FOCUS
Genres: Jazz Related Rock, Classic Fusion • Netherlands

FOCUS will be remembered as a band that, uniquely, brought instrumental music back into the charts in the early seventies (epitomised by the yodelling epic 'Hocus Pocus' and the glorious 'Sylvia') and - at the time of Britain's entry to the "Common Market" - blazing a trail for European music both in the UK and the States where they enjoyed hit singles and albums. In Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman they also had two of rock's finest instrumentalists. On the eve of their sell-out UK tour, in February 1976, Focus' guitarist Jan Akkerman quit the band. This somewhat shocking news came after incessant touring and internal disagreements caused a creative hiatus. This manifest itself in the 1975 album 'Mother Focus' which received mixed reviews. Hugh Fielder writing in 'Melody Maker' thought the band had lost the thrusting side of their nature. Thijs van Leer, the band's founder and longest-surviving member, managed read more...