Credit: Found On Internet

DEMAND MORE

Imagine you have the Rockstar lifestyle you act out in your bedroom. World travel, sell out stadia tours, groupies begging for your attention, the world on a stick. You can ask for anything while the world is at your feet right? Be a demanding diva, get flunkies to bend to your whim…so what’s on your rider?

 The Rider document, an agreement that can be your pass key to luxury or indeed the meal ticket that might ensure you don’t entirely starve to death whilst touring. It’s an important part of being in a band and plays a great role in music history.

Sparkling with insider knowledge, the website The Smoking Gun is the portal to the demands of the rich, the powerful and the barking. It is also the font of knowledge where you may sadly find out that rock’s finest can also be sticklers for the right brand of filtered water. Not as wild as you thought huh?

Red Hot Chilli Peppers “ … Meditation Room...”

But where to start when you are on the road and wonder if you can get a free beer or a free pink limo? Guy Fowler is a musician in Bristol with The Mighty Jungulator. He’s been on and off the road with different bands of varying success in the past. He says the rider is an important document, “You need to draw up your rider really early – this doesn’t mean you will get any of it – but you have an idea of what you think you want. As you go along your priorities change. Maybe to start you are impressed with a crate of beer – but then you see so much beer, you can’t take any more and then you get more specific. Beware if you are the only one who orders a bottle of vodka though – everyone else will drink it.” So practice makes perfect when trying to get what you want, not only from a venue but maybe from your band mates too.

Foo Fighters “… Artist shall not be required to share dressing room with any other performer, except, Supergrass, Oasis or maybe Led Zepplin…”