I saw them live about that time, at a music festival. It was at a racecourse and I cannot, for the life of me, remember whether it was Kempton or Sandown. But I do remember that one of the grandstands, a temporary affair made out of scaffolding, collapsed injuring a number of people.
Stumbled upon this, and for the first minute or so I thought this was a cover or a rip-off of some long-forgotten piece from my childhood... until I realized it was _exactly_ that long-forgotten piece from my childhood!
Important to remember though that this wasn't exactly chart music back then either. Top of the Pops did the charts and singles. The Whistle Test showcased more interesting works.
I caught them live a while back Van Leer and Pierre Van Der Linden were really approachable. Van Leer even introduced me to his wife (she was selling merchandise) wonderful gig just a shame that Jan wasn't with them but the young guitarist they had with them (Menno Gootjes) was superb.
At one time in the 70's Jan was voted best guitarist in the world in the music papers and rightly so. I used to love watching the Whistle Test back then. Great, wonderful, creative bands the likes of which we will definitely NOT see in this century!
Indeed, Jan was very skilled. That's why I could never "get" any of the other "guitar heros" at the time. Then as my musicanship skills got better, I realised the other guys were also very skilled! yikes!
Spot on as the crap masquerading as music these days is throwaway, disposable, instantly forgettable trash. The wannabees of this millenium would actually have to learn to play an instrument correctly. No chance of that.
Fell in love with Sylvia the first time I heard it, and Hocus Pocus was one of the most unique tracks of all time. I would love to have seen Whispering Bob's reaction to this. I expect he put a tiny smile on his lips and raised an eyebrow a thousandth of an inch.
@@kurzackd in my own little world there, WT = old grey whistle test. Well used as in , played hundreds of times, I still have a 1986 Sanyo C20 I play it on.
In a interview with Rolling Stone, when they asked Eric Clapton who was the best guitarist, without hesitation he said Jan Akkerman....I really enjoy his latest stuff, as well as his album The Noise of Art
Hmm... I have seen this comment before when Clapton was allegedly asked the same question and he replied Prince. Another time it was someone else. Seems he changed his mind a lot. Or this is a bullshit comment.
some one below this thread has dared suggest that Jan was not so good live as on record...because he stopped this run-through?!! You can see he was distracted by his guitar de-tuning, he starts a quick re-tune when Tjis first starts singing, then another retune in the middle of his melody (!), then gives the drummer a look when he splashes the cymbal as if to say, we should bale here, then he's looking to Tjis again, we have to bale.
@@thedevilinthecircuit1414 No, that was the first take - something went wrong, and they started from the beginning again on take 2. They recorded 3 takes.
How come a whole big bunch of people in their late teens and early 20’s were able to create magnificent imaginative music in the 1960’s, 1970’s and into the 1980’s and today’s people can’t do that? Why is there no talent any more right across every genre that makes up the whole popular and rock music scene like Focus, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, The Doors, Black Sabbath, YES, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Bob Dylan, Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Gong, Camel, Caravan, Harry Chapin, Queen, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys……. There are lots more. What is it about back then, in those days, that caused all these (and more) great artists to flourish? Why not nowadays?
Jan Akkerman was the first player I’d seen that had added a Filtertron pickup to a Les Paul. It looked so out of place, yet sounded so great, that it stuck in my head. That was back in the 1970’s when “The Old Grey Whistle Test” was first on BBC 2!
I was at London University in the early 70s. A friend came back from Amsterdam raving about this new group and when they came to England we saw them several times at the Marquee and elsewhere. Akkerman was amazing. My friend smuggled a tape recorder in to the Marquee with the microphone up his coat sleeve - wish I could find the tape!
I used to watch the Whistle Test every week religiously. I have vivid memories of seeing Focus's performance. I spent all my pocket money on the Focus at the Rainbow vinyl. 40 odd years later I'm here still enjoying their music. Life is good😀
what a legend you are mate. i am at my 20s and i found them on my local cd shop and till this day i am proud i found out about them. Akkerman is top guitarist for me and van leer for me is very talented men i still wished if i was born back then to go to their live preformances :(
Remember playing this in my band. (hammond organ B3 and Leslie 122). Absolutely love the key changes and modulations jumping through F to G to A and back.
