DECADES: FOCUS IN THE 1970S

Stephen Lambe SONICBOND

New book zooms in on the veteran virtuosi.

Focus, with 73-year-old Thijs Van Leer still yodelling manfully, are going strong more than 50 years after their inception. The Dutch masters seem to land a handy fresh profile boost every few years, from Nike ads to a blast of Hocus Pocus in Baby Driver to being cited as a favourite of Steve Coogan’s Saxondale.

Now Stephen Lambe’s labour of love covers their heyday decade of jazz-prog, interweaving a potted history with a track-by-track analysis. The seething antipathy between Van Leer and guitarist Jan Akkerman (who left for the first but not last time in 1976) provides the soap opera; a collaboration with PJ Proby brings the absurdity, and the author’s wild enthusiasm for Eruption (the 23-minute epic which closes the second album, Moving Waves) proves infectious. That was inspired by the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but 1974’s Hamburger Concerto was loosely themed after elementary cooking, which only reiterates this band’s borderline-deranged range. As the book reveals, the latter was nearly given the title ‘Kloten’ – Dutch for testicles.

Covering the principal pair’s extracurricular work and a brief buyer’s guide, this is a fine companion to diving into Focus’ music again.