Focus in Harlow

Went to see Focus in Harlow last night. It's 35 miles away so not too inconvenient. I'd never been to Harlow before but I knew it was a new town like Cwmbran where I come from so it was what I expected. The Playhouse is a nice municipal theatre holding 300 or so. It was full. This was part of a current tour by three seventies bands in their present form - The Groundhogs, Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash and Focus. They were given about 45, 60 and 75 minutes each.

I've only ever known one person who liked the Groundhogs, a boy from my home church. I seem to recall swapping Horslips records with him to see if I liked them but can't recall the music. What we got last night was heavy blues from the original and very skilful Tony McPhee (lots of tremolo arm and scraping the strings) backed by a fine rhythm section. I couldn't understand anything Mr McPhee said or sung. That seems to be his trademark.

Next up were Wishbone Ash. They were quite popular when I was in school although I never really listened to much. I liked it when Martin Turner introduced Warrior by asking not who remembered the song but who remembered the cover of the album Argus, which I did. This was much more up my street. Having two lead guitarists (one on a Fender, one on a Gibson) was novel. This was blues with some country and a bit more commercial. I could even understand some of the words. I guess this was the band a large number had come to see and they were not disappointed. The fellow in front of me loved it. He told me there are two WAs out there at the moment and this was the best.

As for Focus we were clearly in a different league. As musicians all four appeared to me to be streets ahead. Here we had rock music with style and incorporating jazz and those famous classical influences with great panache. Possibly above some of the rock types present. They began with Focus 1/Anonymous and House of the King from the first album. Good choices. Thijs actually sang the manifesto on Focus 1! I'd never heard that before. "Focus yourself on the love You own mankind. Communication again." We then had the more recent Aya huppie followed by an excellent Eruption including Tommy, Sylvia (with a nice bass and drums intro) and a long Hocus Pocus beginning with Thijs solo and including the intros and a drum solo from Pierre. One brief encore followed (Focus 7 or Hurkey Turkey?). All too brief then - no Hamburger Concerto or Focus 2-6. Nice to speak to Thijs and Bobby after.