Van Halen and contractual integrity Aug 5 2011
http://jimcofer.com/personal/?p=621
Fantastically interesting article about the rather strange contractual stipulation that the rock group Van Halen put in the contracts for their gigs back during their big tours in the 80s. With exceedingly complex stage setups, the group wanted to be sure that their extensive contracts were being followed to the letter, so that the shows would go ahead without any technical glitches. What better way to do that than to insert an asinine, arbitrary clause into the middle of an otherwise dull contract, and see if it was carried out or not? The following, taken from the article by Jim Cofer, outlines how it worked:
In case you weren’t around during the 80s, the rock supergroup Van Halen had a clause in their concert contracts that stipulated that the band would “be provided with one large bowl of M&M candies, with all brown candies removed”.
Here’s the thing, though: the band put the “no brown M&Ms” clause in their contracts for a very good reason.
The band needed a way to know that their contract had been read fully. And this is where the “no brown M&Ms” came in. The band put a clause smack dab in the middle of the technical jargon of other riders: “Article 126: There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation”. That way, the band could simply enter the arena and look for a bowl of M&Ms in the backstage area. No brown M&Ms? Someone read the contract fully, so there were probably no major mistakes with the equipment. A bowl of M&Ms with the brown candies? No bowl of M&Ms at all? Stop everyone and check every single thing, because someone didn’t bother to read the contract.
What a brilliant idea, putting in something that doesn’t particularly involve a lot of work or added cost, but that does verify the attention to detail of the people they were working with, to ensure that their end product (the stage shows) were as awesome as they wanted them to be. Great thinking.