Not reading riders....!

[paulears]

It didn't mention in the rider that the band hate the lead singer, and between each song they'd argue about what came next. In the end the drummer screwed up the set list and threw it at the singer!

[TonyMitchell]

It is good practice to have a reasonable rider with acceptable alternatives but some acts get silly and demand the impossible.

 

indeed. Regarding the silly requests, such as a pair of H3Ks or PM5Ds and Vertec hangs for a 350 capacity venue, googling blocks of specific text in quotations usually reveals they're simply copied from a known act's arena tour. Probably from when the band were first asked for a rider, it being an easier option to copy another kid's homework, blissfully clueless as to what it all means.

 

But coming back to the issue highlighted by the OP, carrying no drum mics seems very peculiar.

[kerry davies]

Never done Mark E Smith, then Paul? He sacked his keyboard player at a gig in the middle of a set. She was his wife.

 

I remember the Kinks in Cardiff in the sixties when Mick Avory and Dave Davies tried to kill each other with cymbal stands.

Known today as "a right Paiste-ing".

 

We travelled 40 miles, saw one song and a load of blood, had a Wimpey and went home. Great days indeed.

[BigYinUK]

I may actually update our rider slightly as we do now tour with all the mics, stands and DIs that we need. I had left our mic requirements list on the rider in the vain hope that some of the venues might have some nicer mics like the Audix's etc, ours are all SM58s and a drum mic kit from Shure plus a D112 and SM57 for the snare etc :)

 

The main aim of our rider is to ensure that we do actually find a PA at the venue, and with enough channels etc.

 

Nowadays we do usually take our own engineer with us although we're off to Scotland today to do 3 dates up there and are having to rely on house engineers as our guy can't come with us unfortunately.

 

I've too seem some bad behavior from bands over the years as it goes ** laughs out loud **

[johnny-t-goode]

Ahhh riders, in my experience an imaginative piece of fiction :-)

 

There is a tribute band of a well known USA band I've worked with twice now, excellent musicians and put on a good show, last time they played the rider said that they needed nothing from the venue except PA, dressing rooms and somewhere to sell merchandise. As a result I was single crew as a babysitter, they turned up expecting drum and keyboard risers, emptied our sound cupboard, expected me to plot an elaborate lx show and used the projector, wanted power to the tour bus overnight, a place to park it, bitched that the sound desk wasn't in the auditorium waiting for them, and then lack of crew.... was a busy day! (Previous visit they asked for four engineers and were self sufficient...)

 

Also had a touring band ask for monitor engineer, then when advised of a re-charge, management saying scrap that only for the band to turn up asking who is running monitors side of stage, and refusing to set up until they had one, wasn't until the manager arrived and confirmed he'd scrapped it did they set up.

 

Another rider stating that artist required several different varieties of tea/coffee inc. decaffeinated and chilled sparkled water, on arrival artist informs me he doesn't drink tea/coffee and likes his water room temperature, still though, not sparkled....

 

And on and on it goes. Given the inconsistencies in the riders, we would read them and then confirm directly with the artist if possible or at least have changes confirmed via e-mail from management, even so I've lost count of the times the first hour was spent 'discussing' what should and shouldn't be present. I think the worst was a show that came in and wanted the lx completely re-rigged as the plan we'd pre-rigged was 2 years out of date it seemed... boss was not a happy man that day :-)

[top-cat]

It is good practice to have a reasonable rider with acceptable alternatives but some acts get silly and demand the impossible

 

One 'long in the tooth' tour manager once explained to me that he frequently supplies riders that he knows are impossible to fill. He'll demand various things he doesn't need or things that are well above the standard needed, and then when the venue says 'we can't do that", he'll negotiate it down to whatever they can provide, which is what he would have spec'd in the first place anyway. His logic was that by doing so, it sort of puts the venue on the back foot to begin with, and they are in his debt because he's had to do some side stepping and some juggling to absorb their inability to fulfil a rider.

 

Also from a contractual side he reckoned it could be useful, where the rider formed a part of the contract, he reckoned that the venue being unable to supply the rider - which he knew they would - was a breach of contract and therefore gave him a bit of / bit more ammunition in the event of a dispute.

 

Would be interesting to know if his logic actually worked or whether it was all just a hypothesis.

 

Never done Mark E Smith, then Paul? He sacked his keyboard player at a gig in the middle of a set. She was his wife.

 

To be fair, Kerry - I've seen that band a few times (The Fall, is it?) and the drum/bass/guitar element seems reasonably musical. Unfortunately they seem to be joined on stage by an ongoing domestic dispute.

 

I would say with experience that British weather is more predictable than Mark E Smith on gig night.

 

 

Another rider stating that artist required several different varieties of tea/coffee inc. decaffeinated and chilled sparkled water, on arrival artist informs me he doesn't drink tea/coffee and likes his water room temperature, still though, not sparkled....

 

My favourite artist liaison lady is good about this. She prints out the relevant pages of the rider, and sticks them to the wall of the dressing room above the food & drink tables, with annotations. IE

 

24x 330ml bottles of premium lager - provided 24x 330ml Peroni

2x large bags premium brand crisps - provided 2x large bags kettle chips

etc etc - so that the the artist can visibly see that what they have asked for has been provided. Thus any discrepancies between what they actually want and what they've got, are purely internal and nothing to do with the venue / promoter.