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50 Years Of Rock Excess - The M & M's Story ...

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andy-hughes | 14:46 Tue 03rd Dec 2013 | Film, Media & TV
15 Answers
Watched 50 Year Of Rock Excess on Channel 4, and ended up shouting at the telly - again!

Jimmy Crespo (I think) original guitarist with Aerosmith attributed the story about bands having bowls of M & M's with certain colours taken out, to Joe Perry's first wife - using it as an example of the stupidity of excessive demands by pampered rock stars.

The real M & M's story has a real point to it -

Van Halen were one of the first bands to mount stadium shows outside the U.S. and Europe, and encountered dodgy voltages, and stages that were not built safely - they were also one of the first bands to have a 'rider' - an advance list of requirments for the band so -

towards the end of the technical specifications list was a requirement that the band had a bowl of M & M's in the dressing room with all the brown ones removed.

That meant than when the band arrived, they could see at a glance if their technical specs. list had been read and completed - if the brown M & M's were in the bowl, they would instantly check everything for safety completion before they played the gig.

So - a silly story about a guitarist's wife is wrong - a serious point about safety is overlooked.

Apart from that, it was a seriously tame tale - how many times do they need to wheel Pamela Des Barres out to tell us that Jimmy Page carried whips in his luggage.

And Richard Cole. Zep's tour manager to (not) tell us about the red snapper.

That's apocryphal too - it was Vanilla Fudge who did the nasty with the fish, Bonham was in one of their rooms at the time, and the story has been attributed to Zepelin ever since.

Tell the truth, or keep quiet!
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how do you know "your" version is more correct than "his" version? were you there?
Question Author
No - but Wikipedia supports my version.
lol but YOU could have written the wiki entry :)
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LOL - no, I don't write for free!!!!
Well, it gave you something to do for 10 mins or so Andy.
Question Author
If you mean writing my OP - that took about ninety seconds - if I took ten minutes to write something as short as that I'd never make a deadline!
so what's all this about the whips and the red snapper then?
and the demand that the bananas must be whole...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/van-halen-1982-backstage-rider?page=8

Note that Wikipedia says the M&M business was in the technical portion of the contract. This appears to be incorrect; it's just in with the food.
bugger the M&Ms...
Question Author
humbersloop -

The whips - Jimmy Page, like all of Zepelin, was a playboy back in the day, and Pamela Barres who was a famous groupie back then, and Page's on / off girlfriend, tells that he carried a selection of whips in his suitcases, and used them on willing young ladies when the mood took him.

The red snapper - Zeppelin, along with Vanilla Fudge, another rock band, were staying in an American waterfront hotel, which offered guests fishing gear and let them fish out of their hotel windows into the water. V. Fudge were entertaining a groupie with red hair, and someone fished a red snapper fish out of the water. Someone had the idea of 'introducing' a red snapper fish into a young lady (probably much hilarity about her 'red snapper', but hey, these are bored rock stars, what can you say?) and because Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was there, the story grew that it was Bonham and a mud shark. The fish breed has been corrected, but not the band involved, Zeppelin were the bigger band, they got the 'kudos' for the story.
ah, thanks Andy, probably all for the best nobody had got round to Instagram at that point- though I do remember that film about Cynthia Plastercaster. I wasn't expecting that as a support feature to Woodstock and I don't think the local Odeon manager was either

must say jno , sixty fags between them really doesn't seem very rawkanroll on Van Halen's part
depends who was going to smoke them, and with what body part, I expect, humbersloop
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humbersloop - from my experience, musicians seem to make one cigarette go a long way - they all seem to like sharing the same one!!!
yeeuw andy, you could get germs from that ;)
Question Author
humbersloop - have you ever seen the inside of a tour bus?

Believe me, getting germs from a shared cigarette is way down on the list of potential health hazards generated by sharing bus with seven or eight band members and crew day and night for months on end!!!

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