Transcript Czech Alternative and Underground scene

Czech Alternative and
Underground scene
1968 - 1990´s
Post 68: requalifications exams
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Gustáv Husák : general secretary in 1969
Concerts had to be officialy allowed
No English names or lyrics
Long hair not allowed on the TV screen – police haircuts
of Czech hippies
strategies:
• Mainstream – Korn, Petr Novak, Spaleny,
• Instrumental: Blue Effekt, Jazz Q, Collegium Musicum
• Emmigration: Ivan Kral
• Resignation – Marta Kubišová
• Underground – PPU, DG 307, etc.
underground
• Manifesto by Martin Ivan
Jirous (Magor-Loony) The
Third Czech Music Revival
• The Plastic People of the
Universe (Egon Bondy’s Lonely
Hearts Club Banned)
– Remarkably original music –
electronic experiments + free
jazz
– Connecting intellectual world
and spontaneous rock outcasts
– 1971 Homage to Andy Warhol
(Velvet Underground)
• Illegal screening of his movies
Mud, Sleep and Meal
– PPU gradually forbidden to
perform in public, harassed by
the police
• DG 307 Pavel Z + Mejla Hlavsa
• Umela hmota
Underground and dissent
– 1976, PPU jailed –
supported by Václav
Havel  Charter 77
• Havel Oragnised two
concerts of PPU at
Hrádeček
– Rock  democratic
opposition
• Olga Havlová
• Sváťa Karásek –
protestant religion
• 1977 Theatre Rubín –
actors jailed for
spreading Chart 77
Ivan Martin Jirous 1945‒2011
• Poet laureate, Swan
songs
• Studied art history,
influenced by Fluxus,
happening, Andy
Warhol
• Mastermind of “Third
Czech Musical
Revival”, manager of
the PPU
PPU 1979
• Ladislav Klíma anniversary
– Suffering of the Prince Sternenhoch – a grotesque tale of horror
– radical individualism, influenced by Nietzsche
Jazzová sekce
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Valdštejnská 14, Prague 1
Jazz Section, negotiated by Karel Srp 1971 with
authorities limit 3,000 members.
Activities:
Publishing – bulletins on contemporary culture and
philosophy (Štyrský, Seifert, Hrabal), Jazz Petit, rock
encyclopedia, 1984 Nobel Prize acceptance speech by
Jaroslav Seifert.
festivals“Jazz” Days
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Since 1974
since 76 rock
Lectures on philosophy and on the action art
Banned in 1984 – continued even though
1985 home searches, interroagtions
Members jailed 1986-1987 (Karel Srp) for illegal (not
allowed) business – selling books
Trial = first huge open resistance to the communist
regime;
– Participation of the Chartists
Eugen Brikcius
• Křižovnice School of Pure Humour without Witt
• Performance
– 1967 Thanksgiving – breadloafs brought to the
baroque Vrtba Garden to the feet of young girls
– Looking on and Idea of an Image
• Poetry in latin
– Jailed in 1973-74 with Magor for quire singing in a bar
– Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Signed Charter 77
• 1980 emigrated to Vienna
Chramostová and Milota
Chramostová - actress
• „Action Norbert“ – in the
case of the danger for the
republic they were
supposed to be physically
liquidated within 24 hours
• Jailed for collecting
signatures for a petition to
release Havel from a prison
• Played Babička (Němcová´s
„Grandmother“): „Eyes that
have cried can see better“
Milota - cameraman
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The Cremator with Chramostová, 1968
Burrials of Seifert and Patočka – StB
1st director of the office of Václav Havel
after 1989 – demonstratively quit
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Home theater : Seifert, All the Beauty
of the World, 1976, banned in the
1980´s
„Long Time Ago= On Burrying in the
Czech Country“ – on the life of Božena
Němcová, 1979
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Actualised after the burrial of Patočka who
died after StB auditions
London, Austria
Alternative scene 1980
• Prazsky
vyber
– Michael
Kocáb
Czech New Wave 1981-5
• Connection of rock with
film, theatre, art
• performance connected
with hippie culture, trans
tribal meetings, like Frank
Zappa, who experimented
with classical music and
improvized jazz.
– 1990 Zappa in Prague Joska Skalník (we will beat
Zappa out of your head –
StB)
Psí vojáci
• Prague band led by pianist,
singer, composer, and poet
Filip Topol (*1965. With
brother Jachym first concert
1979 when most members
were only 13.
• 1978 Filip Topol at Hrádeček
(Havel) as support before
PPU (Easter Passion Plays)
• 1979 first audition at the StB
• 1981 Veltrusy „Baroque in
Bohemia“ – cave under the
greenhouse
• 1994 Movie Razor Blades
Jáchym Topol *1962
• Poet, writer, teacher
• Son of dissident
dramatist Josef
Topol
• Brother of musician
Filip Topol of Psí
Vojáci
• Started samizdat
literary Revolver
Review.
PUNK
• New social movement of independent life
• Civic society – first attempt to practice
independent social activities after 1968
• Punk as a part of “new wave” (generation)
• Import from the West faster (tapes, video)
• Czech – urban industrial folkore (Czech folk,
underground, alternative)
Už jsme doma
• Originally from Teplice
• Hussite chants, punk
energy.
• Unusual additions –
choirs, medieval
instruments
• Mira Wanek composer
• Martin Velisek artist