Writer David Fricke says in his liner notes to "Essential Oils" that "there was nothing in rock ... like Midnight Oil."

Yep. With hard-rock guitar tunes, insanely catchy melodies and an unabashed political agenda, Midnight Oil took uncomfortable topics -- immigration, worker exploitation, environmentalism, human rights and simple justice -- and turned them into mainstream hits such as "Blue Sky Mine," "Beds Are Burning," "Forgotten Years" and "The Dead Heart."

Lead singer Peter Garrett was the striking face of the band: a tall, bald, hyper-kinetic force of nature. While he did some songwriting and lyric work, drummer Rob Hirst and guitarist Jim Moginie were the songwriting backbone of the band.

Now we have "Essential Oils," a 36-song compilation that chronicles every bit of the band's career, due in stores today. While the band has semi-retired -- its last live gig was a reunion at Melbourne in 2009 -- the music is more vital and timely than ever, including songs written decades ago. Hirst spoke from his home in Sydney about the release. 

No one's saying that U2, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, the Police, the Who, Led Zeppelin and more wouldn't have had perfectly fine careers without Denver promoter Barry Fey on their side. But no one will deny that he certainly helped.

After serious health and financial problems in recent years, Fey took his life on Sunday at age 73. He was an old-school promoter in the mold of Bill Graham (an early partner and later fierce competitor), and helped establish the modern concert industry in the '60s and '70s.

Fey hosted lavish parties at his house for the bands he promoted, with the Stones and others becoming regulars (a photo on an early Lynyrd Skynyrd album shows them playing football in Fey's front yard). He certainly wasn't the first to book music at Red Rocks but he put it on the map when he began booking his "Summer of Stars" there every year. Jimi Hendrix, the Dead, Willie Nelson and hundreds of other bands played Red Rocks under Fey's watch.
He also provided venues to young musicians; U2, the Police, Devo, Pat Benatar and many other legends got a start playing $2 night at Fey's Rainbow Music Hall. Other acts that played there on their way up (or down) include Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Robin Williams, Talking Heads, Cheap Trick, Prince, Andy Kaufman, Split Enz and more. The day after Christmas in 1968 he agreed to add an unknown band on the bill at a Vanilla Fudge concert, giving Led Zeppelin their first-ever U.S. date. In 1967 and '68 Fey ran the Denver branch of The Family Dog, booking Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, Cream, Frank Zappa and more.

Fey also promoted the last-ever Jimi Hendrix Experience concert at the Denver Pop Festival in 1969, an event that included Creedence Clearwater Revival and many more top bands of the day. He also booked the US Festival (which included the last-ever show by The Clash in its original lineup), the shows filmed for U2's "Rattle and Hum" film, the Stones in Hawaii (where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards allegedly forced some cocaine on him) and plenty more. He also co-promoted the 1986 "Conspiracy of Hope" tour with Amnesty International. Billboard named him Promoter of the Year numerous times.

His greatest triumph, however, may be his involvement with U2's "Under a Blood Red Sky," the legendary performance that made international superstars out of U2 and the venue the played, Red Rocks. The band didn't have enough cash to afford the filming so Fey and some other local investors stepped up to make sure there was adequate funding. A rainstorm that should have ruined the show instead gave it more power than ever, all of it captured on film (that's Fey introducing the band). For the full inside story of how that concert almost didn't happen, go here.

Bono said later at a tribute to Fey: "If only eight people turned up, we were still going to play like our lives depended on it. I never could figure out why Barry Fey would try to stop us playing Red Rocks. I was very upset about it, it being our life savings and all that. We spoke to Barry about it afterward. We said, 'Why would you try to stop us from playing?' He said 'You don't understand. It's raining on my audience.' I realized then that as loyal as Barry Fey is to the bands he promotes, he is even more loyal to the people of Denver. His audience."

Fey was always concerned about the fans - keeping prices low and fans safe and happy. He ruled the concert scene for decades with an iron fist, angering other promoters and business partners who found his strong-arm tactics and dealings to be less-than-fair. He called himself a "benevolent dictator." Detractors dispute the "benevolent" part.

After his retirement he became increasingly disillusioned with the state of the concert industry, where maximizing profits at fans' expense became the norm. He was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame last year and in 2011 published a book "Backstage Past" full of stories (most true, some embellished) about his colorful career. Ozzy Osbourne and Pete Townshend both wrote tributes to Fey in the book; he has also been praised by Bono (who flew in for Fey's retirement party and regularly name-checked him onstage during every Denver performance) and President Bill Clinton. He'd happily engage fans and tell his stories at book signings, TV and radio appearances or just being stopped on the street. He was also profiled in a TV interview recently. A recent three-part radio interview with 97.3 KBCO is here.
In the final chapter of his book - ironically titled "Barry's Final Thoughts" -- he wrote "I wish I would have been nicer."


