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Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music. Early and ad free on Amazon Music included with Prime.
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When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com this episode is brought to you by Netflix from the creator of Homeland. Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys star in the new Netflix series the Beast in Me as ruthless rivals whose shared darkness will set them on a collision course with fatal consequences. The Beast in Me is a riveting psychological cat and mouse story about guilt, justice and doubt. You will not want to miss this. The Beast In Me launches November 13, only on Netflix.
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Going on tour is hard. You're away from home for months at a time. There's little sleep, bad food, too many drugs, a surfeit of alcohol, late nights, temptations into bad behavior, crazy people, bad decisions, and that bass player who refuses to wash his feet, probably because he's on his phone moaning to his girlfriend about how miserable he is. All that occupies about 22 hours of the day. The best times come when you're at the venue. There's the excitement of the lead up, the after show, satisfaction, and in between, the gig itself. But every show is different. It's a different city, a different place to sleep. Vans, buses, and if you're lucky, airplanes. For that time on the road, your sanctuary really becomes the dressing room, the the one place over which you have some measure of control if you know what you're doing. This brings me to the concert rider, the part of the contract with the promoter that specifies what an act has to be provided with before, during and after a show. Once the band arrives, the road manager is the point person. He or she has to make sure that the promoter adheres to all the terms outlined in the rider. Most of the details are pretty mundane because they're basically logistical. The times of the load in and load out, electrical requirements and the number of local electricians required to make them happen, how many forklifts and drivers are needed to move gear around, catering for the crew, parking for the tour buses, how merch sales are going to work. You know, that kind of thing. Where things get interesting are the artists requirements. The things that they need backstage to ensure that they're in a good headspace to play a great show. Mess up the writer and the promoter runs the risk of having a pouty, petulant and otherwise pissed off performance. And I get it. If you're an artist and you don't get what you need before a gig, well then you're going to feel disrespected coming up with a list of requests that can be enforced night after night, venue after venue, city after city, and country after country is a delicate and essential thing. And let's just say that some bands are better at this than others. Welcome to the wild world of the Backstage Rider. This is the ongoing History of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. Welcome again, I'm Alan Cross and I've had quite a few requests for a show on this particular topic. The World of the Backstage Rider that oh so important part of the day in the life of touring musicians, making sure artists are fed, watered and have their needs catered to is, or at least should be, one of the most important things a pro bono must do. And nothing annoys a band more than showing up at a gig to find that their requests have not been met or at worst, ignored. With that in mind, let's just get the famous Brown Eminem story out of the way. This comes from Van Halen and their Hide your Sheep tour, which spanned 1982 and 1983. They played 97 shows over the course of 10 months over six countries in north and South America. Now at this time the band was partying a lot and they were really getting on each other's nerves. To keep friction to a minimum, their road manager, a guy named Noel Monk, and had to make sure that the guys didn't encounter anything that might cause upset. And that meant making sure that everything they asked for backstage was provided to the letter. I have the backstage writer for that tour. Let me quote Dear Purchaser, which is the promoter. Attached is a rider containing provisions to assure you of a smooth and professional theatrical presentation. All provisions are spelled out in great detail in order to prevent any misunderstandings and to present to your customers the finest contemporary entertainment. All provisions must be adhered to strictly. The M and Ms. Clause is found on page 36. Deep into the rider. This was the part of the rider outlining the meal and dietary requirements of both the band and crew. A lot of it is pretty standard. A deli tray, a cheese tray, platter of fruit, two bottles of Blue Nun. Weird choice for wine, but whatever. And right there on page 42, thirds the way down, under the heading munchies, it reads potato chips with assorted dips, nuts, pretzels, and M and Ms. And right next to that line item in big block letters, warning, absolutely no brown ones. The implication was that if a single brown M and M was found by Van Halen, they would refuse to go on. And this story has become legendary. Van Halen wasn't serious, of course. This was a test to see if the promoter actually read through the entire document, which is something that had happened far too few times in the past, resulting in, well, let's just call them fractious relations. It's not good when you have 18,000 maniacs in the audience screaming for a night of rock and roll that they'll remember forever. Now, there have been many variations of the Brown M and m's gambit since 1982 and 1983. The Foo Fighters, for example, are very particular about what they need in the dressing room. In fact, their riders are also legendary. I have here the rider for the Wasting Light Tour, which ran from January 28, 2011 to September 22, 2012. It covered North America, South America, Europe and Australia. 