Everyone must have heard the story about Mariah Carey insisting on a bowl of solely blue M&Ms being provided in her dressing room before a show, but these contract “riders” as they are known are often exaggerated or distorted to the point where we don’t know what’s real and what’s an urban myth – it was actually Van Halen who insisted on all the brown M&Ms being removed back in 1982. Carey wanted 20 white kittens, but for once health and safety regulations proved useful and the organisers said no.
We Heart’s favourite quirky photographer Henry Hargeaves and chum Caitlin Levin have been documenting some of these requests for their Band Riders series, picking out unusual requests for Flemish still life style compositions which are at once attractive and provide a fascinating insight into the performers’ personality. Axl Rose didn’t strike me as a Dom Perignon kind of chap, for a start, and Britney – bless her – needs to start demanding salads. For while these images, like the old paintings whose style they imitate, will live on – performers with bad diets won’t.
