FOCUS ... FROM SHAFFY TO SYLVIA

The origins of Focus go back to the winter of 1969 when Thijs Van Leer formed a trio with drummer Hans Cleuver and bass guitarist Martin Dresden, backing Dutch recording artists and performing their own material. Van Leer had studied flute and composition at Amsterdam Conservatory and been part of the Ramses Shaffy cabaret group while Cleuver was a student of philosophy at Amsterdam University. Dresden's main claim to fame was that his father was head of the Conservatory and he had contacts with the publishing arm of Radio Luxembourg.

As Van Leer recalls, "I met Martin Dresden at a radio session for "Jazz and Poetry" in Hilversum. Apart from being very good on his bass guitar, you could consider him as a concept musician. He didn't write too much music but he had a concept ideal of how a band should be. And then suddenly Hans Cleuver was there during the same radio programme later in the year and we wanted to start a trio. I bought a Hammond L100 organ and we started to play some Traffic covers then more and more my own compositions."

The original Focus line-up on the cover of the single, "House Of The King", 1970

Jan Akkerman joined the trio at rehearsals at the Shaffy Theatre in Amsterdam in November 1969. Akkerman had five years classical guitar training at the Amsterdam Music Lyceum and in 1968 had formed the rock/pop band Brainbox. "Coming out of this little hard rock band, it was a challenge for me to make Focus work," says Jan.

Van Leer, Dresden, Cleuver and Akkerman are heard together on record for the first time on the album of the Amsterdam version of the musical "Hair". They were the pivot in a nine-piece orchestra. Van Leer: "It gave us the opportunity to rehearse our own material during the day and not have to pay rehearsal fees. We did the musical for about six months and then there was a stand-in band because our own gigs became more important."

Detail of "Hair" album sleeve (1970)

Prior to the residency they started work on the album that was to become "In And Out Of Focus". The material was somewhat patchy with some straight pop songs and some more interesting instrumentals. Van Leer readily concedes that the vocals were not a strong point, the songs suffer from the usual difficulties of pronunciation that beset foreigners singing in English. "That also became a motive for us to become more and more instrumental later. Having Jan Akkerman as a unique lead player could camouflage very well the fact that our singing was not great at all."

After a year of moderate success Akkerman decided to rejoin his old mate from Brainbox days, drummer Pierre Van Der Linden. Van Leer was asked to join and Cyril Havermans was brought in on bass and vocals. This new incarnation of the band is heard on the second album "Focus II"(in the UK "Moving Waves")which was recorded in April and May 1971. At the controls was producer Mike Vernon who had worked with Fleetwood Mac and John Mayall.

The second album was altogether more satisfying musically: Jan Akkerman arranged the whole album which involved - in the example of "Eruption" - a large amount of splicing and overdubs on 8-track tape. He also played bass, with the exception of "Tommy". One of the tracks, "Hocus Pocus", is now something of a minor rock classic and one reviewer described the "bludgeoning guitar riff...broken up(or held together)by whistles, yodels, flutes and all manner of musical graffiti". It was played with tongue firmly in cheek and became something of an anthem for the band and highlight of their stage act. According to Akkerman it was conceived as a send-up of the band's more serious side.

"Moving Waves" brought the band to wider attention in the UK and in 1972 they were voted "Brightest Hope" by "Melody Maker" and "Best New Talent" by the New Musical Express.

There was a further factor in the band's initial success in England. In early 1972 there was the so-called "power crisis" and a series of electricity power cuts. They had their own secret weapon - a generator - which they brought by accident thinking they would have to play an open-air festival.

"Nobody was able to play in London or England at all because of the power strike," recalls Jan. "We had this generator with us and played the universities. They were packed because it was probably the only thing that was going on and at the same time we got a lot of airplay on the radio."

Among the highlights of 1972 was a successful gig at the Reading Rock Festival in August and an appearance at the Oval cricket ground in September for the Melody Maker Poll Awards. This included an impromptu jam when Jan and Pierre Van Der Linden teamed up with Jack Bruce.

Focus at Reading, 1972 (Notice how Pierre van der Linden has been conveniently erased from history - this picture appeared in the 1976 tour programme


It was about this time that Focus gave their first major press interviews. It was obvious, even then, that Van Leer saw himself as something apart from the usual rock musician, emphasising the technique and improvisational aspect of his music and the fact that Focus' influences were derived from a classical and European, rather than American, base. By calling the band Focus he wanted the music to concentrate the mind: "...to not only use music as a distraction, for people to forget all their trouble and sorrows, but even use our music to help them work out their problems."

Another contributory factor to Focus' early success was their involvement with Radio Luxembourg's music publishing department Radio Tele-Music under the guidance of Hubert Terheggen. This enabled contacts to be established worldwide including the States. The publishing company financed the band's first recording venture and their stage equipment which was of a very high standard.

The third album, "Focus III", was recorded "live" in four days during July 1972 at Olympic Studios, Barnes, England. This was the first with bassist Bert Ruiter who had joined the band in September 1971. Ruiter had already featured on two tracks for Akkerman's solo album "Profile" and had been active in the Amsterdam music scene with a band called Full House.

On "Focus III" the band once again demonstrated their superb improvisational skills not least on the long piece "Anonymus II" which occupied one-and-a-half sides of a double album(although later heard in its complete form on the CD reissue). Once again Gregorian and Medieval atmosphere was added to electric rock and, in particular, Jan Akkerman actually featured a lute on one track!

Focus promoted the new album during an Autumn 1972 club and college tour in the UK, and their first major concert dates in January 1973.  One of Focus' best remembered tracks, "Sylvia", reached No.4 in the UK singles chart in February/March 1973 whilst the album climbed to the No.6 position.

They returned to the UK for a second concert tour shortly after a triumphant first visit to the States where they received unprecedented acclaim for a support act. The band's performance at the New York Philharmonic Hall was linked to the East Coast FM radio network which ensured maximum publicity.

FOCUS BIOGRAPHY Part 2

The original feature on which this article is based first appeared in the English music magazine, "Record Collector", in May 1991 and is based on extensive interviews with Thijs Van Leer and Jan Akkerman.

©1991-1996 David Randall. All rights reserved.