I happened to be in Manny\u2019s one day in 72(I think) when the entire Focus entourage came in and bought , of all things, a Mellotron. Why would a dutch band be buying a mellotron in N.Y.C? I don\u2019t have the answer for that. My dad really liked them probably because of the jazz influence.
There weren\u2019t many guitarists around like Jan Ackerman those days- I don\u2019t think I ever saw any one doing hammer strokes before.
We saw them at the Felt Forum (Aerosmith the backup band??!!).. I saw them again at the Beacon \u2013they followed Gentle Giant. I wouldn\u2019t wish that on anybody- how do you follow a show like that. To top it off, none of Thij\u2019s synthesizers worked and he had to sing all those parts . They looked really stressed out. Great band, it wasn\u2019t easy in those days (or now) for a progressive band to get that far- a major tour and a string of albums on a big label.