Thijs Van Leer,
Jan Akkerman,
Bobby Jacobs,
Bert Ruiter,
Pierre van der Linden,
Steve Smith,
David Kemper,
Cyril Havermanns,
Phil Dunne,
Martin Dresden,
Hans Eric Cleuver,
Colin Allen,
Eef Albers,
Philip Catherine
Representative Albums: "The Best of Focus: Hocus Pocus," "Focus III," "Moving Waves"
Representative Songs: "Hocus Pocus," "Sylvia," "House of the King"
Biography
Best remembered for their bizarre chart smash "Hocus Pocus," Dutch progressive rock band Focus was formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by vocalist/keyboardist/flutist Thijs van Leer, bassist Martin Dresden, and drummer Hans Cleuver. With the subsequent addition of guitarist Jan Akkerman, the group issued its debut LP, In and Out of Focus, in 1970, earning a European cult following thanks to the single "House of the King." Dresden and Cleuver were replaced by bassist Cyril Havermanns and drummer Pierre Van der Linden for the English-language follow-up, Moving Waves; the record generated the hit "Hocus Pocus," a hallucinatory epic distinguished by Akkerman's guitar pyrotechnics and van Leer's demented yodeling. Easily one of the flat-out strangest songs ever to crack the American pop charts, the single peaked at number nine in the spring of 1973, by which time Focus had already exchanged Havermanns for bassist Bert Ruiter and issued their third album, Focus III, which yielded the minor hit "Sylvia." In the wake of 1974's Hamburger Concert, the band streamlined the classical aspirations of earlier efforts to pursue a more pop-oriented approach on records like Ship of Memories and Mother Focus; though roster changes regularly plagued Focus throughout the period, none was more pivotal than the 1976 exit of Akkerman, who was replaced by guitarist Philip Catherine for 1978's Focus con Proby, cut with British pop singer P.J. Proby. Focus then disbanded, with the original lineup reuniting in 1990 for a Dutch television special. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Focus is an encyclopedia first published in Swedish in 5 volumes 1958–1960, later extended with additional volumes, republished in several editions, and translated to Danish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Based on inspiration from the richly illustrated 1947 edition of the American World Book Encyclopedia, the plan for Focus as conceived by Sven Lidman (born 1921) was based on two principles:
a set of highly instructional and internationally reusable illustrations should be produced first, to which text could be written later in various languages, and
the basic encyclopedia should be compact (only 3 or 4 volumes) to which specialized add-on volumes from a series (Sports in Focus, This year in Focus, etc.) could be combined ("Kombinationslexikon statt Konversationslexikon"), making it easier to cover different market segments.
Sven Lidman left his previous employer in 1955 and took this new idea to the Swedish publishing house Almqvist & Wiksell, but only after also getting a letter of intent from German publisher Bertelsmann was he able to get his employer started. Being the first richly illustrated encyclopedia in Sweden (and several other countries), the sales were a given success. The idea of only reusing the illustrations failed, as most contracting publishers chose to translate most of the text as well. A fifth volume containing an index, thesaurus and cross-reference was added to the basic encyclopedia, not least because this increased the total "number of entries" from 40,000 (in the main volumes) to 100,000 (in the index), one of the strongest sales arguments for encyclopedias.
Sven Lidman left A&W in 1963 to continue his revolutionizing work in Swedish lexicography elsewhere. His autobiography Uppslagsboken och jag was published in 1987.
External links
Focus, information in Swedish about the work and its Swedish editions, from Christofer Psilander's website Svenska Uppslagsverk
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