Jan Akkerman (Focus)

Legendary Amsterdam guitarist Jan Akkerman plays music from his long career, including his favourite Focus tunes and more recent compositions.

Jan gained international fame with Dutch progressive rock group Focus from 1969 – 1976 with whom he recorded a number of breakout albums including Focus Plays Focus / In and Out Of Focus (1970), and Focus II / Moving Waves (1971) which reached the album chart in the UK #2, Netherlands #4 and #8 in the US going Gold. This album spawned the mega-hit Hocus Pocus which had international chart success and more recently has been heard on numerous TV shows such as Top Gear, Skins and Shameless. It has been used in the in the films Hot Fuzz, Robocop (2014) and Baby Driver, and numerous TV advertisements including Nike.

In 1973 Akkerman was named World’s Best Guitarist by Melody Makes in a Top 10 that included Eric Clapton, Steve Howe, Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin and Mick Ronson.

Jan has released thirty solo albums and has collaborated with a number of musicians ranging from Alan Price, Jack Bruce and Ice T. His 26 CD retrospective box set was released in 2020 closely following his acclaimed pre-Covid album Close Beauty.