Strings attached: Band food and drink requests range from ordinary to, well, unusual

In 1982, the band Van Halen made a request now legendary in the annals of rock history. On page 40 of the 53-page contract rider for its world tour, the band demanded the following items be present in dressing rooms: "M & M's (Warning: Absolutely no brown ones)."

Contract riders are standard in the concert industry -- a list of requests and demands that musicians make when they agree to perform at a venue. Promoters are generally responsible for complying with the requests, which usually include specific food, drinks, accommodations and other sundries.

It comes down to a simple question: "How happy do you want to make the artist?" says Teri Orr, executive director of the Park City Performing Arts Foundation. Happy

artists, with everything they demanded waiting for them in their dressing rooms, are more likely to give a good concert.

"Imagine being in an unfamiliar place every day," says Chris Mautz, who books concerts at Salt Lake City's Red Butte Garden and The State Room. If an artist can expect to see the same comforts in dressing rooms throughout a tour, the artist is likely to be more comfortable.

But just as some of us like only primary-colored M&M's, different musicians have different requests.

Orr said when Bill Cosby performed in Park City, he requested, among other things, a crystal ashtray and a satellite-TV hook-up -- for his dressing room.

Jenny Knaak, artist liaison for the foundation, shops for the artists' requests. Once she was stumped trying to find Orangina, a French carbonated citrus beverage, requested by Kevin Bacon when he performed a Park City concert with his band, the Bacon Brothers.

"As long as you're trying to please [artists], they're OK," Knaak said. Most artists understand limitations; for example, many performers request Poland Springs bottled water, which Knaak said is generally available only on the East Coast.

Other items Knaak and Orr have been demanded

to supply are: five pairs of fake eyelashes made by five designers; Newman's Own medium-spiced salsa (not hot, not mild); Evian, or specifically not Evian; exclusively white flowers; gluten-free or no-carb food and drinks; an Olympic-size trampoline; certain kinds of barbecue sauce; air-popped popcorn with no butter or salt; and, in one of the more unusual requests, "hip gay magazines," Knaak said -- "as opposed to frumpy gay magazines," she mused. (She notes that she was able to buy the magazines at the local Rite Aid.)

At Kingsbury Hall, event coordinator Robin Wilks-Dunn said one act had a specific list of 10 hot sauces that needed to be provided -- including the demand for no Tabasco. For another concert, which ended up not

happening at Kingsbury, the artists requested a 12-pack of Magnum condoms, several types of lotion and 5 gallons of alcohol. In yet another contract rider, an artist requested that the hotel where he was staying have all of the television sets removed, because he didn't want to be exposed to "extraneous electromagnetic radiation waves," Wilks-Dunn said.

Some demands can't be met, and Orr tells the artists' representatives so at contract-signing time. The Park City Performing Arts Foundation sponsors many events at the Eccles Center, on the grounds of Park City High School. Alcohol is not allowed there or on the dry campus of the University of Utah (where Kingsbury Hall is).

In addition to offbeat requests, many artists are making more environmentally friendly requests, such as only using bottles and containers that can be recycled, Mautz said.

In the end, sometimes the performer has so many demands that the cost inevitably gets passed down to the ticket-buyer. But if you're paying plenty of money to see Kevin Bacon perform, wouldn't you want him to have plenty of Orangina? If the artist is happy and hydrated and thus performs well, the fans should be happy.