Welcome to my latest rambling about bands that mean a lot to me. On this occasion I revert to my distant past and the recesses of my childhood. The transistor radio featured heavily in my upbringing and was rarely ever switched off during the day. It was via this device, a Bush methinks, that I consumed a lot of the chart music of the day saving my serious listening enjoyment for the large radiogram in the front room, or what we would refer to now as the lounge. The trasister radio was always used on a Sunday evening during a long soak in our turquoise coloured bath whilst the chart rundown for the week was being broadcast. However, on one occasion as I was drying myself with a warm scratchy towel following said show, I was stopped in my tracks by a piece of music that intrigued me so much that my hours sat listening to the radiogram in order to hear it again increased significantly. The song Sylvia by little known Dutch band Focus had such an effect on me that it became the first seven inch single that I actually spent my own pocket money on. This was 1972 when I had just turned thirteen years old and simply couldn’t wait to buy this intriguing record with no discernable words and lyrics to the tune. Instead, the organ and guitar driven piece was propelled into the stratosphere with yodelling. Yes, yodelling. Before this I had only ever heard such vocal exploits by Australian crooner Frank Ifield.
Adding to the bands mystique (for me anyway) was the fact that they were Dutch. I became interested in places like Holland as we referred to it then after going to the Saturday club at our local cinema and watching films like Puppet On A Chain based on an Alistair MacLean novel that features a fantastic speedboat chase through the canals of Amsterdam and ending on a small island just off the coast. I was also an avid fan of Van Der Valk a duch detective TV show based around the same place. Hearing Focus seemed to build on an atmosphere That I became absorbed in. I would site Focus as a band that paved the way to becoming so enthusiastic about early Prog bands and pointed the way to many more genres of music too. Within a matter of weeks of me buying my precious single I heard on the radio that a new album was to be released and would be called Focus III. It was then that my attention switched to a larger degree to building model kits to buying records. I took on a Saturday job as a van boy for a local bakery and within a few weeks had the cash for Focus III. As you may have gathered by now? I was always late to the party with regards to bands and artists as I then discovered the bands previous albums and fell in love with them too. It wasn’t until much later in life that I put this wrong to right by making sure I always give time to new and up and coming bands.
Later that year whilst absorbing my weekly Tuesday evening fix of music on the telly courtesy of The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2 I witnessed Focus play a live studio session and the deal was sealed. At this point they could do no wrong and I became obsessed with collecting their previous albums and introducing them to my school friends. I remember playing the B side to the single Sylvia entitled House Of The King and teachers remarking how much it sounded like Jethro Tull. In later years Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull confessed in an interview that they were often credited for House Of The King. My enthusiasm and intrigue continued as Focus thrie fourth album Hamburger Concerto, though the album didn’t have the same vibe as the previous three. Indeed the previous two albums Moving Waves and Focus III seemed to house all of the bands magic up to that point. Of course it has been widely documented that the cracks had already started to apear between the original members especially Thjis Van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman. This became evident following the release of their fifth album Mother Focus, an album that I thought sounded lack lustre by comparison. The internal fractures of the band left me quite disappointed as I had been so passionate about them to this point. However, time moves on as they say and I was getting a little older and spreading my musical wings. I didn’t get to see Focus Play live until 2010’s High Voltage Festival and by this time I hadn’t kept up to date with personnel changes and explored their more recent albums. Following that gig I went to see them play a few times and now fully up to speed with their current situation. Do they still mean as much to me all these years on? Absolutely! I applaud their tenacity, professionalism and the fact that they are happy to play much smaller venues than many other bands who think they still can. Focus are still up there with the top bands in the world for musicality and endurance and to this day when I drop Focus III onto the turntable it still makes me smile as does Moving Waves.
Live images by Bo Hanson
