Music Biz fun fact
Fischerspooner on the "Entertainment" Tour
Los Angeles, CA, May 2009
So, I was listening to This American Life this morning while driving around, and heard a tidbit that I thought was neat. Perhaps you already know of it.
Apparently the idea, made famous (or brought to MY attention) by the film Wayne's World, about a rock-star leaving a "rider" in his production contract to have a bowl of specifically colored M&M candies in his dressing room at all time is rooted in truth.
Allegedly, David Lee Roth, during his Van Halen heyday, left a demand in his rider for a bowl of M&Ms in his dressing room for all of his shows, and that bowl was to have all the brown M&Ms removed. This seemingly obnoxious rider was generally referenced as the very height of rock-star prima donna behavior.
There was a very interesting reason for the request, however. It turns out that "riders" are more than just bottled water-preferences and lists of vegetarian roadies, as they also include basic production needs, like set-design and maintenance, pyrotechnic safety procedures, etc. Since Van Halen is reported to have been fairly early in bringing massive rock-shows to "tertiary markets" (I take this to mean big productions to smaller venues or less metropolitan cities), they were very regularly burdening production crews with hosting events exponentially larger than those they were accustomed to putting on. This meant that there were a fair amount of errors and oversights that threatened to negatively impact the success or safety of the show, and it would sometimes be difficult to tell which venues were crossing their 'I's and dotting their 'T's until something broke.
Roth says that he put the "No Brown M&Ms" clause in his rider as an early warning system. If he got to his dressing room and found Brown M&Ms, he would know that the contract had not been read in detail, and, for illustrative purposes (read: herein I make shit up) the 30 foot robotic dragon that breathes fire during the chorus of "Hot for Teacher", might not be constructed properly and runs the risk of immolating the Band, the staff, or the audience. So, if Brown M&Ms were present, Roth could order a check of all the production details.
I like this sort of thing.
More info here .