The most outrageous demand a band has ever made

A FAMOUS band had one very specific demand when they went on tour in Australia. It was absolutely ridiculous, but it was also a deal breaker.

IT’S the most ridiculous request a band has ever made on their rider in Australia.

According to promoter and writer Stuart Coupe, when Fleetwood Mac toured the country in the 1980s they requested one item in particular which they considered to be a deal breaker: if it wasn’t supplied, they wouldn’t perform.

“For their gin and tonics, Fleetwood Mac requested a specific type of lime,” said Coupe.

“But that particular type of lime was actually not allowed in Australia. So Michael Chugg, who was the promoter, actually had to clandestinely fly in from overseas these goddamn limes for Fleetwood Mac’s gin and tonics.”

After writing two books, The Promoters: Inside stories from the Australian rock industry and the recently released Gudinski: The Godfather of Australian Rock, Coupe has plenty of other amazing tales from his life in music.

Here are some of his favourites which he shared with news.com.au:

How Molly Meldrum ruined Elton John’s party:

“It was back in the 1980s and as was fairly common in those days, major record labels seemed to have a thing for boat cruises,” said Coupe.

“They would take the artist and the management and a bunch of media and key record label staff out on harbour cruises which were incredibly tedious, because if it wasn’t fun you couldn’t get off for hours.

“In this particular instance with Elton John, Molly Meldrum was running late. The boat had left and was somewhere out on Sydney Harbour. Molly, without thinking about the implications of what he was about to do, thought that the best way for him to join Elton on the boat was to get the water police to help take him out to the boat where he would jump on board.”

It sounds like a good plan right? But it actually resulted in Molly being the most unpopular person at the party when he arrived.

“Molly was blissfully unaware that everybody on board that boat, who may or may not have been hoovering huge amounts of cocaine and other drugs, saw the police boat heading towards them at a rapid rate and immediately got rid of the pharmaceuticals they had, either by flushing them down the loo or throwing it overboard,” said Coupe.

“When Molly climbed aboard he was somewhat surprised that he wasn’t greeted with a warm hug, because it was obviously going to be a fairly dull next few hours on the harbour.”

Elton John and Molly Meldrum catch up on Countdown in 1984.

The Rolling Stones tour that cost a promoter big bucks:

In 1995 Paul Dainty was the promoter for the Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge tour in Australia and according to Couple, “He did a fantastic job”.

Dainty managed to sell 98 per cent of the tickets for the tour, which you’d think would have left him with a tidy little profit.

Apparently not.

“He still managed to lose over $2 million,” said Coupe.

“The Rolling Stones to this day are notorious for being the toughest negotiators in the business. It’s understood by promoters right around the world that you don’t tour the Stones so you can buy a new house or car. You’re doing it for the prestige.

“Michael Gudinski, who toured the Rolling Stones in 2014, once said to me, ‘With the Stones you never assume that you will make money. All you try to do is minimise how much you will lose.’

“Having said that, Michael Gudinski does insist that Frontier didn’t lose money on the Stones’ 2014 tour. Someone claimed to me, and I’m not sure if it’s true, but they claim to know that Frontier did make a profit ... of seven cents.”

The man who took on The Rolling Stones and won:

“There’s no guide book that explains what to do next when you’re touring the biggest band on the planet, you land them in Perth, then the lead singer’s long term partner commits suicide and the band wants to leave the country and you’re risking $52 million,” said Coupe.

But that’s exactly what happened to Michael Gudinski when he was promoting the Rolling Stones’ Australian tour in 2014.

What happened on that particular morning in March is considered by Coupe to be one of the most impressive deals ever struck by a music promoter.

“At 3am Perth time, Gudinski gets a tip-off that without consulting him, the Rolling Stones are 15 minutes away from issuing a press release announcing that their Australian tour is cancelled.

“Gudinski has always believed that if a tour is cancelled, it never comes back on, so he wanted the band to announce a postponement instead that would have given him time to renegotiate with Stones management.

“He gets on the phone at 3am and speaks to the global tour promoter and argues his case so ferociously that this guy in the US is so convinced that he agrees to phone London to talk to the woman who is the effectively the manager for the Rolling Stones.

”Basically Gudinski was so persuasive in his argument that the UK based manager was also convinced that they shouldn’t cancel the tour, so with probably 10 minutes to spare in the middle of the night, Gudinski managed to convince the Rolling Stones to announce a postponement of their tour instead, which they did at 5.30am that morning.

“It allowed Gudinski to restructure the tour and subsequently bring the Stones back later that year.

“That’s an unbelievably audacious, brilliant stroke of sheer bravado to go up against the Stones in the middle of the night and go, ‘No, you’re not going to cancel.’”

Author Stuart Coupe with his latest book.

Legendary promoter Michael Gudinski with Kylie Minogue.

Meatloaf’s last minute demand:

Fleetwood Mac aren’t the only musicians who’ve caused major headaches with their backstage demands.

“There’s a famous story where promoter Michael Chugg was working with Meatloaf in the 1980s,” said Coupe, “and Chugg was seen to be scurrying around the media section in the front rows of the concert just before Meatloaf was scheduled to come on.

“What he was doing was asking everyone he knew in the media if anyone had a joint. Someone said, ‘Why do you need a joint Chuggy?’ And he said, ‘The fat c*nt won’t come on until he has a joint.’”

For more entertaining stories like these, check out Stuart Coupe’s books which are available from his website, Laughing Outlaw Records.

Originally published as The most outrageous demand a band has ever made