@@Teeb2023 He has a point though. Not saying this applies to all bands, as there are many bands who still know how to do it well. Looking at your playlist I'd think you would agree with him up to a certain level :-)
@@Kloashut You're absolutely right, but I hate this dull, curmudgeonly condemnation of everything electronic, and let's face it, that's what he's condemning; anything that isn't 100% analog and "organic". I'd love to hear what ol' Joe Z would have to say to him, and what Mr Black would have to say in response...
@@Teeb2023 Indeed. What I notice within my generation ['65] is that most get stuck within their timeframe. This is a genuine shame as if they would look/search at bit more thourough they'll notice that there are plenty new gems to be found. I got spoonfed with Sabbath/Ash/Gallagher/TYA etc etc, still love & listen to them but there is so much good new music to be found that it would be a shame not to experience it, wether it'd be purely "classic" rock or partly electronic. For instance, one of my latest favs are "Their Dogs were Astronauts", An Austrian 2 man formation playing instrumental progrock/metal/djent and yeah they surely like to use a drumcomputer or samples, it adds up to the performance they create.
When I saw Focus a few years back, we were staying in the same hotel and had drinks after the gig. Thijs was talking about this OGWT recording. He said the tiny room size doesn't come across on screen, e.g. the amp cabinets - stuck right next to each other, Jan's guitar neck close to the organ.
Was waiting for the surprise ending.. never expected it to be a bum note from Jan!! And the look on Thijs's face.. A surprise ending indeed. Never seen this footage before. Thanks for the upload. Love Focus. Also Earth & Fire and Kayak. The 70's were the golden age for Dutch (progressive) rock.
I think he had trouble with a string slipping out of tune, he was interrupted to grab a tuning machine at 1:39 then train wrecked about 22 seconds later on a simple 3 notes on the same tone passage, it sounded like the 3rd note just slipped way out of tune.
Not wishing to over analyse every breath. I noticed when Jan messed, he smirked to Pierre vdL whom I gather was a friend, kinda cutting Thijs out of the joke. Anyway it does not matter. We want the best for all of them.
@@fmtfniuprog8029 "A lot" is pushing it, you aren't recognised as a guitar great and had a career for over fifty years if you hit "a lot" of bum notes! 🙄😂
One of my favourite bands, and one of their best songs. I prefer their studio recordings because Jan gets a bit excited during live performances, and the songs can sound very different from the studio recording, but I really do admire his guitar work.
thijs van leer would probably be one among a very few actually passing the actual whistle test? :D mr akkerman's guitarisms should never be overlooked! o_0
Saw them a couple of years back in Camden Town London. Still a brilliant live act. Catch them if you can. Menno Gootjes on guitar is a fantastic replacement for Jan.
I love how TVL's head is bobbing at quaver speed, not the simple 4/4 that most musos would be tapping their foot to keep inner time. Shows his fast his mind is driving his music.
Ritchie Blackmore hardly ever complimented any contemporary guitarists apart from Jeff Beck but he thought Jan was great. Spot on Ritchie ... he is. Saw them on their first big U.K. tour. Fantastic ... a largely instrumental group who really got a crowd going through sheer infectious energy, talent, spontaneity. No one sounds like Jan Ackerman.
When I saw Deep Purple on their Perfect Strangers tour, the one of the songs being played over the PA before Deep Purple took the stage and things getting sorted after the opening act was House of the King by Focus which I got a big kick out.
When Focus appeared on the scene and Jan Akkerman played the infamous Hocus Pocus, all the English guitar masters went into hiding embarrassed and worried. American players just pretended it never happened.
Big Ackermann fan here: Very interesting video... Ackermann is having some pretty obvious tuning problems and (IMHO) just gave up in frustration knowing this take was unusable. I assume this is an alternate (unused) take.
Didn't realize they stopped because this was just a rehearsal or camera test or something. At first I thought they were just being artsy and different, and I was actually kind of impressed.
Happy Birthday Jan Akkerman born on December 24, 1946. He is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Akkerman
Wow, this is rare (and I have the Focus Anthology DVD). Great clip, thanks for posting. This must be just before the definitive performance which went into the "We'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas" version of Hocus Pocus :D
Man I was just thinking about how'Hocus Pocus' their biggest song by far was toungue in cheek satire of the very same prog rock genre they are known for...so I am already convinced that this was quite intentional.Guys on that level aren't going to end on a clam note yet stop at precisely that moment.This is some brilliant sctuff that doesn't take itself too seriously.Oh, and Jan's tone..Gretsch filtertron pickups on a Gibson Les Paul.. Just wow.
