Mmmmmmm

[pat]

I was poking around Snopes, which is a fun thing to do in your spare time, when I ran across the "Van Halen required a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed" rumor. Turns out, it was true... sort of.

Apparently, the provision was placed in the contracts as a canary in a coal mine: it was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and the purpose was to check and see that the people staging the things had actually read the technical specs for the show. If they got back and there were no brown M&Ms, it indicated that the people had actually read and complied with the contract.

(And yes, David Lee Roth did throw a hissy fit at the University of Colorado and trashed the backstage area, but the real damage to the arena was caused when the staging sunk through the new basketball floor because the promoters hadn't bothered to check about the weight requirements.)

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

wow. that's actually pretty cool and pretty smart.

*gets thoughtful*

i must ruminate on that lesson. thanks!

n.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

The test sounds like a good idea. Trashing the backstage area sounds like a really bad idea. Hmmm...if all publicity is good publicity, maybe trashign the backstage area wasn't such a bad move for him.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Roth's comment -- "Who am I to stand in the way of a good rumor?"

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/

has a bunch of ryders of various acts if you're curious to see what is a priority for your favorite bands. For example, in my life I've never owned as much liquor as Frank Sinatra required be in his dressing room.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

They seem to make fun of NIN's requirment for china and silver food service, but I don't find it at all outrageous. If that proviso was in the contract for a Broadway actor, I bet they wouldn't sneer at it. There's no reason rockers shouldn't have refined taste.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Johnny Cash required the same thing, I didn't see them making fun of it. In fact, I don't remember seeing any editorial content at all. They just put the stuff up there and let the reader take what they want from it.

Some of the stuff seems perfectly reasonable and some of it doesn't. What's reasonable to one person might seem absurd to another. Doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

But I especially like Bob Dylans rider.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Oh there is some editorial content, my bad.

But you missed what they were making fun of. It wasn't the china it was the word BOWELS where BOWLS might've been more appropriate.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

And they make fun of the Dixie Chicks for suggesting (not REQUIRING) that some of the men's restrooms be turned into women's restrooms since 70% of their fan base is female. Seems perfectly reasonable -- and intelligent to me.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Well, they point out what might not be so useful about that. That men's rooms, especially in concert halls, don't usually have a lot of stalls. I guess by law a certain number are required depending on how big the place is but men's rooms are mostly urinals or troughs even.

Now I'm not saying that women couldn't piss in troughs or all together in a line of urinals but it seems like most, at least that I know, prefer a little more privacy and sometimes even a little toilet paper.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Just like the free dinner for two offered in a footnote buried in my Ph.D. dissertation...

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Did you get in trouble about it?

I've heard of people doing things like that, but frankly, if I were reading as an examiner and found it, I'd find it inappropriate and kind of insulting. I'd probably make the person take it out.