Under the Rainbow

The new live album from Jan Akkerman is out today. Some 8 of the 11 grow out of the Focus era. Well worth a listen.

A few days on stand outs for me are Focus 1 and Anonymus (complete with a Yankee doodle segment) both from the very earliest Focus album. Focus 2 excellent, no Focus 3 for some reason.

New live album by Akkerman coming

Former Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman has announced that he will release his latest solo album, My Focus - Live Under The Rainbow through Artone/Music Theories Recordings on December 12.

A live album, My Focus - Live Under The Rainbow was recorded during Akkemran's February tour which saw him and his band playing Bush Hall (London) which I was at, The Fire Station (Sunderland), Philharmonic Hall (Liverpool), Oran Mor (Glasgow), The Met (Bury), The Stables (Wavendon) and The Apex (Bury St. Edmunds), and features some of Focus' classic tunes.

"Live audiences give you the tension and responsibility to be creative, for me, that's the challenge I like," he says. "It's my love to play for people all around the world. I play these songs because my soul and heart are in there. It's a God given talent I have, which makes me feel proud of myself!"

Track listing (vinyl)

Side 1

1. Answers Questions - Questions Answers (Live)
2. Focus 2(Live)
3. Focus 1 (Live)
4. Anonymous (Live)
5. Sylvia (Live)
Side 2

1. Big Sur (Live)
2. Tommy's Anniversary (Live)
3. Pietons (Live)
4. Hocus Pocus (Live)

CD/Digital

Spiritual Privacy
Answers Questions – Questions Answers
Focus 2
Focus 1
Palace Of The King
Anonymous
Big Sur
Tommy’s Anniversary
Piétons
Hocus Pocus
Sylvia

And more Lego

 

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. 

More on Melanie and Akkerman

So the album is out and can be heard. (Several tracks are on YouTube). It is a nice album but very much a Melanie album. One can hear little Akkerman bits perhaps but it is a selfless bit of support for the big star from America in the main. On the second track she introduces Jan and Raul Rekow, the conga player from Santana and there is a brief instrumental track featuring a bit of Classical Gas and Gate to Europe. Neither Melanie nor Raul are with us any more.

Melanie and Akkerman 1988

Amazingly, this month (October 18 2024) an unlikely 1988 recording will be published that everyone seems to have forgotten. There must be little in common between the American singer songwriter, the late Melanie Safka (she died early this year) and the virtuoso guitarist Jan Akkerman. However, on May 24, 1988 the two legends found themselves not only sharing the stage but actually performing together.

This unique collaboration, which took place in Leiden, Holland, during a music festival, was captured on a professional recording, and is soon set to see release as “In Focus: Live ’88”.

Akkerman with a female vocalist is hardly unheard of as recordings with Trea Dobbs, Karin Kent, Wanda, Bojoura, Yvette Cason, B B Queen and his own daughter Laurie demonstrate.

There must be  afew recordings like this about, where successful American artists came to Holland and took advantage of the local talent available. And then there is the live performance of Tubular Bells when Akkerman stood in for a jittery Mike Oldfield. Wouldn't mind hearing that.

The track list is as follows. Track 5 looks interesting.

1. Beautiful People

2. Chosen Few

3. What Have They Done To The Rain

4. Bon Appétit

5. Jan Akkerman and Raul Rekow instrumental

6. Every Breath Of The Way

7. Working Legend

8. Loving The Boy Next Door

9. Just Can’t Do It

10. Together Alone

11. Private Parts

12. Prematurely Grey

13. What Have They Done To My Song, Ma

14. Tuning My Guitar

15. Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

Jan Akkerman at Trading Boundaries

It was my joy to be down in Sussex last Friday at Trading Boundaries to catch the first of three concerts by Jan Akkerman and his band - the first time in a while. The concert was in two halves and was more jazzy for the first half (a nice section Crackers to Angel Watch) and more rocky for the second (though Focus 2 and Anonymous are unique). The bass player has broken his leg and so had to sit and Jan didn't seem quite happy with his two Gibson guitars for some of the time. I got a little lost on Tommy's Anniversary but otherwise it was a great concert. Nice to meet Jan and Mrs Akkerman, looking after the merchandise. Jan seemed tired at the end of a long day. He is 75, of course.

New Jan Akkerman Album out today

It is called Close Beauty. Check out the details here The track Retrospection explores the Focus link.

New Akkerman album out on October 25 2019

Complete Jan Akkerman

We hear that a 26 CD Jan Akkerman set is being released next month. UK pricing is around £99. Wouter Bessels, who compiled, annotated and mastered the set in collaboration with Jan, kindly put some background info online elsewhere. He says

The booklet will be substantial, yes, to say the least. 66 pages. A biography by yours truly, with several pages of photos from all eras of Jan’s career – including several previously unpublished shots, followed by an album-to-album breakdown, featuring full credits (including never before published facts about who played what on particular albums) and Jan’s own memories about the 23 studio and live albums, taken from recent extended interviews I’ve done with Jan. In addition there’s a cd featuring his personal selection of Focus tracks, with some pre-Focus stuff added (Johnny and His Cellar Rockers, The Hunters and Brainbox) and a cd full of previously unreleased stuff such as basic tracks from “Angel Watch” and “Stingray” (both without string and woodwind overdubs!) and the original demo for “Crackers” recorded in the Summer of 1975 with Pierre van der Linden on drums. That particular demo was recorded during rehearsals for the 1975 Japan/Australia tour of Focus for which Pierre temporarily rejoined the band.

Regarding the mastering: I have been working for almost a year to transfer the analog 2-track tapes – or digital safety copies in some cases – for most of the albums up to 1993. Expect some flat transfers (as some were very good and did not need to be enhanced – less is more), expect some carefully dynamically remastering on some albums (eg. the 1977 guitar in bed album – which sounds pretty hollow and too bright – I have carefully corrected that), a few needle drops (as some mastertapes have disappeared and/or were untraceable) and for the rarities cd: a variety of sources, from 2-track DAT, cassettes to 2-track analog / 2-track digital. ‘Subsequently all cd-masters were checked and prepared for production by Peter Brussee of QPoint mastering in Hilversum (The Netherlands) – no additional EQ’ing a.o. was done during that final process. I can honestly say that Jan’s back catalogue is now fully future proof!’

Moving Waves Documentary

Some good news now bad news - the 1997 documentary on the making of the album Moving Waves was briefly available on Youtube. The bad news for monoglot English speakers was that the documentary is in Dutch. However, as it was made up of performances and interviews with Mike Vernon and Jerry Boys there was quite a bit not in Dutch. Die hard fans might even have been able to work out what was being said in Dutch as van Leer describes the writing of Hocus Pocus, perhaps, or as Akkerman describes his early career and Havermans is asked about the bass parts! Anyway it is gone for now.

PS It is on the 50 year anthology box set

Akkerman by Hogg

As mentioned, the boy who really got me into Focus all those years ago was called Robert Hogg. I found this and the other one looking for something the other day. We all agreed that he gets Akkerman better than van Leer. On reflection, I may have only paid 50p or 60p for the pair (both are on one large sheet of drawing room paper). Scandalously cheap. Thanks again!