Out at The Stables Milton Keynes last night to see Jan Akkerman and his band put in a sterling performance. I thought we'd get more of the new album but although he began with three numbers from it (Freewheelin', Minor Details and Blind baby - ie blues, jazz, bluies) and opened the second half with the superb Mena Muria (the Moluccan anthem) it was mostly the old stuff that we got and that was probably wisely judged.
So in the first half we had a curious version of the Zebra, a realtively short version of Tranquiliser and the well loved Paul Weller number You do something to me. The second half was pretty much given over to old Focus numbers - Answers Questions, Focus 2 (superb), Anonymous and a long version of Tommy, finishing off with the obligatory Hocus Pocus (still able to squeeze new life out of that somehow) and Sylvia. For the encore we had fine versions of Streetwalker and Pietons.
There is something slightly sterile about the Stables venue but this highly competent performance won through and certainly left the audience of around 250 very pleased. Copies of the new CD were available and, as you can see, the big man was obliging with his autograph. He was in hospital with a stroke recently and has finally given up tobacco after many warnings. Hopefully that will keep him perfroming into his seventies.
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