132 shows, each running about three hours. And they did that over 602 days. The rider runs 52 pages and was created by road manager Gus Brandt with input from the band. It begins, and this is a quote. To save time and to be totally clear, do not amend or change this rider for return. Read each item carefully and on separate paper. Note any objections, questions, or impossibilities as they relate to your situation by category as we go through it, we have a section on billing, insurance, interviews, licenses. Part two is all about production requirements, including power, lighting system needs, security, and so on. Part three is about dressing rooms, but we're going to come back to that. Part four is crew catering for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the day of the show. And. Oh, here we are. Part five, hospitality. And it comes in the form of a coloring book. It outlines the ingredients of a proper salad, a warning about any deli trays featuring raw broccoli, and if there's anything that they call Promoter Pasta in the hockey locker room. And this is a quote. There may be an outbreak of burning cars in the employee parking lot. There's also a word search puzzle included. The promoter needed to solve the puzzle and use the remaining letters to construct a secret message. I figured it out for you. And that secret message is. Don't forget the bacon. If we go back into the Foo Fighters rider for this particular tour, Part three, the dressing room. We run across stuff like be aware that Dave really likes stinky cheese. No cauliflower, because. And this is a quote, because cauliflower blows. And finally, the band will fine a promoter $100 for any misspellings or typos in the wording of their writer. I wonder if they ever talked to Trent Reznor about that one, because one of his writers once asked for linen napkins, china plates and bowels. There's no E in bowels. Anyway, let's see what the Killers wanted. This goes back to their 2006 tour for the Sam's Town album, and it starts off pretty standard. A selection of chocolate bars, Snickers, Kit Kat and so on. A deli tray, enough to feed 20 people with a commensurate amount of sliced cheese, crackers and white bread. Also some fruits and veggies and six fresh avocados. Where the promoter had to be careful was with the alcohol requirements. Beer. That's easy. Each night demanded big cases of Corona Coors and some kind of premium beer. Cider and a couple of bottles of red wine. Unspecified. Easy. But when it came to spirits, the promoter really had to pay attention. If the show was on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, the writer demanded Maker's Mark bourbon. If the gig was Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, that bourbon had better be Jack Daniels. And if the gig was on a Sunday, only a bottle of Jameson's Irish whiskey would do. And there's more. Absolute vodka had to be in the dressing room Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And some kind of gin was needed Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I wonder how many promoters didn't pay attention to this when Jane's Addiction was still together. They had their own needs for a rider. A 2001 rider insisted on two black stretch limos with tinted windows and a police escort. They were very particular about medical issues. The rider specified the need for a doctor with emergency privileges at the nearest hospital. Access to a throat specialist, access to a chiropractor, access to a masseuse if necessary. Any doctor on call should be given free tickets to the show. And at no time were any EMS people to be in or near any Jane's Addiction dressing room. And promoters needed to assure the band that anyone in the audience caught shining a laser pointing device at the stage would be arrested for assault. I get that. Contrast that with the Ramones. They wanted towels, freshly squeezed orange juice, a quart of fresh milk, two six packs of either Coke or Pepsi, some chocolate chip cookies, a tray of fruit, two large cheese pizzas delivered precisely 90 minutes before showtime and two bars of soap. The only alcohol request was a case of beer. Pretty wholesome for a punk band, right? And then we have Danzig. I don't know how serious they were about this, but here we go. They actually put this in writing. 10 attractive women between the ages of 18 and 24, well versed in politics, religion and sports, who live no further than a five dollar cab ride from the venue. Okay, and Queens of the Stone Age had a test in their rider amongst all the print the promoter was required to post a map of Ireland on the wall of the dressing room. If there was no map, what else did the promoter More weird, wacky and wonderful backstage writers Coming up.
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This episode is brought to you by Disney. This Thanksgiving, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are back on the big screen. So grab your family and friends as Disney invites you to return to Zootopia for the fur nominal movie event of the holiday season. See all your favorite Zootopia characters, plus new favorites in the most pawsome movie movie of the year. Don't miss Disney Zootopia 2 when it hits theaters everywhere November 26th. Get your tickets now. Shopping is hard, right? But I found a better way. Stitch Fix Online Personal styling makes it easy. I just give my stylist my size, style and budget preferences. I order boxes when I want and how I want, no subscription required. And he sends just for me pieces, plus outfit recommendations and styling tips. I keep what works and send back the rest. It's so easy. Make style easy. Get started today@stitchfix.com Spotify that's stitchfix.com Spotify.
