What a band rider is and the demands British stars make

A rider is the list of requirements an artist sends a venue before a show. For British stars it can be touchingly modest (Ed Sheeran asks for a jar of honey) or legendarily strange (Van Halen's contract demanded "not a single brown M&M"). But behind the quirks there is usually not a whim but cold calculation — and even safety. Here is what a rider is, what goes into one, and what demands the most famous British acts have made.

What a rider is and what it contains

A rider is an annex to the concert contract, and it comes in two parts. The technical rider covers everything without which the show simply cannot happen: a stage of the right size and strength, sound, lighting, power, the number of microphones and monitors, and the stage plot of where each musician stands. The hospitality rider covers dressing rooms, food and drink, towels, parking, and how many hot meals to cook for the crew. For a big tour this runs to dozens of pages, with every detail set out in advance so there are no surprises on the day.

Brown M&Ms: why riders contain strange clauses

The most famous line in rider history belongs to the American band Van Halen: backstage they demanded a bowl of M&Ms with "ABSOLUTELY no brown ones". For years this was taken as pure rock-star whim. In fact, as singer David Lee Roth later explained, the clause was buried in the middle of the technical rider, among the demands about wiring and stage loading. If the band found brown sweets backstage, it was a signal that the venue had not read the technical requirements carefully — and might therefore have missed something dangerous, such as an overloaded stage. The whole technical set-up would then be rechecked. On one occasion a stage really did sink through the floor. The odd clause turned out to be a test of attention.

British stars: from a jar of honey to a snooker table

British riders can be surprisingly homely. At Glastonbury in 2017, Ed Sheeran asked for next to nothing: Robinsons squash, some fizzy drinks and a jar of Manuka honey — and not a word about equipment. The Rolling Stones have toured with a snooker table and satellite TV to follow the cricket, ordered shepherd's pie with HP sauce, and named their dressing rooms their own way: Jagger's "Workout", Richards's "Camp X-Ray". Iron Maiden went furthest of all: the band flies its own chartered Boeing 747 nicknamed Ed Force One, and on the 2016 tour the man at the controls was singer Bruce Dickinson himself — a qualified airline pilot.

What it looks like for ordinary bands

Between a jar of honey and a private jumbo jet are the thousands of ordinary bands playing British pubs, clubs and corporate parties. Their rider is more often a single page: the right PA and monitors, enough power sockets, a parking space by the door, a hot meal for four or five musicians, water and towels on stage. Nothing starry — just so the night runs without a hitch. And that is the whole point of a rider: not about whims, but about making sure the show happens.