Exciting news… Wouter, the Dutch mastering chap who worked on last year’s sensational 26CD Jan Akkerman box set, is currently working on a forthcoming Focus box set to include their seven 1970-77 albums (mastered for CD from the original master tapes for the first time) with a load of outtakes, video content and AT LAST the fantastic Paris Theatre BBC radio concert from 1972, long circulated as a bootleg as ‘The Sky Will Fall Over London Tonight’. Hurrah! 😀
Exciting news for Focus fans…
That IS exciting. (Not being ironic.) Hope it comes as an autorip from the ‘Dodgers – my wife is particularly delighted that wherever we are in the house we can be serenaded by the complete works of Soft machine, Hatfield and the North, and Weather Report from Alexa. it’s probably just as well the mem is going deaf.
I never thought the Rainbow concert could be eclipsed, but that version of Answers etc is fantastic. Of their quiet stuff, I was always fond of this
I agree on both counts – though, that said, I used to think the BBC concert better than the Rainbow one, but I’m now of the view that they’re both fantastic 🙂 The BBC one has the advantage of adding Anonymous II to the set, in comparison to the Rainbow one – so it all feels more uptempo as a result. But the real majesty of Focus is in the slower numbers, like Focus V. The likes of Hocus Pocus and Sylvia grab the attention and the jaw drops, etc – but after a while, it’s the more composed, nuanced stuff that really impresses.
Incidentally, the OGWT broadcast a 30-odd minute version of the Rainbow concert back in 1973, but a copy from Brazilian TV circulates with added tracks, particularly ‘House of the King’ and one of Jan’s three (apparently) lute solo encores – neither of which were on the LP version either. The reason for the former is clearly cos Jan breaks near the start and has to compose a solo missing the string and with another badly out of tune – it’s fascinating watching him think around it, bending notes into tune etc. 🙂 HOTK starts around 34:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caU4Al3nX8Y&t=63s
Hmmmm; wallet shred alert.
Good quality Focus material is always, always, always good news. A year or three back I invested in the Hocus Pocus box containing 13 CDs put out by Red Bullet – it filled in a couple of gaps I had otherwise been unable to fill.
Will the forthcoming set be a big improvement do you think? I’ll buy it anyway for the extras and especially for the Paris Theatre gig!
I think, mastering wise alone, it will be. All the Focus CDs to date have come from imperfect sources – indeed, they all seem to repeat the same track ident errors (e.g. the coda at the end of Anonymous I being tacked on to the start of House of the King), suggesting that CD version 1 has been ripped for CD version 2 etc. Wouter assured me that he has sourced pristine masters of the albums for this set. Also, all the non-LP tracks will be added (B side O Avondrood has always been missing in action) let alone the licensed in audio and video material. I’ve alerted Wouter to a hitherto untapped short Irish TV concert by the chaps from 1973, so one hopes that can be added. I’m guessing that the 1976 BBC radio In Concert will join the 172 one, and perhaps the 1974 BBC TV In Concert…
Cheers, Col. I’m now wondering if I’ll need to put any pets/spouses/livestock up on eBay to pay for this little lot. Whatever happens, I’m buying it.