It sounds like Jan had an issue with (possibly) his 2nd string going very flat suddenly (though not breaking) as they were just past the intro and Van Leer just stopped playing after hearing it...it looks odd because Van Leer just looks down at the Hammond instead of looking at Jan and nothing is said...peculiar, but those things happen. As an added note, that looks like a Gretsch Hi-Lo Tron pickup in the neck position of his LP Custom.
Akkermann plays so weird different lttle way that makes Van Leer got freezin before his high notes special part. Maybe a small reminding that who is the real bandleader...last pending note flips carpet under the Van Leer feet, totally out of focus this time.
After 27 years apart I met up with my teenage best friend again just before his 50th birthday in 2010, I wanted to give him something special so I gave him my 1973 pressing of Focus at the Rainbow, we were both massive fans; he's mysteriously fucked off again somewhere as usual but hopefully he still cherishes it!
One of those tunes you hear from time to time on TV. I tracked it down a few years ago and then forgot it. It came into my head again last night and I couldn't remember who it was by, but managed to find it again. I've saved the video this time.
Remember it.Good God but im a serious auld fella now with a ton of years and memories and all sorts of what notts no one is interested in but i can now listen to this on a park bench with ear phones,amazn.
When Hocus Pocus was a hit on the radio I bought their Moving Waves Lp....fantastic album. So naturally I bought Focus 3 when it came out. It gets my vote for the greatest fusion album ever made. Followed by GoodGod with their one and only album on Atlantic Records 1972. Recorded at the great Sigma Sound Studio in Philadelphia.
Yep ! Still listening to Moving Waves LP and reckon the last track on side 1 called Focus 11 is one of the best one take tracks ever made. Jan may be playing a Les Paul with a P90 pickup ( or is it the Filter -tron?? All I know is that it's fabulous.
No, it's not a "shitty Gibson." It's not a bad headstock design. This is Jan Akkerman--who knows better. Have you ever played under hot studio lights? I didn't think so.
![Focus - "Focus II" - Moving Waves (Including ending) (1971) [Restored]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KMU4biOsJ-w/mqdefault.jpg)
Saw them in Sheffield 1972. Awesome.
I saw them live about that time, at a music festival. It was at a racecourse and I cannot, for the life of me, remember whether it was Kempton or Sandown. But I do remember that one of the grandstands, a temporary affair made out of scaffolding, collapsed injuring a number of people.
So did I :)
Weren't the 70s just great .
There will never be another decade as good and creative as the seventies, so lucky i was a teenager back then !
And it's only ever got worse and worse.
@@johanstaelens5194 except maybe the 60s?
Not just great,the 70s were the best!
Of course they were...no doubt about It...👍👍
Jan's guitar playing is so clean and smooth. One of, if not, the best guitarist ever.
Not all Dutch masters were painters. Great stuff ( however brief )
some were cigars
great drummer
@@flyboysteven9979 Your joke was perfecto!
Ok that explains it! Thank you
Brilliant comment..
Stumbled upon this, and for the first minute or so I thought this was a cover or a rip-off of some long-forgotten piece from my childhood... until I realized it was _exactly_ that long-forgotten piece from my childhood!
Awesome! What a feeling that must've been!
@MichaelKingsfordGray Why, thank you, Shakespeare
Today's chart musicians aren't even worthy of drinking the artists who appeared on the OGT's piss. True story.
Important to remember though that this wasn't exactly chart music back then either. Top of the Pops did the charts and singles. The Whistle Test showcased more interesting works.
@@robgrainger5314 Interesting enough to reach No. 4 in the Singles Chart. Us boomers had taste 😉
I remember watching this on the whistle test. Next morning I bought Focus 3.
Stewart Gray So did I!
Me too😀
Focus 3 Great double album....
Just as well they weren’t called Lamborghini...
I played it so much that I wore it out and had to buy a second copy. How many of today’s bands could produce a quality double album?
Where has the originality gone in rock, exciting times, love the memories and the time of discovering bands like this.
Where it always has been. In the underground.
@@shangri-la-la-la where would you suggest I look?
Money money money, and brain deterioration. Not forgetting Simon Cowell!!!
it's not the originality that has gone, it's your youth.
There’s a lot of good jam bands out there, also interesting new prog stuff . Check out king gizzard and the lizard wizard.
