Focus in the UK once again April 2026 (and Happy Birthday)

For some reason we tend not to note birthdays on this blog but today Thijs van Leer is 78 today. Happybirthday! Further, Focus will be here in the UK April 20-May 2. Notable dates from my point of view are the two in Wales April 27 (Cardiff, where I have seen them in the past) and May 2 (Newport, where I was born). Also April 28 (Wavendon, MK, where I hope to see them this time round). Other venues include Southampton, Aldershot and Trading Boundaries Nr Fletching, where I have seen Jan twice. They are coming here twice gain before year's end.

Death of Mike Vernon

CNRS, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Readers of this blog wil be sorry to hear of the recent death of Mike Vernon, the band's first producer in the UK. Most of the writing following his death has majored on Clapton and Fleetwood Mac but his services to Focus were, at the time, very important. He was 81. His voice can be heard, I believe, n the track Round goes the Gossip.