Think of eating at rock concerts and one immediately thinks of the usual fast food: chips, kebabs and burgers are king. (A good friend insists that "Star Burgers" - consisting of a beef patty, a bun, and a Star Bar - were once seen on sale outside one large, outdoor happening). But for those working behind the scenes, the food prospects are much better. Tours by major artists are now huge undertakings, often involving 150 staff and lasting up to two years.
They are military-style operations, requiring detailed forward planning and tight schedules. The touring army definitely marches on its stomach and the staff expect more than a lukewarm hot dog for dinner.
Mick Duignan manned the mobile kitchens for 12 years on tours by artists such as Paul McCartney, Tina Turner and Simply Red before settling a couple of years ago in Dublin. He now runs Dunville Place restaurant in Ranelagh where the menu, with its Asian and Mediterranean influences, reflects his years of globetrotting. When he first started catering on tours he was surprised by the high standard of the food: while the common perception may be of roadies living off beans and chips, this is clearly not the case.
"The food is really important. People are working long days - on the road you're typically working 16-hour days - so you have to eat well.
"When the road crew get a night off, they can afford to eat in the best restaurants in town and that's what they do. They really know their food and a lot of them get into their wines as well. Some of them become real connoisseurs."
The artists themselves also pay attention to what they eat, with plenty of fish and salads requested. The McCartney tour was meat-free and fish-free (something which raised more than a few eyebrows in the Deep South of the United States) and Linda McCartney, of who Mick speaks warmly, took a hands-on approach to the food.
"Linda was in the kitchen every day, helping with the menus. She took a big interest in the food," Duignan says.
Singer Tom Jones ("a gentleman") also, apparently, appreciates good food and wine. One exception to such refined behaviour was, somewhat expectedly, rockers Guns `n' Roses - whose machismo extended to bowls of chilli for breakfast.
All the kitchen gear travels with the band's equipment and the operation is largely self-sufficient, with water, electricity and fridges the only outside requirements. The numbers of catering staff vary with the size of the tour, but the general rule of thumb is one chef and one waiter/waitress for every 15 people.
Serving fresh, top-quality ingredients is of the greatest importance, although this is often easier said than done. "Finding your produce is half the battle," says Duignan. "In 1989 we did a rock festival in Moscow, which was a nightmare. We were feeding up to 1,200 people a night because a lot of people wouldn't eat in the hotels, it was so bad." (As someone who coincidentally happened to visit Moscow that very week, I can vouch for this). "The bands were coming down to the concert at breakfast time, just to eat. We had to get everything shipped in - a lot was shipped in from England, all the fruit and vegetables were brought in from Germany." All this and KGB men thinly disguised as kitchen porters keeping an eye on proceedings. The chef on the road is required to supply a wide variety of food. "You're sometimes feeding the same people for a year and you have to come up with new stuff all the time. The good thing is that you do get feedback," he says. Theme nights are popular and convenient (a Thai theme night once earned Mick a standing ovation from Rod Stewart's crew), but even on such occasions it is important to have dishes for those who prefer the more familiar meat and two veg.
Nevertheless, recipes can come from unexpected places, as happened on the tour of the Birmingham-based reggae band UB40. "The UB40 crew taught me how to make real curry. Their wives would bring me out special spices from Birmingham. The crew would even cook curry for dinner the odd time."
While having someone take over your job for a night is a pleasant surprise, the real perks of the job are the long holidays and the pay, which is extremely good. But the money is hard-earned and the job is far from glamorous. A typical day starts at 6 a.m. and rarely finishes before midnight. Caterers often work even longer hours than the roadies - they are first to arrive on site, to have coffee ready in the early morning; they provide food all day; and they are there until the load-out of musical gear in the early hours of the morning.
Only on days off, is there an opportunity to get a flavour of the country in which they find themselves. In some ways, the chef is also a performer: the hungry road crew is his nightly audience and the show must go on. As Mick Duignan puts it: "The thing about rock and roll and chef-ing is that it will always happen. You will make it happen."
With Dublin now a recording location for many international acts, studio catering is something of which many Dublin chefs have experience. Aongus Hanley of Tosca has fed his fair share of musicians, both in the studio and in the restaurant, but never on the road. For him, the difference between the studio and the road is "like the difference between being in the FCA and being at war."
Aongus and the crew at Tosca were credited on U2's Pop album, and at least two of the band's collaborators went on record praising the food.
Niall Carey of Temple Bar's O Sushi also received an album credit for his work in the kitchen, on Mermaid Avenue, the recently released collection of Woody Guthrie songs by Billy Bragg and Wilco.
His idea was to keep the whole thing quite communal. "What we did with Billy Bragg and Wilco was we made one big, long table and sat everyone around it. So the evening meal was a real feature. It was a break from the music and it became a focal point of the evening. "They'd all be there at seven o'clock sharp. The engineers were astonished, they said it was unheard of - musicians all turning up at once, on time."
The menu was kept varied by doing theme nights - Mexico, India, Thailand and Australia all featured, as did the sushi from the restaurant. But the biggest hit was the soups. "The soups went down a storm. Leek and potato was a particular favourite - the American guys (Wilco) found it amazing. They even went home with several of my soup recipes." And who said sex and drugs were the food of rock n' roll?