"Van Halen Clause"

[LowNloud1]

My band landed a gig at premiere venue in October.

We received their contract and it has something I had never seen. My lead singer called it a "Van Halen Clause".

The story goes that Van Halen, in order to assure you read the entire contract, put in the final clause that you had to deliver a bag of M&M's to their sound guy with all the brown M&M's removed or something like that.

In our case, they've asked us to supply one of 3 choices of candy to their sound guy.

Never seen that before!

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Interesting....

Van Halen Contract Required No Brown M&Ms?



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[elgecko]

What were the candy choices?

 

[SirMjac28]

Last thing I would want is someone digging their filthy hands through a bag of M&Ms then giving it to me. I would deliver all three choices of candy.

 

[kjones]

Interesting, but slightly disappointing thread.

I was hoping this was a dude who went from house to house on Christmas Eve giving out guitars.

Weren't they both Dutch?

 

[PortlandBass77]

Someone needs to open a venue and book bands with a contract that has a 'Carrot' Clause....

 

[LowNloud1]

What were the candy choices?

They ask for "1 small bag of Peanut M&M's OR 1 Grape/Cherry BlowPop OR 1 pack of Juicy Fruit Gum for the Sound Engineer and present it to him upon his arrival at 9 p.m. This will assure you have read this entire Advance Sheet, plus he really likes candy."

 

[petrus61]

Happy sound man = happy band

 

[ASQTec]

Mmmmmm...M&Ms.

 

[Duder]

Always butter up the sound guy

 

[Renaissance]

Sounds like a pay to play scheme to me!

 

[richntiff]

Van Halen put that clause in their contracts to make sure venues were actually reading the contract - so the story goes....

 

[80jazz]

Van Halen put that clause in their contracts to make sure venues were actually reading the contract - so the story goes....

I *thought* DLR said something about this happening starting in 1980 due to the weight of their touring staging. At a stop in Pueblo, Colorado their staging sank into the nice new floor the university had just installed (the gig was at the then University of Southern Colorado). IIRC, the band was not held liable for that happening.

As some said earlier, I believe it was done so the contract was read in its entirety. The times it did not happen resulted in finding problems during a line check.

I believe DLR mentioned all of this is an autobiography or a book someone wrote about him.

 

[wintremute]

They ask for "1 small bag of Peanut M&M's OR 1 Grape/Cherry BlowPop OR 1 pack of Juicy Fruit Gum for the Sound Engineer and present it to him upon his arrival at 9 p.m. This will assure you have read this entire Advance Sheet, plus he really likes candy."

Step 1: Bring all of the candy, but keep it hidden.
Step 2: When he shows up at 9pm, don't mention the candy.
Step 3: Around 9:10 pm, everyone start eating the candy/chewing the gum in front of him.

 

[Chris 'Wighat' Jordan]

I thought The Van Halen Clause was "the only reason we're letting you be our singer is because you have a P.A."

 

[Spent]

Van Halen put that clause in their contracts to make sure venues were actually reading the contract - so the story goes....

That's my understanding as well. I've spoken to people who've done the same.

 

[gln1955]

I wouldn't trust a sound guy who's short list of favorite candy includes a Blow Pop.

 

[Wavy]

I wouldn't trust a sound guy who's short list of favorite candy includes a Blow Pop.

Homophobe

 

[Jack Butler]

I wouldn't trust a sound guy who's short list of favorite candy includes a Blow Pop.

Those things are tasty though...

 

[two fingers]

Interesting, but slightly disappointing thread.

I was hoping this was a dude who went from house to house on Christmas Eve giving out guitars.

Weren't they both Dutch?