Focus on Focus: Pierre Van Der Linden

Showing posts with label Pierre Van Der Linden. Show all posts

20250508

Okay, last one

20210604

Track by track 157 Spiritual Swung

Archive number: 157
Title: Spiritual Swung
Main Album: The Focus Family Album
Track number: 13
Genre: Drums
Studio: Unknown
Length: 3:02
Composer: Pierre van der Linden
Musicians: Pierre van der Linden - Drums
Producer: Geert Scheigrond
Engineer: Marlies Helder
Label: In and Out of Focus Recordings
Date of recording/release: 2017
Alternative version: The same track is on Drum Poetry
Notes: This is another drum piece from Pierre van der Linden.

20201113

Track by track 147 Riverdance

Archive number: 147

Title: Riverdance
Main Album: The Focus Family Album

Track number: 3
Genre: Drums
Studio: Unknown
Length: 4:45
Composer: Pierre van der Linden
Musicians: Pierre van der Linden - Drums

Producer: Geert Scheigrond
Engineer: Marlies Helder
Label: In and Out of Focus Recordings
Date of recording/release: 2017

Alternative version: The same track is on Drum Poetry
Notes: This is a drum piece from Pierre van der Linden

20171010

Live at The Stables Milton Keynes October 2017

It was fun to be at a Focus Concert once again. I have seen them in The Stables. Milton Keynes before. It is a little sterile but it was good to see nearly 400 present. I ended up with a front side row seat just a few feet from Thijs van Leer himself. It was not a great spot in some ways but it gave certain advantages. We had the usual run - Focus 1, Anonymous, House of the King to begin; Eruption, Sylvia and La Cathedrale with Harem Scarem elsewhere; Hocus Pocus to close and Focus 3 with Answers Questions, Questions Answers as an encore. We also had All Hands on Deck, which I have heard before and, for the first time for me, P's March.

Being as close to van Leer as I was I observed how he mostly only used one hand to play the battered old Hammond organ he sat at most of the night. He also played the flute with one hand at times (sometimes combining flute and organ). He also played the haunting alto flute at the beginning, the simple melodica on Le Tango and did various things voice wise - scat, singing, whistling, yodelling, throat singing and oohs and aahs, usually with the vocoder. The high note on Hocus Pocuss are no longer possible but Thijs still has a very good singing voice.

I enjoyed all the solos from the band in the main, including new man Udo's six string bass. Still not sure about all of Menno's.

The evening began with an elderly heavy metal outfit called Burnt Out Wreck who were alright for what they were. After the main event the band happily signed autographs and chatted. I bought the latest offering (already purchased on itunes) and had it autographed. I also persuaded Pierre van der Linden to give me a signed drumstick.

20170901

New Focus Album Out Today September 1

Rather out of the blue a new Focus album appears today. What they have done is to interleave Focus tracks with tracks from members of the band to create an attractive double album adorned with one of Roger Dean's iconic artwork covers. I understand that the CD version is quite lavish in presentation. This is well worth a listen and full of good things. They could have simply produced a 10 track Focus album but by this means one gets something a bit more meaty and this is probably the right move, although why the old method of calling solo tracks a group effort (pioneered by the Beatles [Yesterday] and continued by Focus [Moving Waves, le Clochard]) could not have been followed I am not sure. Some few tracks have appeared before but the bulk is very fresh to most of us. It is called Focus Family Album and is available through the usual outlets.

20131218

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