Focus – Sharp! – Read and Listen with Keith

With their unique brand of progressive rock, Focus manifested themselves at the start of the ’70s as the most successful and appreciated of all the Dutch pop-rock exports. Fronted by founding member Thijs Van Leer, and best known for their hits “Hocus Pocus”, “House of The King” and “Sylvia”, as well as critically acclaimed albums ‘Moving Waves’, ‘Focus 3’ and ‘Hamburger Concerto’, the iconic Dutch music masters are back with their eleventh album, which pleased their legions of fans!

Best remembered for their bizarre chart smash “Hocus Pocus,” Dutch progressive rock band Focus was formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer, bassist Martin Dresden, and drummer Hans Cleuver. With the subsequent addition of guitarist Jan Akkerman, the group issued its debut LP, In and Out of Focus, in 1970, earning a European cult following thanks to the single “House of the King.” Dresden and Cleuver were replaced by bassist Cyril Havermanns and drummer Pierre Van der Linden for the English-language follow-up, Moving Waves; the record generated the hit “Hocus Pocus,” a hallucinatory epic distinguished by Akkerman’s guitar pyrotechnics and van Leer’s demented yodeling. Easily one of the flat-out strangest songs ever to crack the charts, the single peaked at number nine in the spring of 1973, by which time Focus had already exchanged Havermanns for bassist Bert Ruiter and issued their third album, Focus III, which yielded the minor hit “Sylvia.”

In the wake of 1974’s Hamburger Concert, the band streamlined the classical aspirations of earlier efforts to pursue a more pop-oriented approach on records like Ship of Memories and Mother Focus. Though roster changes regularly plagued Focus throughout the period, none was more pivotal than the 1976 exit of Akkerman, who was replaced by guitarist Philip Catherine for 1978’s Focus con Proby, cut with British pop singer P.J. Proby.

Focus then disbanded but in 1990 the lineup that played on Focus III reunited for a Dutch television special. After splitting again, they reunited for one-offs in 1995 and in 1999 and in 2002, Van Leer reformed Focus with a new line-up releasing the albums Focus 8 (2002), Focus 9 / New Skin (2006).

In 2010, Nike used “Hocus Pocus” in its Word Cup commerical, Write The Future, renewing global interest in the band. The album Focus X was released in 2012.

In 2016, Van Leer shifted personnel again to include drummer Pierre van der Linden, guitarist Menno Gootjes, and bassist Udo Pannekeet and released the albums Focus 8.5 / Beyond the Horizon and Live In England. A year later, Cherry Red issued The Focus Family Album compilation and in 2019 Focus 11 came out.

They toured the world in in support of the new album (Pam and I went to see them at The 100 Club in The West End) and are now building up to its 50th Anniversary. Unfortunately the world COVID-19 situation has halted the 50th Anniversary celebrations, but as soon as they are able to I have no doubt that Focus will be back on stage where they belong and love to be.

I believe that a new Focus era has arrived! There was a rejuvenated passion amongst the band when they released the first studio album for 6 years, the previously mentioned Focus 11, in early 2019.

Here are a selection of live tracks.

Focus II (1971)