The contract rider includes specifications on stage design, sound systems, lighting rigs, as well as an artist’s wish list – from transportation and billing to dressing room accommodations and meals. In some cases, a promoter will refuse a demand (crossing out the request on the document), though stars usually get what they want, whether it’s clean boxer shorts (Jane’s Addiction), a large selection of top-shelf liquors (Frank Sinatra), or an arrangement of adult magazines i.e. Penthouse, Playboy (Guns N’ Roses). Thankfully, Bob Dylan’s is refreshingly understated…

How many towels must a singer-songwriter have?

The Smoking Gun has what many consider to be the Holy Grail, the most famous rider of them all, the one in which Van Halen stipulated that brown M & M’s were to be banished from the band’s dressing room. The 1982 Van Halen World Tour rider is type-written and 53 pages long. The document containing the M & M stipulation contains some other unique demands including “herring in sour cream” and “One (1) large tube of KY Jelly”. The rider has been described as an example of rock and roll excess, the outlandish demands of multimillionaires. However, the group say these provisions were included to ensure the promoters actually read the lengthy rider. They surmised that if brown M & M’s were in the candy bowl backstage, then more important aspects of a performance – lighting, staging, security and ticketing may have been botched by an inattentive promoter.

'Van hell of a rider

A personal favourite is the requests for Iggy and the Stooges. It goes to 18 pages in total and is a rambling but hilarious take on the tour rider. Demands for an “English language newspaper like the New York Times, Miami Herald or a copy of USA today that’s got a story about morbidly obese people in it,” sit alongside “1 x case of big bottles of big, premium beer. You decide. But remember, I might ask you to taste a bottle so buy something nice! Here’s a clue – it probably won’t start with a letter ‘B’ and end with ‘udweiser’” and “2 bottles of smooth, full-bodied, Bordeaux type red wine. Probably French. And something we’ve heard of, but still can’t pronounce.” As far as food goes: “Dinner for Iggy and two other people should be available at the venue or local restaurant, after the show local cuisine is acceptable (i.e. local food for local people) or steak / chicken, endangered species (excluding moths or anything really cute), snake, whale, nurse shark (nurse on the side just in case. Well we could get bitten couldn’t we?).”

Have a read of page 13 – stipulating how the band feel about video recording of their performances…

How right you are Iggy.

Tags: Bob Dylan, Iggy And The Stooges, KY Jelly, M & M's, Rider, Rock, Van Halen

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