Customer Reviews

At the Rainbow

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The sound on the album is fine. Live albums are not going to sound as good as studio albums. I personally embrace this difference. You don't buy a live album for sound quality. Especially one that was recorded in 1973.

As for Sylvia, nothing can spoil that song. Again, the whole point of a live album is to hear a different interpretation of a song. If I wanted the same tender and tasteful playing, I'd just listen to the studio album. It's really great to hear Akkerman open up and spread his wings on this song.

I would also have to disagree with the sentiment that this wouldn't be a good "introduction album". Focus is about great prog song writing coupled with some truly virtuoso playing. That's not the biggest demographic audience to start with. If someone is into "the prog thing", this album is a fine introduction to the group. Each band member will cause your jaw to hit the floor. They're that good.

If you're into progressive rock or even are just into some REALLY fast yet expressive guitarwork, this definitely deserves to be on your shelf.

The playing is looser than on the studio versions, but also more impassioned. Jan Akermans guitar playing is amazing, he really stretches out and plays some very fast and creative jazz-rock solos. Excellent playing all around, the band is firing on all cylinders. I have to say that I prefer many of the live intepretations over their studio counterparts. "Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!" is much better live due to the amazing solos. The sound quality is fine: its well recorded and the mix is ballanced. An excellent album, their third best after Focus 3 and Moving Waves.

Focus were one of the standard-bearers of progressive rock in the 1970s. They were best known for coming from the Netherlands and having a hit single, Hocus Pocus (1972) which featured yodelling. But, dear reader, there is so much more! Now that that it is finally safe again to mention Progressive Rock, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to an absolute stunner. Focus crafted a blend of classical, jazz and rock that is so elegant, so beautiful that it makes me weep to think that this gorgeous music currently languishes in obscurity. Many people have a problem with instrumental music (which Focus mainly is) but the music here is so articulate and expressive that you in fact forget that there are no vocals.
What does Focus sound like? Well, think Hammond organ, flute, superb bass and drums rhythm section, and a guitar that dazzles with an all-round performance one minute jazzy, the next rock n roll. Let's put it this way. If you like early Genesis, Pink Floyd circa 1971 - 1973, Jethro Tull, or John Abercrombie, Jan Hammer or even Pat Metheny, give it a try. Or perhaps one day the nice people at ... will provide listening samples. Live at the Rainbow is the sound of Focus bringing the show to the London in 1972 and taking the notoriously picky English public by storm. The atmosphere captured on this recording is great. You get the hits - they're tagged on at the end - and some of the best moments of the band's earlier output. It would be pointless naming highlights - it's all fabulous, but keyboard player Thijs Van Leer's (new and improved) yodelling performance on Hocus Pocus is a scream. Other good albums by Focus? Moving Waves, Focus 3, Hamburger Concerto are all extraordinary. The long-awaited, Prog Rock comeback starts here.

This is one of the best live albums ever released. You want to hear virtuoso musicians play their instruments extremely loud and with consummate taste? Do you want music that barnstorms over you, kicks your behind and energizes you without being some simplistic hard-rock or heavy metal crap, that sparks your imagination without being pretentious and soft? Well, you don't have to go as far back towards the blues as the Allman Brothers or as far out into jazz and indian music as Mahavishnu Orchestra or as far into classical music as Yes and ELP for that, you can get a perfect blend of all those influences right here with Focus. You get long jams with incredible, building, super-busy, master-controlled, angular, cutting and ferocious guitar solos by Akkerman that are just the perfect blend of jazz and rock and classical. Akkerman is the famous one and in fact, at the time this album came out in 1973, he managed to beat out Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck & others in a Melody Maker Magazine Poll to be named 'World's Greatest Guitarist.' Then you have the rest of the guys in this great band who are not as well-known but just as much true artists on their instruments: Bert Ruiter (bass) Pierre van der Linden (drums) & Thijs Van Leer (keyboards, flute, vocals) and you add the famous Focus sense of humor for spice and BAM! The entire album is a highlight but the most energetic track is the superfast version of Hocus Pocus and the endless yodelling breaks (and one operatic break!) that keep slowing down and speeding up.

Great remastered sound to crank way up on your stereo (not surround, don't use surround or it'll thin out the sound, these albums were recorded for stereo playback). In fact I was surprised at how good the sound was since Focus albums aren't known to have the best production.

In short, if you like the Allman Brothers, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Yes, King Crimson, ELP or any of those early 1970s monster bands, then you cannot afford to pass up "Focus Live At the Rainbow" which is up there with greatest live albums ever released.

Musicians : Jan Akkerman (guitar), Thijs Van Leer (keyboards, flute), Bert Ruiter (bass guitar), Pierre Van Der Linden (drums).

