Spinal Tap A to Zed

This is Spinal Tap—A Rockumentary by Martin DiBergi™: (Embassy Pictures, 1984): Shot in five weeks for less than $3 million and transferred from 16mm to 35mm film for theater viewing, the documentary captures Spinal Tap on stage and behind-the-scenes during its 1982 U.S. tour to support "Smell the Glove." After the film premiered in New York on March 2, 1984 (following previews in Seattle and Dallas that prompted DiBergi to trim five minutes), the band immediately labeled it a "hatchet job" and "character assassination." Derek: "You can’t give someone a camera to follow us about—it’s like giving someone a rusty razor and saying, ‘Have a shave, govner.’ " Nigel: "It’s like giving a rolling pin to a magician." David: "I’m not really following you on this one." (RL) Later, Nigel would claim: "When he first showed us the film, all those scenes were switched. Then when the film was shown it was switched back. So you can imagine our shock." David: "Ask yourself, what kind of artist would have a switchable work?" (QM) Nigel once called the movie "a minstrel show. It’s good and bad." (BG) Nigel: "It made us look stupid and brought us attention in one fell swoop. People are not interested in things that go well. They don’t want to see headlines that say, ‘Baby Chipmunk Found on Highway: Unharmed, Warm and Fluffy.’ But if you say ‘Overweight Man Gets Head Stuck in Toilet, Sweating, Smelling Bad,’ well they’ll run down and buy that one." (BG) Ironically, the publicity generated by the band’s 1992 reunion tour put the video of the film on the Billboard charts. See also A Spinal Tap Reunion; DiBergi, Martin; DiBogi, Marty "The Butcher"

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