Clockenflap’s craziest artists’ demands: Jack Black wanted a child’s drawing, A$AP Rocky demanded fried chicken and waffles served onstage
Erykah Badu got emergency soup delivered by ferry, Jarvis Cocker partied until he was kicked out, Massive Attack brought fussball tables and The Chemical Brothers charted a freight plane for their giant robot – the best backstage gossip from Hong Kong’s Clockenflap music festival
Approaching its 12th annual instalment, Hong Kong’s Clockenflap is now well established as one of the region’s hottest and hippest festivals. And to earn that reputation, it had to entice a pretty impressive roster of A-list stars to these shores, many of whom are visiting the region for the first time.
So what do the stars make of “Asia’s World City” – and what shenanigans to they get up while they’re in town? Ahead of this year’s event, which is returning to Central Harbourfront Event Space from November 22 to November 24, we sat down with founder and music director Justin Sweeting to get all the backstage gossip. Well, the bits we could publish, anyway.
From weird rider requests to chartered planes and all-night parties, read on to find out what really goes on behind the scenes at a world-class music festival.
Ridiculous rider requests
Everyone knows musicians are a peculiar bunch. Just think about it; mix an artistic temperament, inflated ego and a world only too glad to accommodate your every whim, and what do you get? An A-list musician on tour.
Nowhere is this better epitomised than in the fabled “rider” – industry speak for the contract outlining the little extra favours and substances musicians expect to find in their dressing rooms upon arrival. Naturally, after producing Clockenflap for 12 years, Sweeting has seen his fair share of weird requests. Thankfully, there were a few savoury stories he was prepared to share.
This includes the revelation that Jack Black specifically asked for a “hand-painted drawing from a child of a boat in the ocean” – which is a frankly freaky idea if you consider it’s probably always on his wish list. By now, the School of Rock star, who performed at the festival with his comedy-folk band Tenacious D in 2014, must have a pile of badly drawn boat pictures by music promoters’ children stuffed in a drawer somewhere (or hanging on his man cave wall?).
