jamie goode's wine blog: Wine in band riders

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Wine in band riders

I've been doing some fun research on band riders, looking for the sorts of requests they make when it comes to wine.

A word of explanation: band 'riders' are the bit of the contract that performers make with venues that detail their requirements in terms of dressing rooms, catering and the like. They're often really amusing - some stars are a little anal about what they require. These riders are usually confidential, but website http://www.thesmokinggun.com/ has excerpts from a few hundred that it's managed to obtain.

I checked some of them and found the following wine requirements:

Van Halen (1982)
Not very sophisticated tastes: just two bottles of Blue Nun white wine

However, by 2008, Eddie Van Halen asks that his stage cooler contains four mini bottles of Gallo Twin Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Foo Fighters (2008)
Simply request three bottles of quality red wine (Merlot, Cabernet etc) and three bottles of quality white wine

U2 (1992)
Bono has a reputation of being a bit of a wine nut. Obviously, back in 1992 his management weren't aware of this. U2 asked for:

Moet Champagne
3 very good French Chardonnays
3 very good Bordeauxs (sic)
2 Mouton Cadet red wines
2 Jacob’s Creek or Black Opal Australian white wine
1 medium quality Port or sherry e.g. Sandimint (!!!sic)

Elton John
Knows his wines, even if there's a bit of a problem here with the spelling.

1 bottle excellent quality white wine Sancerre or similar
2 bottles excellent quality Bordeaux
Band room (as spelt on the rider):
Pouilly Fuisse, Chablis Meursault, Chassagne Montrachet
French Bordeaux, Chateaunuef du Pape, Chevrey Chamratain, Pommard, Eshaseaux Margaux

Bon Jovi
Two bottles of Mouton Cadet again. Why is this so popular with rockers?

Coldplay, 2003
Two bottles of cold white wine, NOT Chardonnay
Two bottles of red wine

Added later: As Thor comments below, by far the best is Diana Krall's rider, which is totally hilarious and includes an amazing wine list here

4 Comments:

At 3:51 PM, Anonymous Ben Smith said...

When I used to play in bands in the early 90's, the rider was nearly always some variation on:
1 bottle Jack Daniels, 1 bottle coke, 48 cans Red Stripe. The dodgy gigs were the ones where mosts of the rider was gone before we went on stage! Certainly didn't get any esherzow - more's the pity!

 
At 6:35 PM, Blogger Fiona Beckett said...

Surprised there was no Cristal!

 
At 7:03 PM, Blogger Vinogirl said...

No Chard...that's good.

Fiona...Cristal only for those whom aspire to good taste.

 
At 8:10 PM, Blogger thor iverson said...

If you want some fun, look up Diana Krall's rider.

 

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