FOCUS – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 28.4.24
There’s no getting away from it: Focus are rock legends. What precisely they’re doing playing a venue as small as Lewes Con Club on a Sunday night I really don’t know. I’m really pleased that they are though, as it’s a great opportunity to see them at close quarters. In July they tour with Asia on their ‘Heat Of The Moment’ tour. I suspect that the venues on that tour may be a little larger than tonight’s!
Not wishing to go completely over the top, but in terms of pure musicianship, Focus are one of the best bands that I’ve ever seen play live. Not only that, but this line-up with Udo Pannakeet on bass is the best line-up of the band that I’ve seen.
Most of Focus’ songs are quite long, so therefore it’s probably quite difficult to put a setlist together. As expected, there are quite a few selections from the band’s 1970s glory days. However, there are newer songs included, such as ‘Focus 7’ from 2006, and ‘All Hens On Deck’ (let it not be said that these boys don’t have a sense of humour) from 2012. There is nothing from their most recent album, ‘Focus 11’, which came out in 2018 which is a little surprising.
Opener ‘Focus I’ features wonderfully lyrical guitar lines from the get-go, together with the first of many superb flute solos from Thijs van Leer. Sometimes Thijs stands to play flute, sometimes he sits. The man is 76 years old! He can’t be expected to stand up all the time for goodness sake! Udo Pannakeet impresses with his six string bass. ‘Focus I’ is followed by ‘House Of The King’ which was Focus’ first hit.
‘Eruption’ is the first of the evening’s epics, and is a real tour de force. There is no self-indulgence here. It is absolutely absorbing all the way through. Thijs tells us that the piece “covers many moods”, and he’s absolutely right. It truly is a musical journey, including a jazz section in the middle of the piece. It concludes with an impressive drum solo from Pierre van der Linden. Pierre is 78 years old, and the stamina that he displays during his solo would make a man half his age proud.
‘Focus 7’ is one of the newer pieces given an airing tonight. Thijs sings into a separate mic to achieve a choral effect. I’m not entirely sure how this works. Perhaps it goes through a synthesiser? It appears that Thijs’ vocals provide the ‘voice’ for the notes he is playing on his keyboard. Whatever the technology behind it, it sounds really good!
The first set closes with ‘Sylvia’, which is probably the band’s most famous song. However, it starts with a jazz-rock feel, but soon becomes recognisable!
A definite highlight from the second set is ‘All Hens On Deck’, which is one of the band’s hardest rocking pieces in a while. Thijs sings along with the guitar solo. His vocals still have quite an impressive range. ‘La Cathedrale de Strasbourg’ is an absolute classic, starting with a very ecclesiastical sounding Hammond organ. Menno contributes some seemingly customary bewildering guitar, finishing the song with some tapping.
‘Harem Scarem’ is the second major epic of the evening. Thijs advises us that Menno and Udo are going to play “something new” as part of this piece, and that he and Pierre don’t know what it is! With that, he and the drummer wander offstage leaving Menno and Udo to get on with it! They start off with a lengthy and very Page-esque guitar solo. Menno detunes his bottom E string to mark the end of his contribution, and then Udo is on his own. He plays a bass solo, using a wah-wah pedal, which very much demonstrates the tonal range of his six string bass, with some bewilderingly fast playing. The term ‘virtuoso’ springs to mind. It’s not over yet. Thijs returns for his own solo, playing flute and keyboards simultaneously, which is nothing if not impressive. The rest of the band take a well earned break.
They return for a viciously fast ‘Hocus Pocus’. Many of the older bands that I’ve seen in the last decade or so (no names, I have a lucrative sideline doing PR for these people) tend to dial back somewhat on the energy that they expend playing live. There’s no sign of that here! I don’t know what powers Pierre van der Linden, but I want some!!! We get yodelling and band introductions, in fact they’re yodelled band introductions! Mr van der Linden still has plenty left in the tank apparently, as he finishes the song with quite a lengthy and energetic drum solo.
The band soak up their well-earned applause, and Thijs tells us that they’re going to play one more for us. This is effectively the encore, and it’s the (probably necessarily) slower ‘Focus III’. This really has been a lesson in “how it should be done”. Focus are a band at the absolute top of their game. They clearly love what they do and enjoy playing music together. I’m not entirely sure whether I should tell you this, but they play Guildford Boileroom on 14th August, and Tunbridge Wells Forum on 15th August. Please don’t buy tickets until I’ve got one!!!
Focus:
Thijs van Leer, keyboards, flute and vocals (1969 – 1978, 2002 – present)
Pierre van der Linden, drums (1971-1973, 1975, 2004 – present)
Menno Gootjes, guitar ( 2010 – present)
Udo Pannakeet, bass (2016 – present)
Focus setlist:
Set 1:
‘Focus I’ (from 1970 ‘Focus Plays Focus’ album)
‘House Of The King’ (from 1972 ‘Focus 3’ album)
‘Eruption’ (from 1971 ‘Focus II’ album)
‘Focus 7’ (from 2006 ‘Focus 9 / New Skin’ album)
‘Sylvia’ (from 1972 ‘Focus 3’ album)
Set 2:
‘Moving Waves’ (from 1971 ‘Focus II’ album)
‘All Hens On Deck’ (from 2012 ‘Focus X’ album)
‘La Cathedrale de Strasbourg’ (from 1974 ‘Hamburger Concerto’ album)
‘Harem Scarem’ (from 1974 ‘Hamburger Concerto’ album)
‘Hocus Pocus’ (from 1971 ‘Focus II’ album)
‘Focus III’ (from 1972 ‘Focus 3’ album)
