Jan Akkerman

I saw him live last Nov. in London... and he was just awesome.  He may look like my grandfather now.. but he can still sure play with speed and accuracy.  I've not really been into him in the past, but I really do appreciate his skill.  Hearing Hocus Pocus without the yodeling was such a treat tho... Fantastic!!

If someone hadn't of stole my camera.. I'd have quite a few great shots of him!!

Sorry to hear about your camera 3fates. So do any of you know the best of his albums, or should I just guess?

I have about 20 or so Akkerman solo Lps. He is definitely one of the most versatile guitar players on the planet. Here are some of my faves with brief descriptions. Ready? Then we'll begin.

10,000 Clowns On A Rainy Day- Double Live album from the 1990's featuring a lot of Focus material.

Tabernakel- From 1973. Lots of unacompanied Lute. Electric version of House Of The King. 14 minute showpiece with drum solo and Akkerman playing sitar sounding guitars.

Profile- From early 1970's. One side of electric freaking out and another with unaccompanied lute pieces concluding with a straight up blues number called Stick.

Talent For Sale- Lots of cover versions including (if yo can believe it ) Green Onions

From The Basement- Early eighties. Akkerman experimenting with the Roland Synth Axe. Reggae like cover version of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. No acoustic guitar on this one

The Complete Guitarist- A great compilation of some of the more esoteric stuff he did in the first half of the eighties.

Also check out the first Brainbox album for sure features an Akkerman extended solo as wellas as some great solos. In CD form it offers bonus tracks.

Other bands he played with before brainbox or Focus were the Hunters and more obscurely Johnny and The Cellar Rockers.

My best advice ,though is to visit his website as well as a couple of others which are not official to get a complete discography.

One last thing. Avoid Jan Akkerman 3. I just don't know what was going on in his mind when he recorded this bomb. Best descripion for this bomb is bad really bad bad elevator music.

Try and check out a band called Forcefield II he played on their last two albums in the early eighties with Cozy Powell on drums. They're hiding somewhere in my record collection. I'll try and dig them out to give you the titles.

Finally if you can find it and I don't believe it ever came out on CD is The Two Sides Of Peter Banks ( solo album from the original Yes guitarist ) which features Akkerman on about half the tracks as well as John Wetton on bass, Steve Hackett on guitars and Mr Phil Collins on the kit. Sounds a lot like Banks' early 70's band Flash in some places.

Hope this helps.

richardh wrote: I'm going to see Jan Akkerman next month.I've seen him twice in the last 12 months already including the Progeny gig that 3fates mentioned.Great player,great guy.

I enjoyed the third gig ..in case anyone was wondering