Focus
Focus is a Dutch progressive rock band, founded by classically trained organist/flautist Thijs van Leer in 1969, most famous for the instrumental "Hocus Pocus". The band broke up in 1978, but reformed in 2002 and has been recording and touring since. They have received renewed fame as "Hocus Pocus" was used as the theme for the Nike 2010 World Cup commercial, Write The Future, directed by the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu. The song was also featured in the 2014 film RoboCop. (Read more at Wikipedia)
Links to Peel[]
Although Peel seemed to take a liking to the band's most famous song, "Hocus Pocus" (which, actually, was intended as a parody of progressive rock), he wasn't really interested in them. He may well have thought their music, which often consisted of long instrumental sections with solos, was too much for its own sake, or too conventional, lacking the avant-garde influences found in the music of the progressive bands he preferred.
In 1973, he stated that he liked "the Faces, the Floyd and the Who, but not ELP, Yes, and Focus." [1] In a Sounds column (12 January 1974) he quotes from a letter from a listener who was annoyed by his repeated criticism of Focus ("Alright you've made your point and there's no need to keep on saying what you think of them week after week")[1]).
His Sounds Of The Seventies colleague Bob Harris was much more enthusiastic about the band, and repeated plays on his shows contributed to their success. In his autobiography Still Whispering After All These Years, Harris recalled that after Focus had appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test in early 1973, audience reaction was such that "for the next 10 days their record company had to concentrate the entire resource of their pressing plant on fulfilling demand for their two available albums" - an indication of how influential the Whistle Test had become. But it didn't seem to change Peel's opinion of the band.
Sessions[]
- None
Other Shows Played[]
(Please add further information if known.)
- 08 September 1972: Hocus Pocus (LP - Moving Waves) Polydor
See Also[]
External Links[]
- Footnotes
- ↑ Osmonds 3, Sounds, 1 December 1973, reprinted in Olivetti Chronicles, p.283 (Corgi edition).