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Today's topic is the Backstage Writer, those subsections of a performance contract that specify exactly what an artist needs when they roll into town to play a show. Let's go back in history just a bit. Chuck Berry, the father of rock and roll, was very particular in his requirements. First of all, he did not tour with a band. It's too expensive. Besides, he was Chuck Berry. Everybody in the world knew his songs, so that should mean that the promoter could easily find a local backup band for him. Didn't matter who. The local band had to be familiar with all of Chuck's songs and must include a drummer, a pianist, and one bass player. They had to be available at least three hours prior to showtime to rehearse. Although Chuck often showed up five minutes before the lights went down, and Chuck traveled only with his guitar, he also needed to be supplied with a very specific Fender amp. Chuck also demanded a brand new rented Mercedes S class only for the duration of his visit to the city, with all gas insurance and mileage paid. And in the days before, he ran into tax trouble with the IRS and his bookkeeping became a little more conventional. His performance fee had to be delivered in cash in a paper bag before the show. And if there was no bag full of money, there was no gig. Aretha Franklin had a similar clause in her rider. In addition to a spread of canapes and ginger ale, she demanded $25,000 in cash. This is in addition to her usual performance fee, and she had to have it before she went on stage. The cash was stashed in her purse, which she often put right on top of her piano in full view of everybody and so she could keep an eye on it. Little Richard was a little different at various times in his career. He was very religious. His writer specified that he be able to distribute, free of charge, souvenir books that summarized Little Richard's moral beliefs and Johnny Cash. Well, the man in black was a pretty simple dude. The one thing he would not skip on was an American flag that had to be displayed in full view of the audience. And you could have it all. My empire of dirt I will let you down. Okay, let's go back to something a little more contemporary. One of my favorite riders belonged to the late rockabilly punkabilly hero Mojo Nixon. He carried something called the Very Reasonable Rider to contract. And here are its requirements. One, be nice. Don't beat up rowdy fans unless absolutely necessary. Two, one case of Budweiser on ice. More beer if we need it. Sometimes we do. Three, dressing room with a bathroom or four pee jars. And finally, number four, a couple of guys or gals to help carry stuff to the stage and back again. That's it. That was the entire rider. Mojo died while performing on a cruise ship in early 2024. There were no provisions for that in the rider. What about Weezer? Well, dietary restrictions are a big thing with them. Vegetarian and organic food only, please. Soup or vegetarian chili are both good options. They want a specific type of sprouted whole grain bread. And woe to any performer who provides them with blueberry or black raspberry jam. It's just best to stick with strawberry. For Weezer. No shellfish, no peanuts. Apparently there are some who may risk going into anaphylactic shock. And Weezer loves their chocolate bars. However, they must be European with. And I'm not making this up. Made with at least 55% cacao. 70% is preferred. No Styrofoam Anywhere. Oh, and a quiet room needs to be set aside backstage for meditation. And Morrissey is an interesting case. Now, at first glance, he's pretty reasonable. Promoters usually find a clause that goes something like salt and vinegar chips, a bottle of red wine, corn flakes, Cocoa Puffs or Special K, a pint of milk, two green apples, a packet of cashews, cheese sandwiches and a cupcake. But there's more. With Morrissey, there's always more. If Morrissey is going to be a vegetarian, then everyone in the venue has to be a vegetarian for that night. No meat is to be sold or served at the venue. Meat is actually treated as a prohibited item. I actually spoke with someone who did backstage catering for a Morrissey gig and they confirmed this. No meat backstage or in the public areas. They were policed very, very strongly over that. And if Morrissey is playing a festival with other acts, his writer usually says something like this. The performer politely requests that where barbecued food meat is being prepared, that the Morrissey dressing rooms are situated away from any meat preparation and and not downwind to avoid the aroma of cooking meat directed toward the artist or band. And if you've ever been to a Morrissey show, you might see something like this on a ticket or somewhere else important. Please note, only vegan food options will be available for purchase for this event. Outside food containing meat, dairy or other animal products will not be permitted inside the venue. It's fun, isn't it?
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Every day feels like Sunday. Every day is silent and grave.
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Let's look back at the classic Stone Temple Pilots lineup. They needed two vegetarian and two vegan meals. There was a strict no drugs, no alcohol policy. That was because of Scott violence problems. I quote, at no time will alcoholic beverages be tolerated backstage except one six pack of Amstel Lite. Coldplay needs towels. Lots of them. At least 60 bath sized towels. So 15 towels per member. And please, no American beer ever. The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their history goes back to the early 1980s, so they've had lots of practice putting contract riders together. One of the first things they learned to ask for was new underwear. And this makes sense when you're on tour, especially when you're just starting out, you don't have a lot of time to stop to do laundry somewhere. So new underwear and new socks are a pretty common requirement. The Chili started making this request early, specifying that they needed button fly boxers. Coldplay used to ask for socks too. Today the Chili Peppers also want furniture. One recent writer required the following for the main band room. One or two full size sofas, a 9x12 area rug, a loveseat, a stuffed easy chair, five end tables, one coffee table, three floor lamps with dimmers, four table lamps, an eight foot dining table and four live tall trees or similar plants. Snacks had to include pitted dates, figs and raw unsalted cashews. There also had to be a meditation room and it had to be decorated with dark colors but not blue. Carpeted with another 9x12 rug, an armless fabric chair, one coffee table, two aromatherapy candles and bottled water. Oh, and not just any bottled water. It had to be sourced from either Hawaii Back in a sec to burn through more of my backstage list on concert riders. What other backstage concert riders have come into my possession? I have a good one from Iggy Pop and the Stooges tour. Here are some selected quotes. This goes on for a very long time so I've just picked out some highlights. Three Marshall VBA bass amplifiers. Please make sure they're good ones or we'll all end up as worm like web based life forms in the bass player's online literary diarrhea. Honestly, he's like sort of an Internet Boswell, except that without the gout and syphilis for all I know. Three JCM 800 single channel master volume Marshall amp heads, 100 watt that have been tested recently. And when I say recently, I don't mean sometime in the three weeks preceding the occasion when it fell three meters off the top shelf in the warehouse as we were forklifting it back up after it came back from that Insane Clown Posse gig where they had the piss on the live Marshall amplifier competition. If you make smoke and sparks come out and you're still alive afterwards, we'll give you a bottle of Miller Lite and a go at the band's skateboard. And some clown makeup. The sound it makes as it hits the concrete baddy o yoyo yoyo y bing how we laughed. No, I mean recently within a living memory, preferably that of a Goldfish. The actual model number of the amplifiers is 2203. There should be six knobs. That's six knobs which our guitar roadie Chris will personally count on arrival. And trust me, he's a very good counter. I once saw him count four dozen packets of guitar strings in what seemed to be the blink of an eye but was probably more like 20 seconds. I would say he is the closest thing that we have in our touring party to a mathematical genius, very good at sudoku and a genuinely pleasant chap to have around on the other hand, he does have some rather unfortunate ideas on the descent of. Of the panda. Where was I? Oh yes, six knobs. Did I mention this? Should be the number of knobs on each amplifier, so I think it would be 18 altogether. Anyway, Chris has got a calculator and the names of these knobs shall be War, Pestilence, Famine. Now what am I saying? I mean presence, bass, middle treble, pre and post game. And there should be two inputs, a high and a low, which I think refers to their impedance, not their geographical position. On an amplified. Please, no dual channel reverb heads. There should be no foot switch or even the need for one. Or you may find yourself looking down the barrel of a threatened species of bear with black and white fur eating bamboo. This goes on for pages and pages and then we get to the catering requirements. Again, I quote, dinner for Iggy and two other people should be available at the venue or at a local restaurant after the show. Local cuisine is acceptable, that is local food for local people. Or steak, chicken, endangered species including moths and anything really cute, snake, whale or nurse shark with the nurse on the side just in case. Well, we could get bitten, couldn't we? Cauliflower and broccoli cut into individual florets and then thrown immediately in the garbage. At loadout time when we're going to leave, we'd like to be supplied with two enormous pizzas, either to eat or to leave on the bus until we find a truck stop trash can with an entrance about 10 centimeters inches around. And then we desperately try to fold the enormous stiff pizza box so that it's small enough to go in, which it never is, so we leave it on the side with all the cold tomato puree and stringy cheese stuff dripping out the side. Here's something else. They specified someone dressed as Bob Hope doing fantastic Bob Hope impersonations