I caught them live a while back Van Leer and Pierre Van Der Linden were really approachable. Van Leer even introduced me to his wife (she was selling merchandise) wonderful gig just a shame that Jan wasn't with them but the young guitarist they had with them (Menno Gootjes) was superb.
At one time in the 70's Jan was voted best guitarist in the world in the music papers and rightly so. I used to love watching the Whistle Test back then. Great, wonderful, creative bands the likes of which we will definitely NOT see in this century!
Indeed, Jan was very skilled. That's why I could never "get" any of the other "guitar heros" at the time. Then as my musicanship skills got better, I realised the other guys were also very skilled! yikes!
Gojira and vampire weekend are just as great.
Good times gone mate 👍🏻 loved Whistle Test 👍🏻
Spot on as the crap masquerading as music these days is throwaway, disposable, instantly forgettable trash. The wannabees of this millenium would actually have to learn to play an instrument correctly. No chance of that.
@@rockdinosaur666 I totally agree with you on that 100%
'Focus' and 'Yes' set the fundaments of my musical education that had been widened by 'The Allman Brothers Band'. Still love them all until today.
Remember that Jan Ackermann guested on Peter Banks' solo lp "Two Sides of Peter Banks" 1973, so good !!!!
Jan Akkernann !!!
Always Jan can tell a whole story with his guitar, but the group was so much in front of her time
Fell in love with Sylvia the first time I heard it, and Hocus Pocus was one of the most unique tracks of all time. I would love to have seen Whispering Bob's reaction to this. I expect he put a tiny smile on his lips and raised an eyebrow a thousandth of an inch.
Anything progressive and he was all for it.
Remember seeing them on WT as a 14 year old, went and bought the album the next day, first one i'd ever bought, still have it, very well used.
"WT" ?
Also, "very well used" might be both a positive and a negative thing... :D
.
@@kurzackd in my own little world there, WT = old grey whistle test.
Well used as in , played hundreds of times, I still have a 1986 Sanyo C20 I play it on.
Saw them in Whitby last year they are playing again in November there will be going subject to corona virus
Gracious goodness... 50 yrs back this great band came to us... Time is fainting smoke...
Now I know where Al diMeola got his strumming technique!
In a interview with Rolling Stone, when they asked Eric Clapton who was the best guitarist, without hesitation he said Jan Akkerman....I really enjoy his latest stuff, as well as his album The Noise of Art
I have the Noise of Art, superb album.
Hmm... I have seen this comment before when Clapton was allegedly asked the same question and he replied Prince. Another time it was someone else. Seems he changed his mind a lot. Or this is a bullshit comment.
@@thepub245 Don't know about that but Hendrix seemed to pick a different guy every time he was asked the same question.
@@oldbatwit5102 Hendrix didn't nominate anyone, just lots of people saying he did, and a different guitarist every time.
@@GreenDistantStar You may well be right. He was never shy of praising other guitarists.
some one below this thread has dared suggest that Jan was not so good live as on record...because he stopped this run-through?!! You can see he was distracted by his guitar de-tuning, he starts a quick re-tune when Tjis first starts singing, then another retune in the middle of his melody (!), then gives the drummer a look when he splashes the cymbal as if to say, we should bale here, then he's looking to Tjis again, we have to bale.
This was a sound-check/camera take, not for broadcast.
@@thedevilinthecircuit1414 No, that was the first take - something went wrong, and they started from the beginning again on take 2. They recorded 3 takes.
How come a whole big bunch of people in their late teens and early 20’s were able to create magnificent imaginative music in the 1960’s, 1970’s and into the 1980’s and today’s people can’t do that? Why is there no talent any more right across every genre that makes up the whole popular and rock music scene like Focus, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, The Doors, Black Sabbath, YES, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Bob Dylan, Rory Gallagher, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Gong, Camel, Caravan, Harry Chapin, Queen, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys……. There are lots more. What is it about back then, in those days, that caused all these (and more) great artists to flourish? Why not nowadays?
Jan Akerman brilliant guitarist went on to make some great solo albums
👍
Jan Akkerman was the first player I’d seen that had added a Filtertron pickup to a Les Paul. It looked so out of place, yet sounded so great, that it stuck in my head. That was back in the 1970’s when “The Old Grey Whistle Test” was first on BBC 2!
Beautiful tune. First heard it back in the early 70's when I was just a kid.
I saw these guys open at the Oval music Fest 1972? A day to remember with ELP & Wishbone Ash closing.
