Czech Alternative and Underground scene

1968 - 1990´s

Post 68: requalifications exams• 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• 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 – 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 Humor Without Witt (Crusaders´

School of Pure Humor Without Jokes)• 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• The Cremator with Chramostová, 1968• Burrials of Seifert and Patočka – StB• 1st director of the office of Václav Havel

after 1989 – demonstratively quit

• 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– 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