MASTERS FROM THE VAULT

This DVD is very instructive and will please any Focus fan. Thijs is of course the master of ceremony and tells us about the early days (while they were a trio), the inclusion of Jan on the guitar and finally the arrival of Pierre van der Linden on drums (who was suggested by Jan). So, actually Thijs was confronted with a dilemma. Either to go on with Jan and a new team or stick to his trio. He opted for the first solution. So, we can say that Jan was highly responsible for the great Focus line-up.

There won't be too many long explanations in this DVD. The "focus" being the music. A more complete overview would have been appreciated (covering their come back and some more recent footage for instance). Anyway, since their early days were musically more interesting, I guess not too harm has been done. Only informative part is a bit "short" in terms of added value. The "Sylvia" story though is quite funny.

It was written some years before while van Leer was a backing vocalist. He wrote it for ...Sylvia (another vocalist of that same band) but she did not like it all, so it was put on a shelve and only brought back to life in 1973. And incidently became a big hit.

The medley is also very good. Most of the musical parts are played in some sort of "studio" environment. No audience. But it is not less interesting therefore. There will be some other "live" recording available later on.

Focus were invited to play in some beautiful house in the neighbourhood Mary Colson (or Carlson). She invited a lot of artists (musicians, actors...) and eventually Thijs had a "liaison" with her. Some footage (a nice flute solo) is shot on these premises. Contrast is severe whith the next track featured : some sort of jam in a small room (a kitchen ?). But the band really seems to enjoy. These moments are of course not really historical but it is nice to see the band completely relaxed and improvising.

The interview switches to the Philip Catherine era. This is really out of the blue. No transition at all. This is of course also a great guitar player, but better known in the jazz circuit. Images taken from the TV programme : "Grey Whistle Test" (both sound and images are very good).

The highlight here of course is the fantastic rendition of the "Hamburger Concerto". One of their greatest number. A bit downsized versus the original album version but so good.

Footage is credited to the BBC Archive Services and the Belgian Television (and I am very proud of this, not only for this DVD. It is funny enough to notice that Belgium being a rock desert, so many footage of great bands are available thanks to the RTB : Floyd, Genesis, ELP, Van Der Graaf, Focus etc.). At least we are good in providing some legendary moments to the fans out there. Some sort of consolation...

Four stars for this good document.