In 1973, Focus were at their peak. They simultaneously had two top ten albums (Focus 3 and Moving Waves), and two top ten singles (Sylvia and Hocus Pocus). All of the musicians were voted as top ten musicians in each of their categories. Jan Akkerman was voted world's best guitarist. Their attempts to record a follow up album were unsuccessful. The project was to be abandoned, only to resurface years later as part of the album Ship of Memories. So without an immediate follow up album it was instead decided that they record a live album at The Rainbow in London.

From their album Focus 3 are the tracks Focus 3, Answers Questions Questions Answers, and Sylvia. From their album Moving Waves are the tracks Focus 2, Hocus Pocus (and a reprise of it), and part of Eruption. Also played that night were Anonymous 2, and House of the king, from their album Focus 3. However, although they must be on tape somewhere, these are not included on Focus at the Rainbow. On the night of the recording, due to the demand for encores, Focus ran out of pieces to play. So after a long delay, Jan Akkerman, far better known as an electric guitarist, ended the evening by coming out and playing a piece on the lute which also does not appear on the live album.

The versions of Focus 3, and Answers Questions Questions Answers are similar but a bit inferior to the studio versions. Focus 2 and Eruption are performed with more sensitivity than the originals. Hocus Pocus and Sylvia are slight variations on the original studio versions. Given that all of the tracks come from two studio albums (Focus 3 and Moving Waves), anybody would be better off listening to those two albums first. Focus at the Rainbow, would probably be appreciated by somebody that already has those albums and likes them, and is interested to hear what is Focus's only (official) live recording.

I remember hearing Hocus Pocus for the first time as a child and being blown away by the sheer imagination and BLAZING guitar work in the song. This live album captures the band in superb form. "Answers Questions: Questions Answers" is the highlight for me. The guitar work is so far ahead of it's time. It sounds almost vocal in textures. There is even a wholetone scale he does in the middle of it that just screams. Originality pervades every song. And the version of "Hocus Pocus" is hysterical. "Sylvia" is another gem. It should have been a hit. Definitely a must have in any CD collection.

Well, it's a pretty good performance, but the sound isn't that great. Hocus Pocus (the "Wipe Out" of prog-rock) is played at breakneck speed. Eruption, their most amazing composition/performance from Moving Waves, is not improved here. The solos from the tunes are different of course, but Focus were really rocking when they played, and this doesn't really translate to the recording. Interesting is van Leer's vocal performance on Hocus Pocus, which is different from the original. I hate to say it but Sylvia is kind of spoiled by Jan Akkerman's too-enthusiastic guitar playing. I love Jan and am a player myself, but live performance can sometimes make a player forget that nuance and touch are very important all the time. It may look good when you're playing it live, but the recording won't lie. Too bad there wasn't a better representation of this band live. But for fans, it's one for the collection. By the way I saw the original Netherlands cover last week at a vinyl shop, it had a unique tri-fold-out cover, which is different than the boring silver cover that I have, and now I see they changed the cover again.

I have over three hundred titles in my CD collection which covers much of the early to present pop cultures, and if they were to be lost and if I was left with just this Live cd concert of this dutch group, I would still be heaving a sigh of relief. Ten years ago I found my copy thru an internet buying store and to tell you it took me 14 years to get it on cd format. Man it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, if you know what I mean. I revere this over everything else in my music collection, why, maybe because I have never heard any other group play like this group, great progressions of music at its time and counds refreshing to this day.

Like most Focus albums, this had a different cover in the US and Europe. The CD uses the European cover. The CD is 42 minutes long, and the sound quality is good, but not bright.

I don't know whether to give this CD one star or five stars. The music is excellent, but it is not much different than the studio versions on the first three ablums. So, in a way, it is kind of pointless if you already own the first three albums.

The first 20 minutes of the album is a suite of music. Each of the compositions is actually shorter than what was on the original studio albums. But, it is blended together perfectly, and played beautifully. It is very mesmerizing. It is one of those concerts where you can go into a complete daze.

Next comes an 8 minute version of Eruption, which was 22 minutes long on the Moving Waves CD. I usually don't like it when a group plays a truncated version of a track. The group usually plays the main themes and piece comes out as a annoying, frustrating tease of what could be better. A prime example is the excerpts of Six Wives of Henry VIII that Wakeman plays on Yessongs. But, Focus does a good job of editing down the material.

The album ends with an 11 minute version of Hocus Pocus with a little bit a Sylvia mixed in. It contains what is probably the best yodel jam in all of rock history. But, it may get a little overboard and silly near the end. Besides the yodelling, they play this tune with a lot of power and energy.

Besides the elongated Hocus Pocus, there is nothing really that new on this album. But I still enjoy because they take some of their best music and present it in a new way. I played this album just after listening to Moving Waves and Focus III and was still entertained.

This CD - Live At The Rainbow, used to be a double album in the seventies, I bought it back then for proof. It is missing a couple of tracks, namely; Anonymus, but other than that it is a good CD. Because it is missing a few tracks, is why I give it 3 stars. I hope it might get reissued properly, the way it was originally,the way it was released for the U.S.A.