Looking at the music of Dutch rock band Focus, started in the late sixties by Thijs van Leer (b /31/03/48) with Jan Akkerman (b 24/12/46). Van Leer still performs and records under the name today (official site here). Akkerman's site here.

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20090611

Focus Live 05

In 1973 Focus began to break in America. A broadcast recording exists from that year. It was recorded in the Philharmonic Hall in New York on Friday March 23. This was one of about 24 venues played in this period between March 2 (Miami) and April 7 (San Francisco). It has many similarites with the released recordings at the Rainbow Theatre, London of May 4 and 5 beginning with Focus 3/AQQA/Focus 2 as it does. The other tracks are similar, though we also get Anonymous 2 and the two versions of Hocus Pocus are slightly differently apportioned.
There is also a poor recording, probably from the same period, at The Sunshine Inn, Asbury Park, New Jersey (Friday March 16) and similar recordings from the first half of 1973 at The National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland on Wednesday May 9 and in Edinburgh on Friday May 11. This was part of a 13 date tour of England, Scotland and Ireland between May 4 and 17, beginning at the Rainbow. The year had begun with a 21 date tour of English cities, January 7-31 (the last date in Manchester being an extra).

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