 

"Sweet Caroline" has been in the news of late when the Neil Diamond classic was taken up as a song of victorious resilience against the carnage in Boston. The city had a long relationship with the song, and Diamond cemented it when he flew in to sing it specially at a Boston Red Sox game, where it has been a virtual anthem for the team for more than a decade. Other teams around the league played the song this week as well in tribute to the people of Boston.

In the wake of any tragedy connected with a song, the song sales inevitably soar. "Sweet Caroline" was no exception; the AP reported earlier today that according to Nielsen Soundscan, sales of the song had jumped nearly 600%, with 19,000 downloads this past week.

What's not inevitable is what happened next. The moment Diamond learned of the sales he immediately took to his Twitter feed @NeilDiamond and donated every penny of the royalties to the One Fund, the new charity set up by Massachusetts officials to help victims of the tragedy. It got $20 million in donations in the first week alone; Diamond's contribution will add to that. And it's another small yet huge gesture in getting life back to normal.
 

                 Need money? Not that badly.


TMZ breathlessly headlined the news that Mark Wahlberg would reunite his band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch after two decades of retirement to do a benefit for Boston terror victims. There are several flaws in this theory:

• Though TMZ seems to think this is a big thumbs up, take it with a giant grain of salt.Wahlberg was responding to paparazzi as he was leaving a building, and he said he'd "absolutely" do a concert before the questioner got to the part about the Funky Bunch (which he incorrectly called the "Funk Bunch" and was sternly corrected).
• A trial balloon was floated earlier this year and it went nowhere
• Realistically, how much could a MMFB reunion raise?

Check the video and you decide if a return trip to 1991 is really in the cards. Wahlberg has had far too distinguished a career since then (perhaps excluding his latest film "Pain & Gain") to make such a mistake.

 

Is David Bowie heading back to space? Heck, maybe he'll run into Major Tom up there.

Bowie continues to build on 2013's best and most successful comeback. After a decade of silence he sprung the new fully formed album, "The Next Day," on the world without a whisper leaking out. Then he made a couple of videos that showed his quirky style was still intact, particularly the one with doppelganger Tilda Swinton playing his suburban wife.

Now the man is up to yet another metamorphosis. Given that the world now knows he's up to something it's harder to keep things a secret. Bowie was recently photographed on the set of what is presumed to be his latest video, wearing some very Obi-Wan Kenobe-style robes. And pal Gary Oldman was on hand as well, dressed somewhat like a priest. What does it all mean?
Let's hope it all means a tour is in the works, as his last one "The Reality Tour" featured Bowie pretty much at the top of his game every night.





 

EVNTLIVE made it be known a while back that it was here to play with the big boys when it came to live-streaming concert events. And now they're kicking off with a big bang.

Thursday's Bon Jovi concert from San Jose will be streamed live on EVNTLIVE, 8pm PT / 11pm ET. Sorta.

Like everything, the first one's free; then you've got to pay. In fact, if you want to see the full concert on Thursday you have to become a member of Bon Jovi's fan club through his website; only the first 30 minutes will stream for free. And you know you'll be Jonesing for the inevitable encore of "Wanted: Dead or Alive" before the evening's out, so get out that credit card now.

EVNTLIVE's business plan includes pay-per-view events, whether they're live-streaming concerts or something archived on-demand. Fans can watch it through virtually any wireless device - computer, smart TV, phone, tablets, whatever. If you go computer or tablet be warned - you need to use Safari or Google Chrome to get access to EVNTLIVE's home page. It has an interface so that viewers can Facebook and Tweet their thought as events unfold. Check out the somewhat-confusing intro video below.










 

Richie Havens is best known for -- and he knew it -- the song he made up on the spot, "Freedom." He opened Woodstock and had to kill time as other bands tried to get to the jammed site. He finally jammed a song spontaneously that became a highlight of the show, the film and the soundtrack. What it lacked in finished words "Freedom" made up in passion, and Havens knew years later that when he died it would be what would kick off his obituary.

That day came today. A sudden heart attack felled Havens at home. He was 72. The revered folk singer gave up touring last year for health reasons, but his death was still sudden and unexpected.

Even if he's best known for an off-the-cuff improvisation, his fans hungered for his interpretations of others' songs, many of which were sublime including "Here Comes the Sun" (his biggest hit, sung in his warm, earthy voice), "If Not For You," "You Can Close Your Eyes" and many other classics. Never did Havens try to merely copy a song; his signature was all over each composition, leaving no room for doubt as to who was singing or what he was trying to do.

