This Is Spinal Tap

Hello. My name is Marty DiBergi.

I'm a filmmaker.

I make a lot of commercials.

That little dog that chases the covered wagon

underneath the sink.

That was mine.

In 1966,

I went down to Greenwich Village in New York,

to a rock club called the Electric Banana.

Don't look for it. It's not there anymore.

But that night, I heard a band that, for me,

redefined the word "rock 'n' roll."

I remember being knocked out by their exuberance,

their raw power and their punctuality.

That band was Britain's now-legendary Spinal Tap.

Seventeen years and 15 albums later,

Spinal Tap is still going strong.

And they've earned a distinguished place in rock history

as one of England's loudest bands.

So in the late fall of 1982,

when I heard that Tap was releasing a new album

called "Smell the Glove"

and was planning their first tour of the United States

in almost six years to promote that album,

well, needless to say, I jumped at the chance

to make the documentary,

the, if you will, rockumentary that you're about to see.

I wanted to capture the sights, the sounds,

the smells of a hardworking rock band on the road.

And I got that.

But I got more.

A lot more.

But, hey, enough of my yakking.

What do you say? Let's boogie!

Gives me a lot of energy, makes me happy.

Metal's deep. You get stuff out of it.

The way they dress, the leather.

- Which one is this? LaGuardia? - No, this is JFK.

- Oh, yes. - New York, New York.

Watch its mouth, watch its mouth.

It's like you become one with the guys in the band.

I mean, there's... There's no division.

You just... The music just unites people...

with the players.

You want it right? Direct from hell, Spinal Tap!

We are Spinal Tap from the UK. You must be the USA!

Let's talk a little bit about the history of the group.

I understand, Nigel, you and David originally started the band,

well, back in, when was it, 1964?

Before that, we were in different groups.

I was in a skiffle group called The Creatures.

I was in Lovely Lads.

And then we looked at each other and said:

"We might as well join up." you know, and...

- So we became The Originals. - Right.

And we had to change our name, actually.

Well, there was another group in the East End called The Originals.

We had to rename ourselves.

- The New Originals. - The New Originals. And then...

- They became- - The Regulars.

They changed their name and we thought,

we could go back to The Originals, but what's the point?

We became The Thamesmen at that point.

Your first drummer was-

- The Peeper. - John Stumpy Pepys...

- Yeah. - Great, great, uh...

tall, blond geek with glasses.

- Yeah. Good drummer. - Great look. Good drummer.

Fine drummer.

- What happened to him? - He died.

He died in a bizarre gardening accident some years back.

It's really one of those things, it was, you know,

the authorities said, you know, "Best leave it."

- Yeah. - Unsolved, really, you know?

And he was replaced by, uh...

Stumpy Joe. Eric Stumpy Joe.

What happened to Stumpy Joe?

Well, uh,

it's not a very pleasant story, but, uh...

- He's passed on. - He died, uh...

He choked on...

The official explanation was he choked on vomit.

So he's passed away.

It was actually someone else's vomit.

- It's not- - It's ugly.

There's no real...

Well, they can't prove whose vomit it was.

They don't have the facilities at Scotland Yard...

There's no way to print a spectra- photograph.

You can't dust for vomit.

Here we go.

Soho, they call this place.

- It's the band! - "80" what?

Soho.

- How are you? - Nice to see you!

- Ian! Hi, fellas. - Yes.

How are you doing? Come over here.

- Who is that? - Bobbi Flekman.

- Who's that? - Bobbi Flekman. Bobbi Flekman.

- With the record company? - Come over here, everybody.

So, yes, Bobbi Flekman-

- Bobbi, of course, how are you? - The hostess with the mostest.

- We know. - You know, you know.

Hi, handsome. How you doing?

All right, listen, I want you all to meet Sir Denis Eton-Hogg.

- He's the head of Polymer. - We know.

You don't talk so much, just smile and look smart.

- Oh, she knows. - Denis, come here! Come here.

I want you to meet Spinal Tap, our guests of honor.

- How very nice to meet you. - Kids, this is Sir Denis Eton-Hogg.

- Hello. - This is Nigel.

- Oh, so this is Nigel. - Thanks a lot for letting us...

Yeah. Let's go over here and take a picture together.

Where's Christine? Where's my photographer?

Come over here, honey. What's your name? Christine?

Okay, right over here.

Good. Good!

Guys, you look great. I mean, you look fantastic.

You would never know you're almost 40.

If I looked this good from the stage too, it's amazing, you know.

- I did the bird. - Do the dead bird, change this.

- Get the dwarf cannolis. - I did the bird.

Come on, don't talk back, huh? Mime is money, let's go!

- Come on, move it! - Now, we here at Polymer.

We're all looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Spinal Tap.

We wish them great success on their North American tour,

and so say all of us:

Tap into America!

Yeah!

Excuse me. Are you reading Yes, I Can?

- Yeah. Have you read it? - Yeah, by Sammy Davis Jr.?

Yeah.

You know what the title of that book should be?

Yes, I Can,

If Frank Sinatra Says It's Okay.

'Cause Frank calls the shots for all of those guys.

Did you get to the part yet where Sammy's coming out of the Copa

and it's about 3 o'clock in the morning and he sees Frank?

Frank's walking down Broadway by himself...

Fuckin' limeys.

Well, you know, they're not, uh...

- Yeah, yeah. - They're not used to that world.

Frank Sinatra. It's a different world.

You know, it's just people like this...

You know, they get all they want, so they don't really understand,

you know, about a life like Frank's.

I mean, when you've loved and lost the way Frank has,

then you know what life's about.

The Times may even do something.

- Really? - New York Times?

That's a minor bump we've got to iron out here

is when do we get the album released.

It doesn't matter how good the press is or what the stringers...

As I explained last night, you know,

we're not gonna saturate the New York market.

Now, Philly, that's a real rock 'n' roll town.

Great town.

Be assured that the album will be available

all through the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

So you are hitting that market,

regardless of how we're selling in New York?

We're certainly doing- I'm doing everything I can.

We're not blaming you. You know that.

But you don't feel these guys have an effect on an audience?

Kids go to their concert. They have a great time.

But it's a passing thing, it's, uh...

I mean, I would never tell them this, but this is, uh...

This is a fad.

Let's talk about your reviews a little bit.

Regarding Intravenus de Milo.

"This tasteless cover is a good indication

of the lack of musical invention within.

The musical growth rate of this band cannot even be charted.

They are treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."

That's nit-picking, isn't it?

The Gospel According to Spinal Tap.

"This pretentious, ponderous collection of religious rock psalms

is enough to prompt the question: