First condoms–then socks and underwear. When the band Danger Danger asked for dozens of condoms as part of its contract for performing in Albany, Bob Girouard, concert coordinator for the city of Albany, thought he had encountered the oddest perk ever to exasperate his life.
And then Belly came to town. The alternative group, which had appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in the weeks before performing at the 1995 Tulip Festival, bested Danger Danger’s daffy demand by informing Girouard that band members would require new pairs of socks and underwear after the show.
“Apparently they didn’t have time to wash their own. But we said no on that one,” says Girouard. “They can worry about their own laundry. Their hygiene really isn’t our problem.”
By now, everyone has heard stories about the comical, absurd and indulgent demands made by performers in exchange for putting on a show: specific foods, certain brands of bottled water, certain brands of other bottled liquids more potent than water. And, yes, M&Ms separated by color.
Most traveling performers want only to be fed well, and are firm but amiable about their demands. There are, however, those notorious ones–usually newly successful–who want and get special treatment. And it’s a promoter’s job to try to prevent a snit by a volatile pop star who might then refuse to perform. The acts, after all, do pay for whatever they order.
“They always want Dom Perignon (champagne), but they can never spell it,” jokes Bob Goepfert, executive director of Albany’s Palace Theatre. While bands ask for beer and other booze, alcohol nowadays is more complement than mainstay, according to local caterers and promoters.
Top of the new lists: Bottled water. Fresh fruits and vegetables. Products available only in health food stores.
Accompanying a contract listing the legal and financial details of a band’s show at a given venue is a document called a “rider,” which lays out non-performance demands, including food and beverage requirements.
Pat Benatar’s rider, for example, for her July 29 performance at New York state’s Saratoga Performing Arts Center spelled out exactly how much food and drink was needed, according to those familiar with the catering.
Backstage: half a case of Coors Light beer, half a case of “good local beer” (Sam Adams was used), six bottles each of Snapple iced tea and Snapple lemonade, two one-liter bottles of cranberry juice and two bottles of red wine (pinot noir was provided). The eats: Benatar and band asked for bagels, cream cheese, fresh fruit and vegetable platters, and chips and salsa.
After the show, the Benatar entourage (which included two nannies to take care of her two children) requested freshly baked bread, numerous portions of vegetarian soup, six large pizzas (two apiece of cheese, pepperoni and sausage) and soda and beer for 60 to 100 people. Last on the list: three to-go dinners for the truck drivers.
The blue M&Ms will cost you
Most riders are equally specific, said Angelo Mazzone, owner of Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia, N.Y., whose catering business supplies the Hall of Springs restaurant and all backstage food at the performing arts center.
“They’re very specific about what they want, because they’re on the road, traveling, for so long. They know how they want things, and we try to provide them,” Mazzone says.
But not always. “Sometimes you have to play hardball with them,” Mazzone says. Earlier this summer, one band–Mazzone couldn’t remember which–wanted two bowls of M&Ms: one with assorted colors, one containing only blue candies.
“I told them if they wanted a bowl of M&Ms, it would be $3,” Mazzone says. “If they wanted the blue ones separated, it would be $50. . . . They took the $3 bowl.”
Strange demands
Other caterers, promoters and theater managers remember similar silly scenarios.
At Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady, N.Y., dancer-actor Gregory Hines demanded a black stretch limousine. “Nothing less than a limousine, and only black. Not white, not dark blue. Black,” says Fred Daniels, general manager of the theater. Also at Proctor’s, Loretta Swit wanted (and got) organic cat litter for the feline companions traveling with her.
And when magician David Copperfield goes from his dressing room to the stage, his contract warns, no one is allowed to look at him. “So everyone had to turn their backs,” Daniels says.
John Piccolo catered backstage at the performing arts center for 14 years before being outbid this season by Mazzone. Piccolo, who continues to cater at many area venues and presently works as catering supervisor at Mallozzi’s Restaurant in Rotterdam, N.Y., says rider demands are sometimes surprisingly modest. Frank Sinatra wanted chicken salad, for example, before he performed at the opening of the Knickerbocker Arena in January 1990.
“We thought, `Oh, it’s Sinatra, he’s going to be temperamental,’ ” says Piccolo. “But he had chicken salad.”
An unassuming Pete Seeger
And then there’s Pete Seeger. No, the legendary folk singer doesn’t require theaters to provide him with 1962 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild or sturgeon eggs. Seeger is so laid-back, in fact, that he once showed up for a concert at the Troy (N.Y.) Savings Bank Music Hall without a way to get back home.
A flood had washed out the road leading to Seeger’s house in rural Beacon, a small community in downstate New York. He was scheduled to perform at the Music Hall with the South Dutchess Youth Choir, and he hitched a ride to Troy in the vans carrying the youngsters. Seeger opened the concert, the choir performed a middle set and went home, and Seeger closed the show.
“There were four of us left in the theater, standing around at midnight, and (Seeger) said he didn’t have a way to get home,” says Peter Lesser, managing director of the Music Hall. “He wasn’t worried about it. . . . You hear about all of these bands wanting certain things–some care more about their beer than they do about their microphones–and here’s Pete Seeger with no way to get home, and all he says is, `Well, we do need to address this, don’t we?’ “
