of radio promos and the fact that he "fucked up the timing." In an example of the selective editing that would later anger the boys, DiBergi choose not to include footage of the few fans who did show up for autographs. One named Johnny asks the band to sign his copy of "Smell the Glove," but none of the signatures are visible on the album's black cover. Another brings an album called "Train Sounds." The band doesn't hold a grudge against Fufkin, however, and years later attributes the low turnout to "a traffic problem caused by a rooftop sniper outside the shop." (LT) In addition, David explained, "Jack Nicklaus was autographing his golf album in a store right down the block, and we just happened to have concurrent markets." (IST) What are the chances? In other scenes not included in "This is Spinal Tap," Fufkin smashes an egg over his head to convince the boys to get up for a 7 a.m. radio show the next morning. (Nigel: "But we go to sleep at 6:15. That's kinda tight.") Fufkin, who was later charged with sexual harassment and fired by Polymer (He denies the charges: "There was no harassment. There was no sexual. There was a cute secretary there named Barbara. I was really just trying to give her some insight into what it takes to be in this business they call record promotion"), ended up in Australia as the executive programmer for Video Magic, a 22-hours-a-day video hits channel. Ironically, he refused to air Tap's "Bitch School," claiming it was sexist. Later, he became an salesman based in Wheaton, Illinois for the Jumbotronic Egg. "We dose the eggs with a certain machine, and it enables us to produce an egg of superior quality. It's not harmful in any way. Record promotion, egg promotion, it's really the same thing. It's all promotion and I figured what's the difference? When you've got two kids in junior college, this is what you have to do." In the same interview, Fufkin still feels some resentment toward the band. "The kids really - Spinal Tap - were a bunch of cocksuckers, between you and me, because they would not enable a guy like me to do my job - to do what I had to do to get a record played in a town like Chicago." (VH1) See also Kick This Ass, For a Man; Train Sounds.