Even when he went a bit "commercial" (which is a stretch to use that term for his work) with covers of hits such as 10cc's "I'm Not in Love" the results that gave the overwrought pop song some real gravitas. He would take other people's signature songs -- The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever," Leon Russell's "Tightrope," Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay," Steely Dan's "Do It Again" -- and completely reinterpret them. You couldn't always say they were better, but they were all Havens and always fascinating.

Stephen Stills is in New York City at the moment and heard the news, which immediately brought back memories of the two of them coming up through the NYC folk scene in the same era. Both, of course, were at Woodstock as well.

“Richie Havens was one of the nicest most generous and pure individuals I have ever met. When I was a young sprite in Greenwich Village, we used to have breakfast together at the diner on 6th Avenue next to The Waverly Theatre," Stills said. "He was very wise in the ways of our calling. He always caught fire every time he played. Fifty years after hearing 'Handsome Johnny' for the first time and being blown away by Richie’s magic, he sang that same song the last time I saw him, and it had exactly the same fire and passion and effect on me as when I first heard that unique Richie Havens 'thing'  --that can never be replicated.”

Born in Brooklyn in 1941 Havens quickly found a home in the Greenwich Village music scene of the early '60s, witnessing the explosion of folk and blues that set out to define the early part of the decade musically. He signed a record deal in the mid-'60s but it was the 1969 Woodstock appearance (and release of the film the following year) that broke him internationally. Big tours, chart success and critical acclaim followed, giving Havens the boost he needed to sustain a strong live career for the next 40 years.

His recording output varied and is often hard to find; 1976's "The Beginning of the End" never was reissued on CD, though many of its strongest songs did appear on many later CD compilations.

While he may not have won many awards related to his music -- "Here Comes the Sun" peaked at #16 on the Billboard charts -- Havens was often feted at Cannes and other prestigious events for his humanitarian, peace and charity work. He's a member of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, but has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite his vast influence.

A memorial service and other details will be announced at a later time, according to his booking agency.

Here are a couple of highlights from a career that defies categorization:





 

For most of the world today is just Thursday, April 18. For a few dozen amateur musicians it's the day their dreams come true.

Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has had an amazing roster of musicians in the past -- among them Steven Tyler, Roger Daltrey, Joe Walsh and all of Cheap Trick -- but this weekend's combination of Jeff Beck and Brian Wilson may be just enough to make your head explode.

Upcoming camps include one in July with Yes; Def Leppard just finished up, and Sammy Hagar and Steve Vai teamed up last month. The bigger names are joined by a bunch of veterans, including bassist Billy Sheehan and Barnstorm/Eagles/Dan​ Fogelberg drummer Joe Vitale and plenty more.

Fans can get one-day experiences or three- to five-day camps where they completely immerse themselves in a thrown-together band, guided by counselors like Vitale and end up in jams and concerts with the headliners.

"You gotta have some names in there and have people with credentials. Great players make great teachers," said Vitale, who co-wrote "Rocky Mountain Way" among other classics. "But the whole fantasy idea, fans get to hang with people who you have LPs and CDs on your shelf."

The cost can be pricy, but these are literally once-in-a-lifetime events that will never happen again. Or as Vitale notes, ""How can you ever play with Jeff Beck? That's impossible in any other situation."

It works because everyone takes it seriously.

"You're in closed doors, it's private stuff and nobody's gonna hassle you," Vitale said. "These are people who respect the music. Nobody ever gets weird. The environment is very friendly, very pro-fan and pro-artist. They're there to learn as much as you can teach them."

And it's open to anyone, regardless of skill level.

"Some are advanced players, some are OK players, some are just beginners. You gotta know how to deal with that," Vitale. But what's surprising is how good some of these people really are, male and female, young and old.

"We had a kid that was 14, great little drummer. Then we had guys 65 years old. We had a surgeon who was a killer shredder guitar player. He was shredding Eddie Van Halen! He could have had a great career in music. He's that good," Vitale said. "They never really dedicated their life to it as this is my job, my calling. But it doesn't lessen the love they have for it. Just because they didn't make a career of it doesn't lessen the passion."

Between jamming, workshops and coming up with songs and a show it's a very intense few days. "You learn how to deal with egos and creative ideas."

And it all pays off with two private concerts in the MGM Grand's club and memories that never go away. Check out Lita Ford doing "Rocky Mountain Way" and Hagar jamming with fans.

Stay tuned for a full report after the camp.