Driving Rain Tour Rider

[JoJo]

From The Smoking Gun:

www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/mccartney/mccartney1.html

Paul McCartney is "very fond of flowers," won't travel in a stretch limousine with leather seats, and will not stand for backstage furniture made of any animal skin or print (even if it's of the artificial variety). Those are just a few of the unique provisions contained in the ex-Beatle's concert rider for his 2002 World Tour, excerpts from which you'll find below. McCartney also provides promoters with an amusing list of plant demands, one that concludes with this underlined admonition: "No trees please! We want plants that are just as full on the bottom as the top such as palm, bamboo, peace lilies, etc. No tree trunks!" And, of course, the rider requires a pre-show sweep by some bomb-sniffing dogs and it contains the expected vegan salvo: "There will be no meat, or meat by-products allowed to be served in the dressing rooms, production offices, or areas within the 'backstage area.'" But it turns out Paul's backstage demand for 24 bars of Ivory Soap is a major vegan no-no, since the 99.44% pure soap actually contains animal fats, according to Ivory¹s web site. So, while Paul won't sit on leather, the Liverpudlian is apparently lathering with beef tallow. (12 pages)

I dunno, it's not fair to categorize this as the demands of a total pain in the ass without knowing what is typical for other performers, but wow.. The way it's so specific, right down to the right color for the folding chairs.

[B]

Reading that I wonder how much was actually "demanded" by Faul, and how much was
demanded by people who worked for him.
"There will be no meat, or meat by-products allowed to be served in the dressing rooms,
production offices, or areas within the 'backstage area."
Sounds like the utterance of an underling from 'management'. As if to say: "We don't wish for our
meal ticket to have to be exposed to things he doesn't like."
"It could be made into a monster if we all pull together as a team."[/color]

[-Wings-]

Actually, it's a common practice to include an outrageous demand just to see if they're paying attention to your more reasonable requests. The tree thing would be just that; an easy way of telling if they actually read over the contract.

[jarvitronics]

Mar 30, 2009 20:09:48 GMT -5 JoJo said:

From The Smoking Gun:

www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/mccartney/mccartney1.html

Paul McCartney is "very fond of flowers," won't travel in a stretch limousine with leather seats, and will not stand for backstage furniture made of any animal skin or print (even if it's of the artificial variety). Those are just a few of the unique provisions contained in the ex-Beatle's concert rider for his 2002 World Tour, excerpts from which you'll find below. McCartney also provides promoters with an amusing list of plant demands, one that concludes with this underlined admonition: "No trees please! We want plants that are just as full on the bottom as the top such as palm, bamboo, peace lilies, etc. No tree trunks!" And, of course, the rider requires a pre-show sweep by some bomb-sniffing dogs and it contains the expected vegan salvo: "There will be no meat, or meat by-products allowed to be served in the dressing rooms, production offices, or areas within the 'backstage area.'" But it turns out Paul's backstage demand for 24 bars of Ivory Soap is a major vegan no-no, since the 99.44% pure soap actually contains animal fats, according to Ivory¹s web site. So, while Paul won't sit on leather, the Liverpudlian is apparently lathering with beef tallow. (12 pages)

I dunno, it's not fair to categorize this as the demands of a total pain in the ass without knowing what is typical for other performers, but wow.. The way it's so specific, right down to the right color for the folding chairs.

Ivory.

Even the name is non-vegan.

24 bars? Why so much damn soap?

-j

[iameye]

He likes to keep his fire engine clean,
It's a clean machine.

[JoJo]

Apr 1, 2009 3:58:39 GMT -5 -Wings- said:

Actually, it's a common practice to include an outrageous demand just to see if they're paying attention to your more reasonable requests. The tree thing would be just that; an easy way of telling if they actually read over the contract.

Heard Van Halen does that. Probably a lot of what LB/SZ said as well, his "people" have added an item here and there over time, and it just grew. This would be possible for example at a venue like Madison Square Garden, but I guess he must have had to slum it a bit when he played at that record store.