Jan Akkerman in London Feb 2025

Jan Akkerman has been dong a brief "My Focus" tour of the UK and I was able to see him last night in Shepherd's Bush last night with a ministerial friend of mine. This was the final concert of the tour. Mr Akkerman was on fine form and played mostly Focus numbers incuding Answers Questions Questions ANswers, which he co-wrote with the late Bert Ruiter. I particularly enjoyed Anonymus (with a bit of Yankee Doodle thrown in for good measure). The band were as tight as ever and we enjoyed brief solos from the bass and drums. Jan himself seemed happy enough most of the time. Bush Hall was full and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. It's weird to think that much of this music was wrtten fifty years ago or so. 

Focus at Bush Hall, W London April 2023

Shortly after arriving home from the conference I headed out again to West London, to a new venue for me, where Focus were playing - Bush Hall. Bush Hall is a lovely old building and it was an all seater gig. Not good with numbers but several hundred filled the place, with few empty spaces. Nice to meet Elias Weine Weg who had come all the way from Norway to be there. Some nice old geezers did a semi-acoustic blues to set things on their way. Then came the mighty Focus - on form with their usual set. The only surprise all evening was when one of Menno's guitar strings snapped and he had to abandon his favourite Gibson for another green one (didn't seem to make any difference). I probably know ths set (complete with solos from all four) too well to enjoy it to the max. It would be nice to hear live some of the other stuff they have on record.