What an entertaining and superb value night we've just had .....
The venue was a night club in Wigan ...acoustics arnt too good, but comparable with other small ex cinema venues.
There were two support acts Second Son - a local band playing Metallica style numbers who had a half decent drummer aiding some less than decent thrash metal bass & lead guitar playing..... Their half her slot was more than enough
The band was Smitten Kitten another local band .... much better style IMHO playing some of their own stuff plus heavy metal covers from the 80's and a suprisingly good heavy metal version of The House of the Rising Son.
At 11pm on came Focus....legendery Prog Rock band from the early 1970's, led by Thijs Van Leer - now 65 yes old.
All the old hits were played ....with great prig rock aplomb- no song lasted less than 10mins , along with new numbers too. Highlights for me were the solos by all the band members with a drum solo by Pierre van Linden ( original drummer also 65) that was as good as anything John Bonham ever did. Relative newcomer Bobby Jacobs gave us a bass solo that was equal of Brian Bomberg making sounds that shouldn't come from an electric bass!. Menno Gootjes the new lead guitarist equalled his other band members with several guitar solos treating sounds akin to a synth at times. Finally Thjis himself ....any man who can manage to play a Hammond B3 with one hand and a flute with the other deserves respect!!
They entertained us full prog rock style till almost 2am!!!! With only a 15min break
This was all for £13 ....an veritable billy bargain !!! Even just for Focus almost 3hrs for £13 makes this the gig of the yr for me
The venue was a night club in Wigan ...acoustics arnt too good, but comparable with other small ex cinema venues.
There were two support acts Second Son - a local band playing Metallica style numbers who had a half decent drummer aiding some less than decent thrash metal bass & lead guitar playing..... Their half her slot was more than enough
The band was Smitten Kitten another local band .... much better style IMHO playing some of their own stuff plus heavy metal covers from the 80's and a suprisingly good heavy metal version of The House of the Rising Son.
At 11pm on came Focus....legendery Prog Rock band from the early 1970's, led by Thijs Van Leer - now 65 yes old.
All the old hits were played ....with great prig rock aplomb- no song lasted less than 10mins
, along with new numbers too. Highlights for me were the solos by all the band members with a drum solo by Pierre van Linden ( original drummer also 65) that was as good as anything John Bonham ever did. Relative newcomer Bobby Jacobs gave us a bass solo that was equal of Brian Bomberg making sounds that shouldn't come from an electric bass!. Menno Gootjes the new lead guitarist equalled his other band members with several guitar solos treating sounds akin to a synth at times. Finally Thjis himself ....any man who can manage to play a Hammond B3 with one hand and a flute with the other deserves respect!!They entertained us full prog rock style till almost 2am!!!! With only a 15min break
This was all for £13 ....an veritable billy bargain !!! Even just for Focus almost 3hrs for £13 makes this the gig of the yr for me