and telling all those hilarious Bob Hope jokes about golf and Hollywood and Bing Crosby. Oh God, I wish I'd been alive in those days so that when Bob Hope could have come entertain me in some World War II hellhole before I went off and got shot. What joy they must have experienced. Or I guess this is in lieu of a Bob Hope impersonator. Seven dwarves dressed up as those dwarves out of that marvelous Walt Disney film about the woman who goes to sleep for a hundred years after biting a poisoned dwarf, or maybe after pricking her finger in a rather sharp apple or something. What was the name of that film? Was it Cinderella? Taller people are acceptable, of course. It's attitude more than height. That's important here. And don't forget the pointy hats. This just goes on and on and on. The Bare Naked Ladies used to ask for 20 pounds of bananas for some reason. Along with one good bottle of single malt Scotch, they also included this. The Barenaked Ladies and crew are very open minded, yet health conscious about their diets. We are open to your ideas. Turkey dinner? Sure. Thai or Indian? Absolutely. Japanese? You bet. Meatloaf, great ham and scalloped potatoes. Mmm. We just enjoy variation. So please don't offer chicken breast or vegetarian lasagna again. And then we have Duran Duran. They used to have a section in their writer entitled Wine and Champagne. This is like out of a cellar somewhere. Three bottles of excellent quality Italian red wine, Sassicassia Soleila or trigonello. Vintages between 1989 and 1997. Two bottles of excellent white wine, Corton Charlemagne. Preferred vintages 1996-1999-2001-2002, 2004. Two bottles of good quality champagne, Veuve Clicquot or Bollinger preferred. They also needed one bottle of Petron Silver Tequila with the warning, do not supply regular tequila. And then there's David Bowie. He wanted next to nothing. In the late stages of his touring career, all he asked for was a fruit bowl and that he required his dressing room to be kept at a temperature between 14 and 18 degrees Celsius. And finally, Beck, he had a reputation for being similarly undemanding. Two packs of rice crisps, a container of hummus and some bottled water and soft drinks. Before we end, let's talk about some non food and non booze requirements. When Peter Gabriel is on the road, he needs oxygen to be on standby. Specifically if he's performing in high altitude cities. He also needs a pre show massage. Nothing unusual about that. A lot of artists want that. It must be one hour. It must start exactly at 6:20pm and the masseuse must be a woman. I've heard that when the who was on tour, Pete Townshend liked to take a nap before the show. To facilitate that, a large queen or king bed with fine linens was to be supplied in a dressing room. When Prince played live, no crew members were allowed to talk to him or even look at him. People were actually fired for violating that rule. Other people will tell you that Prince was. No, no, no, no. He was a very nice, normal guy. I was also told, again second hand, that Bob Dylan used to be the same way. I can't confirm this, but the story I heard was that when he walked from the dressing room to the stage, everyone had to turn their back as he walked by. Pearl Jam Pretty easy going, although they have requested four cartons of Epsom salts for medical purposes and on one tour Blink 182 specified that they needed some DVDs to watch, a selection of current magazines dealing with fashion, home decor, cars and science, and at least one had to be, and I quote, an X rated lesbian theme magazine. Finally, Jack White. This goes back to food. Unlike the Barenaked ladies and their 20 pounds of bananas, Jack wants zero bananas. I quote from a 2014 writer. Please note, this is a no banana tour. Seriously, we don't want to see bananas anywhere in the building. The reasons are not specified, so this could be another one of those promoter tests. Jack's main requirement is fresh guacamole made with a very exacting recipe. All the ingredients are listed in the rider. The methods for which they should be combined are listed right there as well. And the avocados must not be mushed too much because we want it chunky. Like I said back at the beginning, touring is hard, so you can't begrudge performers their need for amenities, perks and the odd luxury backstage. If all you're seeing is the inside of a tour bus and a dressing room for months on end, you want a little pampering just to stay sane. I'll continue to collect dressing room riders as much as I can, and when I've got enough, maybe we'll do this again. Like I said, this is fun. It's always fascinating to pull back the curtain a little to see what happens backstage, right? There are hundreds of ongoing history shows available on demand as podcasts. And yes, I did say hundreds. They're all free. You can download them wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're there, grab a few episodes of Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. That's my Music Meets True Crime podcast. Let me know what you think of that one. We can connect on most of the social media networks. I'm always updating my website with music news and information. That's@ajournalofmusicalthings.com it comes with a free newsletter and you can also email me about anything. I'm available through AllenAllencross CA and yes, I will personally respond. Technical production is by Rob Johnston. I'm Alan Cross.