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| Before they were BIG, they had a lot of demands in their contracts |
Many stars make demands or requests of the management of the different places they perform. Sometimes the requests are easy to fill, sometimes they aren't and sometimes they are so far out there, the venues won't oblige.
A Beatles contract and rider from a 1965 concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California came up for auction in September 2011. The Beatles made several demands of the Cow Palace - electricity and running water in the trailer, and that the dressing rooms would have four cots, mirrors, an ice cooler, a TV and clean towels. Their salary was $40,000 for the concert.
They wanted a minimum of 150 uniformed police for protection and they also wanted a special drumming platform for Ringo. All of this was doable.
But the Cow Palace saw one more demand that they did not fulfill and that was the Beatles refused to play to a segregated audience, meaning they didn't want their audience to be separated by color. They wanted to play to everyone. This was 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement.
You can read about the event and the crowd of 17,000 people who broke through the security barrier and caused the Beatles to stop playing until the venue was secure again.
The contract was signed by their manager, Brian Epstein. The contract and rider were expected to auction for about $5,000 by Nate D Sanders Auction on September 20, 2011.
A little research shows a news article from 2008 stating that the original 1962 contract between Beatles and their new manager Brian Epstein sold for £240,000 which in US money comes to $302,697.
Another article shows the Beatles contract from 1965 concert at the Cow Palace sold for $10,780, exceeding the expected $5,000 projection.
You can read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/sep/15/beatles-refused-play-segregated-audience