FOCUS Mark Their Anniversary With A Box Set

Perhaps, this release is a tad too late to the party, yet in times like ours there’s no reason to complain that Dutch premier proggers FOCUS were formed in 1969 but they celebrate the band’s half-century anniversary in 2020. No reason – because getting a reasonably priced box set – titled “50 Years Anthology 1970-1976” – comprising nine CDs and two DVDs feels really special. On the CDs are the ensembles first five albums, newly remastered and augmented with bonus tracks of which many haven’t seen the light of day before, and “At The Rainbow” concert document and previously unissued live recordings, plus the “Ship Of Memories” compilation of rarities – although 1977’s “Focus Con Proby” was left off to remain the only LP from the group’s first lifespan that won’t be included here (one would suspect the decision had something to do with guitarist Jan Akkerman and drummer Pierre van der Linden absent from the Thijs Van Leer-led line-up). Still, the plethora of visual delights on DVDs must compensate for the omission.

As for the details of the set which will hit the shelves on November 13th, the discs look like this – read the review:

FOCUS –
50 Years
Anthology 1970-1976

CD1 – Focus Plays Focus / In and Out of Focus (1970)
1. Focus (instrumental)
2. Why Dream
3. Happy Nightmare – Mescaline
4. Anonymus
5. Black Beauty
6. Sugar Island
7. Focus (vocal)
bonus tracks:
8. House Of The King
9. Eruption (live, Lanx 1970) *

CD2 – Focus II / Moving Waves (1971)
1. Hocus Pocus
2. Le Clochard – Bread
3. Janis
4. Moving Waves
5. Focus II
6. Eruption
bonus tracks:
7. Hocus Pocus (single version)
8. Tommy (single version)
9. Focus I (live, Texel 1971) *

CD3 – Focus 3 (1972)
1. Round Goes The Gossip…
2. Love Remembered
3. Sylvia
4. Carnival Fugue
5. Focus III
6. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!
7. Anonymus II (Part 1)
8. Anonymus II (Conclusion)
9. Elspeth Of Nottingham
bonus tracks:
10. Sylvia (single version)
11. Love Remembered (single version)
12. Hocus Pocus (US single version)

CD4 – At The Rainbow (1973)
1. Focus III
2. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!
3. Focus II
4. Eruption
5. Hocus Pocus
6. Sylvia
7. Hocus Pocus – reprise
bonus tracks:
8. P’s March (original mix – single version) *
9. Ship Of Memories (original mix) *
10. P’s March (original mix – full version) *

CD5 – Hamburger Concerto (1974)
1. Delitiæ Musicæ
2. Harem Scarem
3. La Cathédrale de Strasbourg
4. Birth
5. Hamburger Concerto
bonus tracks:
6. Early Birth
7. Harem Scarem (single version)
8. Birth (alt. mix)
9. Harem Scarem (alt. mix)

FOCUS –
50 Years
Anthology 1970-1976

CD6 – Mother Focus (1975)
1. Mother Focus
2. I Need A Bathroom
3. Bennie Helder
4. Soft Vanilla
5. Hard Vanilla
6. Tropic Bird
7. Focus IV
8. Someone’s Crying… What!
9. All Together… Oh That!
10. No Hang Ups
11. My Sweetheart
12. Father Bach
bonus tracks: *
13. Focus IV (rough mix)
14. Bennie Helder (rough mix)
15. Vanilla (rough mix)
16. Mother Focus (rough mix)
17. All Together… Oh That! (rough mix)
18. My Sweetheart (rough mix)
19. Someone’s Crying… What! (rough mix)
20. Studio 55 Jam

CD7 – Ship of Memories (1976)
1. P’s March
2. Can’t Believe My Eyes
3. Focus V
4. Out Of Vesuvius
5. Glider
6. Red Sky At Night
7. Spoke The Lord Creator
8. Crackers
9. Ship Of Memories
bonus tracks:
10. Elektrisch Levenslicht (Neerlands Hoop in Bange Dagen)
11. The Shrine Of God (Ramses Shaffy with FOCUS)
12. Watch The Ugly People (Ramses Shaffy with FOCUS)
13. House Of The King (rough mix version 1)
14. House Of The King (rough mix version 2)
15. Focus III (unreleased single version)
16. Hocus Pocus (US single version – takes 14-17)
17. Glider (single version)
18. P’s March (single version)
19. O Avondrood
20. Crackers (vocal version)

CD8 – Focus BBC –
Paris Theatre, London January 17th, 1973)
*
1. Focus III
2. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!
3. Focus II
4. Anonymus II
5. Focus I
6. Hocus Pocus
7. Sylvia – Hocus Pocus (reprise)

CD9 – Live 1971-1975
1. Eruption (Rotterdam, 1971)
2. Birth (Osaka, 1974)
Tokyo, 1975:
3. Improvisation #1
4. House Of The King
5. Improvisation #2
6. Hocus Pocus

DVD1 – Sight & Sound Vol. 1 *
1. BBC The Old Grey Whistle Test (May 1972)
2. BBC The Old Grey Whistle Test (December 1972)
3. Focus At The Rainbow (May 1973)
4. BBC In Concert (April 1974)

DVD2 – Sight & Sound Vol. 2 *
1. NOS Van Gewest Tot Gewest (July 1970)
2. NOS Uit De Kunst (June 1972)
3. RTE The Music Makers: FOCUS at the Stadium (November 1973)
4. VARA Nederpopzien (December 1973)
5. AVRO Toppop: Harem Scarem (May 1974)
6. AVRO Toppop: O Avondrood (June 1976)
7. Veronica Goud van Oud (April 1990)
8. NCRV Classic Albums: Moving Waves (June 1997)

* – previously unreleased

October 9, 2020

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