I was at London University in the early 70s. A friend came back from Amsterdam raving about this new group and when they came to England we saw them several times at the Marquee and elsewhere. Akkerman was amazing. My friend smuggled a tape recorder in to the Marquee with the microphone up his coat sleeve - wish I could find the tape!
I used to watch the Whistle Test every week religiously. I have vivid memories of seeing Focus's performance. I spent all my pocket money on the Focus at the Rainbow vinyl. 40 odd years later I'm here still enjoying their music. Life is good😀
what a legend you are mate. i am at my 20s and i found them on my local cd shop and till this day i am proud i found out about them. Akkerman is top guitarist for me and van leer for me is very talented men i still wished if i was born back then to go to their live preformances :(
Great band playing a masterpiece!
Remember playing this in my band. (hammond organ B3 and Leslie 122). Absolutely love the key changes and modulations jumping through F to G to A and back.
Before he began killing people in movies, Liam Neeson was a bitchin' guitar player.
When musicians played instruments...not a drum machine and auto tune.
Thanks Grandad.
@@Teeb2023 He has a point though. Not saying this applies to all bands, as there are many bands who still know how to do it well. Looking at your playlist I'd think you would agree with him up to a certain level :-)
@@Kloashut You're absolutely right, but I hate this dull, curmudgeonly condemnation of everything electronic, and let's face it, that's what he's condemning; anything that isn't 100% analog and "organic". I'd love to hear what ol' Joe Z would have to say to him, and what Mr Black would have to say in response...
@@Teeb2023 Indeed. What I notice within my generation ['65] is that most get stuck within their timeframe. This is a genuine shame as if they would look/search at bit more thourough they'll notice that there are plenty new gems to be found. I got spoonfed with Sabbath/Ash/Gallagher/TYA etc etc, still love & listen to them but there is so much good new music to be found that it would be a shame not to experience it, wether it'd be purely "classic" rock or partly electronic. For instance, one of my latest favs are "Their Dogs were Astronauts", An Austrian 2 man formation playing instrumental progrock/metal/djent and yeah they surely like to use a drumcomputer or samples, it adds up to the performance they create.
The new Blue Oyster Cult album has plenty of musicians playing instruments on it...
Absolutely super!!👍🏽 one of my favourite Focus tunes 👏🏼
Another gold nugget!
Seriously? They're all over the place, theres no continuity
When I saw Focus a few years back, we were staying in the same hotel and had drinks after the gig. Thijs was talking about this OGWT recording. He said the tiny room size doesn't come across on screen, e.g. the amp cabinets - stuck right next to each other, Jan's guitar neck close to the organ.
Give me this instead of today's videos
Couldn't agree more
Yes. It’s a bad dream.
The first gig I ever went to: Focus, Victoria Hall, Hanley, Staffs. January 19,1973. I was 11 years old!
Always love 70's rock music since the beginning.....
Still in my top 5 favorites. This Van Lear and Jan Akerman were brilliant.
Shockingly, I had forgotten about this track that I was nuts about as a teenager.
Was waiting for the surprise ending.. never expected it to be a bum note from Jan!! And the look on Thijs's face.. A surprise ending indeed. Never seen this footage before. Thanks for the upload. Love Focus. Also Earth & Fire and Kayak. The 70's were the golden age for Dutch (progressive) rock.
Finch, Solution, Pantheon, Groop 1650, Supersister and Ekseption weren't bad either....
Obviously not the take that was aired; a bit chaotic with Jan trying to tune his guitar half way through!
my sisters focus export e.p. is not just rare its unique as she left it in a car and it warped in the sun. priceless
Wonderful sounding Hammond spinet organ. Not a b3 or c3 insight.
Now that's the sort of "focus group" I can relate to. Glad to be born in '58.
Me too, nice timing for us, those days are gone my friend, except in our memories.
Glasgow 10 Jan 73. The small venue was Clouds, basically a dance hall. Unforgettable.
The great Jan Akkerman hitting a bum note! Didn't happen often. Great track.
On guitar solos he gave and continues to give a lot of "bum notes", but he will always be one of my favorite guitarists...!
I think he had trouble with a string slipping out of tune, he was interrupted to grab a tuning machine at 1:39 then train wrecked about 22 seconds later on a simple 3 notes on the same tone passage, it sounded like the 3rd note just slipped way out of tune.
