Lemons, ginseng and ageing rock stars

Forget sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Today's health-conscious rock stars, says The Sunday Times, are more likely to demand skinned papaya, rye bread and soya milk when on tour. All of these foods crop up in so-called 'contract riders', the shopping lists artists provide to venues, lists that sound more suitable for a spa than a dressing room.

Robbie Williams wants figs and kiwi fruit backstage, while DJ Shadow's must-have item is ginseng capsules. As for David Bowie: these days some lemons and hot water are enough for him.

Gary Farlow, an agent to stars like Elton John and Ozzy Osbourne, says: "There has been a progression towards healthier requests. Elton's rider is just tea and water and not much else. The Stones I know bring different teas. They are getting healthier because they are getting older."

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Not surprising, I suppose. Rock stars these days never seem to retire and the music industry, apparently, pins its faith on them at Christmas so they have to look after themselves.

Besides, according to a new study, their peers are likely to live up to 25 years longer than they are. In general, the study found that the more affluent you are, the longer you live, but this doesn't apply to rock stars.

Not only does all the youthful drink and drug consumption take its toll, they are also, according to Dianna Kenny, a professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney, much more likely than other people to die by accident, commit suicide or be murdered.

The research, however, disproves one old legend in the rock business. "Twenty-seven used to be the age at which to go," says Krissi Murison in The Sunday Times. "Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and so many more that rock conspiracists have long theorised about it being a cursed' age for musicians."

Is this good news? No, says Murison. "At least in the old days you got to go down in a blaze of tragic, crazy glory. Now you have to wait until you're late middle-aged, arthritic and riddled with heart disease before you're allowed to hobble off stage left, joining the other OAPs in the Big Backstage."

Younger rock stars will doubtless hang around even longer. Their "contract riders" suggest they're already abstemious, says Farlow. A study of ageing in 50 years' time will probably find they're living longer than everyone else.

Think yourself young

Talking of veterans, I was interested to see that Sir Robin Knox-Johnston is not only still alive, but, at 75, so full of beans that he's about to set off on another solo voyage in his 18m yacht, Grey Power. He's taking part in a three-week-long transatlantic race.

Speaking to The Times before he left St Malo in Brittany, Sir Robin said that age was no more than a state of mind. "I don't consider myself old. The French asked me how old are you' and I said 48, because in my mind I am. As long as you keep thinking you are young, you stay young. I am just not ready for slippers, pipe and television."

Tabloid money: Ed's red T shirt competition is a silly gimmick

"The prime minister hit the roof when he was told that the UK would be expected to pay an extra £1.7bn to subsidise the utterly useless countries of Europe," says Rod Liddle in The Sun.

"The countries whose economies are about as healthy as Gazza's liver. But successful countries bailing out useless countries is one of the cornerstones of EU policy and always has been."

Then we're told that David Cameron wants to negotiate with Europe about how many immigrants we allow into Britain. But again, "unlimited movement of labour" is a cornerstone of the EU. So the puzzle is why Cameron wants us to stay in it.

"We don't want a single currency, we don't want unlimited immigration, we don't want to subsidise the southern European counties. That stuff is all what the EU is about, isn't it?"

In the last five years Britain has given £1bn in aid to Ethiopia, "a country where security forces have tortured, killed and raped people opposed to its one-party regime", says Carole Malone in the Sunday Mirror. "Do we really think that in a country like this our money is actually going to the people who need it? Or is it going straight into the pockets of its corrupt government?

Well, as its now been revealed that the slaughter in Ethiopia got worse during the five years we've been funding it, I suspect we know the answer. Unless our government is willing to go to Ethiopia and help its beleaguered people which it isn't it's time to stop the aid and throw the money at our NHS. Because that WILL help people."

"When asked to pose in a T-shirt bearing the slogan This is what a feminist looks like' for a feminist magazine campaign,Ed Miliband jumped at the chance," says Jane Moore in The Sun.

"Oh dear, is this meaningless gimmickry really what we want from a man hoping to become PM? Some solid... policies that address the serious issue of bright women dropping out of the workplace after childbirth might be a better use of his time."