» The Plastic People of the UniverseLonging for freedom and the will to express this longing was the reason for author Ivan Jirous to establish a band in 1968. A name for it was found quickly. Wasn't there this album from Frank Zappa, underground rebel from the U.S., titled „Absolutely Free“! And on this album the piece with the provoking title „Plastic People“. So the formation from Prague called themselves „The Plastic People of the Universe”. Other founder members were Vratislav Brabenec, Milan Hlavsa, Josef Janíček and Jiří Kabeš. At first they oriented themselves at their musical guides Zappa, Beefheart, The Doors and Velvet Underground. In the 70's because of their lyrics they became the most influential band of czech underground. Later they developed their own style, based on jazz and rock. Today it's nearly incomprehensible how much bravery these six needed to consequently reject governmental requirements, verbally and musically. This consequence had follow-ups: At first the status of professional musicians was revoked, which means that they were not allowed to earn money and that they lost all equipment which was provided by the state. Finally they got stage ban and played only for friends, among other things also at oppositional author Václav Havel. 1976 the band was forbidden and part of the musicians were detained for months. Other „Elements of the Unterground“ got long lasting imprisonment. For public justification the governmental press started a smear campaign not only against the band, but against the whole underground in CSSR, too. They spoke of drug addicts, work-shy and anti-social people. In conjunction with these processes the „Charta 77“ was founded in 1977 which stood for conserving human rights. Recent history brought massive changes to the states of ”real socialism”, also in CSSR in 1989. As we all know the author Václav Havel played an important roll. As president of Czechoslovakia he was always aware of his origin, and literature and music had an essential cultural relevance for him. In this context the Plastic People of the Universe were standing for long time, because they contributed with their bravery a lot to the social change. Even today, after more than 40 years, two of the founder members are still in this band: Vratislav Brabenec and Jiří Kabeš.
Josef „Pepa“ Janíček (piano, vocals)
Let's end this band info with a very appropriate quotation of Frank Zappa, taken from an interview from 1991 with Rudi Dolezal: „ I still don't understand how the czech did it. I always keep asking the people: How did you get rid of the communists? And the best answer was: "Well you know, the communists were away for the weekend." Probably this made it a bit easier. I had interesting talks with Vaclav Havel. He is a very kind, civilized human being - I wish the US had a man like Havel too as president, not to speak of civilization and humanity.“
Discographie: Muž bez uší (live recordings 1969-72), Vožralej jak slíva (live recordings 1973-75), Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned (1974), Ach to státu hanobení (live recordings 1976-77), Pašijové hry velikonoční (1978), Jak bude po smrti (1979), Co znamená vésti koně (1981), Kolejnice duní (1977-82), Hovězí porážka (1983-84), Půlnoční myš (1985-86), Bez ohňů je underground (1992-93), The Plastic People of the Universe (1997), For Kosovo (1997),
|