Not wishing to over analyse every breath. I noticed when Jan messed, he smirked to Pierre vdL whom I gather was a friend, kinda cutting Thijs out of the joke. Anyway it does not matter. We want the best for all of them.
@@fmtfniuprog8029 "A lot" is pushing it, you aren't recognised as a guitar great and had a career for over fifty years if you hit "a lot" of bum notes! 🙄😂
@@dodibenabba1378 A lot of `Jazz' notes maybe, not exactly `wrong'
Sylvia! My favorite Focus tune. Jan Akkerman is great!
One of my favourite bands, and one of their best songs. I prefer their studio recordings because Jan gets a bit excited during live performances, and the songs can sound very different from the studio recording, but I really do admire his guitar work.
thijs van leer would probably be one among a very few actually passing the actual whistle test? :D
mr akkerman's guitarisms should never be overlooked! o_0
Drums and bass locked in
And the next night, Jan started using .13 gauge strings. 😁
Ahhh the surprise ending was that it ended. 😂
thats got to be the rehearsal
Saw them a couple of years back in Camden Town London. Still a brilliant live act. Catch them if you can. Menno Gootjes on guitar is a fantastic replacement for Jan.
" Focus !" The missus often says that to me.... I'll send her this excellent track by an excellent band...
Wow...how did I miss this band growing up. I love these guys.
I love how TVL's head is bobbing at quaver speed, not the simple 4/4 that most musos would be tapping their foot to keep inner time. Shows his fast his mind is driving his music.
Do you mean TVL's head? [Typo van Leer?] :•)
His head is bobbing eighths instead of quarters, in time with the drummer's hi-hat.
@@onemoremisfit
Yeah, sorry, you're right. Eighths.
I just thought he was being eccentric!!🤦♀️🤦♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
Why is this 'extremely rare'? Surely every performance is 'extremely rare' as it only happens once?
Ritchie Blackmore hardly ever complimented any contemporary guitarists apart from Jeff Beck but he thought Jan was great. Spot on Ritchie ... he is. Saw them on their first big U.K. tour. Fantastic ... a largely instrumental group who really got a crowd going through sheer infectious energy, talent, spontaneity. No one sounds like Jan Ackerman.
When I saw Deep Purple on their Perfect Strangers tour, the one of the songs being played over the PA before Deep Purple took the stage and things getting sorted after the opening act was House of the King by Focus which I got a big kick out.
Thank F..K for that HaHa
Recuerdo mis quince años escuchando este tema..espectacular...sublime!! La buena música nunca pasa...esta ahí para escucharla...
Power cuts were common place in the early '70s. We always kept a box of candles in the house.
It was kind of exciting for a 12 year old. But a travesty to do it during Sylvia
When Focus appeared on the scene and Jan Akkerman played the infamous Hocus Pocus, all the English guitar masters went into hiding embarrassed and worried. American players just pretended it never happened.
Rubbish.
Oh? INCLUDING Holdsworth?
@@synthonaplinth5980 And John McLaughlin!
O Jan dá uma afinada na guitarra no meio do solo (1:39)! Que ouvido, hein?!
Big Ackermann fan here: Very interesting video... Ackermann is having some pretty obvious tuning problems and (IMHO) just gave up in frustration knowing this take was unusable. I assume this is an alternate (unused) take.
Didn't realize they stopped because this was just a rehearsal or camera test or something. At first I thought they were just being artsy and different, and I was actually kind of impressed.
They stopped because Jan's guitar was out of tune, he tries to retune the top e as he's playing then hits a clunker and they stop playing
Happy Birthday Jan Akkerman born on December 24, 1946. He is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Akkerman
Wow, this is rare (and I have the Focus Anthology DVD). Great clip, thanks for posting. This must be just before the definitive performance which went into the "We'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas" version of Hocus Pocus :D
My goodness!!!! Van Leer's as high as a kite!!!!))))) So funny to see it. Thanks for posting.
Around 1972 Focus came to Schimmert, because Living Blues cancelled. Rather had seen Living Blues. Focus too much
screaming
Man I was just thinking about how'Hocus Pocus' their biggest song by far was toungue in cheek satire of the very same prog rock genre they are known for...so I am already convinced that this was quite intentional.Guys on that level aren't going to end on a clam note yet stop at precisely that moment.This is some brilliant sctuff that doesn't take itself too seriously.Oh, and Jan's tone..Gretsch filtertron pickups on a Gibson Les Paul.. Just wow.
