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BIZARRE: Jan akkerman | Mind Blowing Facts

“He had a knife to my groin. I was petrified. He went for my guitar”: Mikael Åkerfeldt on nearly losing his prized PRS on the way to record a landmark Opeth album – and why he doesn’t deserve a signature model (even though he’s got one)

The Opeth mastermind on being robbed as they made Blackwater Park, what he hated about Kurt Cobain’s ’53 Martin D-18 and loved about Hank Williams’ ’40s D-18, the ’90s band he still adores and the ’70s guitarist he still worships

Guitar World

“He’s very underrated. If you asked David Gilmour, he’d probably say, ‘Yeah, he’s my idol!’” Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt names prog’s great unsung guitar hero

This 1970s player is an influence to many, he says, but doesn’t get the credit he deserves

Guitar World

"A veteran virtuoso who remains startlingly undimmed by the passage of time": Jan Akkerman celebrates four decades of My Focus – Live Under The Rainbow

Celebrating its 40thanniversary, Freddie's solo debut remains flawed but sporadically glorious.

Louder

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"These guys are simply timeless": Triumph's Rik Emmett picks five essential guitar albums

Canadian guitar legend and founding member of Triumph Rik Emmett picks five guitar classics that inspired his own path

Louder

“He was completely ignored by the guitar press of that time period”: Vernon Reid on the guitarist he believes is massively underrated – even though he kept “the Hendrix voice” alive

In a chat with Guitar World last year, Reid even insisted that this guitarist's “continued non-acknowledgment as a near direct tonal descendant of Jimi Hendrix continues to this day”

Guitar World

Cool new proggy sounds from Jan Akkerman, Soen, Evergrey and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week

Ace new prog you have to hear from Argovia, Myrath, Engrupid Pipol in this week's Tracks Of The Week

Louder

“Completely spontaneously, I started yodelling. It came from nowhere”: How an eccentric Dutch progressive rock group made the strangest hit single of 1973

It featured the greatest yodelling since The Sound Of Music

Louder

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“It’s heraldic. It’s funny. It’s virtuoso and also really stupid! I wouldn’t change a note”: Simple ideas and happy accidents propelled a Dutch band’s second album to the pinnacle of prog. And yodelling.

Master craftsmen’s 1971 release was a unique fusion of ingenuity, passion and febrile chemistry – plus some tension – and they never looked back

Louder

"I play these songs because my soul and heart are in there..." Former Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman will release a new live album in December

Jan Akkerman also announces live dates for the Netherlands in December and Norway in June

Louder

“Yes showed you could write rocky prog, but UK took that further. They made complex music sound so easy, which makes me very envious”: Whitesnake ex Adrian Vandenberg’s prog inspirations

The Dutch guitarist lists some British musicians who inspired the world at large, as much for their attitudes as their creations

Louder

“The creative tension helped here and there. At other times it did not help… it’s difficult to define”: Thijs van Leer reveals his only real regret as Focus roll on in their 55th year

He recalls breaking out of the Netherlands, his relationship with former guitarist Jan Akkerman, and the one album he’d like to remake

Louder

Jan Akkerman announces two Trading Boundaries shows in June

Dutch prog legend and Focus co-founder Jan Akkeman brings hus My Focus tour to the UK in June

Louder

“Even though I go off on a tangent sometimes, I think he appreciates the melodic aspect I bring to the John Hackett Band”: Guitarist Nick Fletcher indulges himself on solo instrumental Quadrivium

Jazz rocker explores modes, plaintive tones and mysticism on his album, featuring old bandmate Dave Bainbridge

Louder

"One minute they were a band you'd never heard of, then the next you couldn't get into the gigs": In 1972 the then-unknown Focus appeared on UK TV. Within a year, their guitarist was voted best player on the planet

Powered by Jan Akkerman's guitar and Thijs van Leer's Hammond organ, Sylvia helped pave the way for the rapid rise to fame of Dutch proggers Focus

Louder

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“I speak like I do because I spent years trying to impersonate Vivian Stanshall”: Comedian and musician Ade Edmondson’s prog record collection

The Young Ones and Bottom star fronted The Bad Shepherds with inspirations including the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Jethro Tull, Focus, Alex Harvey and a stack of folk influences

Louder

Rick Wakeman teams up with Jah Wobble and Chester Thompson for new track Io

Wakeman, Wobble and Thompson all appear on new The Fusion Syndicate album out in September

Louder

“We discovered we had an audience out there and it numbered in millions”: How Focus secured TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test’s future

Revered music series ran for nearly two decades after Thijs van Leer’s band played two-song set during its first year

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