MASTERS FROM THE VAULT

Released in 2002, this independent production clearly has the blessing of the band, as Thijs Van Leer is principal narrator. The film takes us from the earliest days of the band up to just after the departure of Jan Akkerman. The first complete piece is a rendition of "Focus 3", performed in the empty room of a castle, thus looking similar to John Lennon's "Imagine". The sound appears to have been taken either from the album, or from a separate studio recording. The setting reappears throughout the film.

Similarly, "House of the king" combines historical footage with a studio overdub of the music. The first live performance we get is what appears to be a television studio rendition of "La cathedrale de Strasbourg" from the "Hamburger concerto" album. The recording appears to date from around the time of the album's release.

Among the more interesting parts of Van Leer's narration is a brief section where he describes the band as being an instrumental one "through poverty", his vocalising being considered to be simply another instrument.

There are of course clips of the band playing "Hocus pocus" and "Sylvia". Van Leer's overview of the latter is interesting as it was originally written by him (surprisingly not by Akkerman, whose guitar work is the core of the track) as a song with lyrics. The departure of Akkerman from the band, and his replacement by Philippe Catherine is covered by some Old Grey Whistle Test footage of the band performing "Angel wings" with the latter playing lead guitar (while doing a reasonable impersonation of Greg Lake!).

The 1973 "Focus medley" is effectively a jam drawing in various themes from the band's then current albums. For me, it simply serves as an unwelcome reminder of how poor they were live. The "Hamburger concerto" performance is taken from a "Focus in concert", the superb full rendition perhaps serving to ask the question, where is the rest of the gig? I may well be wrong, but the soundtrack here seems to have benefited from significant overdubs. This includes the audience applause at the end who sound more like 5000 than the 200 or so actually present.

In all, this is a good collection of archive footage which will please fans of the band. The notion that it a complete anthology is misleading though, since the story is abruptly curtailed after the arrival of Phil Catherine. The claim on the cover that it includes the "band in action today on their US tour" refers to a 40 second clip behind the closing titles.

Some of the footage here overlaps with the subsequently released "The ultimate anthology" DVD. Both releases have their strengths, Van Leer's narration here being compensated for on "The Ultimate Anthology" by some more recent footage.

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