Hocus Pocus was a studio jam. They were mucking about, warming up for a session. They liked it so much they kept it.
It sounds like Jan had an issue with (possibly) his 2nd string going very flat suddenly (though not breaking) as they were just past the intro and Van Leer just stopped playing after hearing it...it looks odd because Van Leer just looks down at the Hammond instead of looking at Jan and nothing is said...peculiar, but those things happen. As an added note, that looks like a Gretsch Hi-Lo Tron pickup in the neck position of his LP Custom.
Coventry Merchant Seaman's Club 1972.
This makes me want to fall in love with a woman called "Sylvia"...if i could find such a woman..
Great music ,I like Hocus Pocus .
I love these whistle test run throughs. I enjoyed watching Alice cooper doing under my wheels over and over.... fascinating 😊
Stin leuki me agapi alexandros 1991 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Hahaha, that was a weird ending ... can't see anything like that today.
Amazing guitar, the intro time signature is off the bloody scale ... superb. 😊
I was a merchant seaman during the seventies and think this is the only TV program I watched when on leave during that decade.
Akkermann plays so weird different lttle way that makes Van Leer got freezin before his high notes special part. Maybe a small reminding that who is the real bandleader...last pending note flips carpet under the Van Leer feet, totally out of focus this time.
Who remembers Focus at Friars- Aylesbury. November 1972? Then a 12 mile walk home for me
After 27 years apart I met up with my teenage best friend again just before his 50th birthday in 2010, I wanted to give him something special so I gave him my 1973 pressing of Focus at the Rainbow, we were both massive fans; he's mysteriously fucked off again somewhere as usual but hopefully he still cherishes it!
this track had a deep effect on me when i was 13 i was spellbound!
European progressive rock and fusion from the 1970s is grand!
One of those tunes you hear from time to time on TV. I tracked it down a few years ago and then forgot it. It came into my head again last night and I couldn't remember who it was by, but managed to find it again. I've saved the video this time.
Remember it.Good God but im a serious auld fella now with a ton of years and memories and all sorts of what notts no one is interested in but i can now listen to this on a park bench with ear phones,amazn.
ホカス・ポカスの次に好きな曲。良く練習したもんです。キャッチーなフレーズとインプロの工夫がし易いのでステージ映えする曲ですわ。わかり易いし。
Upload a mistake, call it a surprising ending. Make views.
When Hocus Pocus was a hit on the radio I bought their Moving Waves Lp....fantastic album. So naturally I bought Focus 3 when it came out. It gets my vote for the greatest fusion album ever made. Followed by GoodGod with their one and only album on Atlantic Records 1972. Recorded at the great Sigma Sound Studio in Philadelphia.
This sounds a lot like ELP from Brain Salad Surgery
Terje Formo, eat your heart out!
This on BBC4's "Exotic Pop" right now, and a better copy at that too
Conheço quase tudo sou puta Fanático estou com coletânea apertem os cintos la vem uma grande viagem
That organ player p1sses in an audience member's shoe at the end....
Sounds like a 1980 TV sitcom opening track
Was that a Filtertron on his Gibson? At least on the neck? Any other guitar nerd around here too?
I believe so, with a standard Gibson humbucker at the bridge.
Yep ! Still listening to Moving Waves LP and reckon the last track on side 1 called Focus 11 is one of the best one take tracks ever made. Jan may be playing a Les Paul with a P90 pickup ( or is it the Filter -tron?? All I know is that it's fabulous.
OK , surprising end , but rare video . It's OGWT .
sounds like a dreamcast Sonic game....
Because video games' music is largely based on 80's music(metal, hair metal), at times 70's (prog)
.
The problem with a guitar is that it's getting out of tune easily, even when it's an expensive guitar.
No.. it's just the shitty gibson headstock
@@p1TCHONEEE Probably the worst design out there, creating those different string angles as they pass over the nut.
@@Rich6Brew Perhaps....but oh what a rich, fat sound.
@@Rich6Brew bang on there. The engineering on that bit that sticks out....dreadful, for the price
No, it's not a "shitty Gibson." It's not a bad headstock design. This is Jan Akkerman--who knows better. Have you ever played under hot studio lights?
I didn't think so.
Die Live-Vetsionen waren damals oft grottenschlecht!Ein sehr gutes Beispiel! Trucky.
happy sound
Dutch Masters Indeed 💜😪💔