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PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE

  <   the most persecuted rock band in the history of western world just because they were ignoring state's orders and playing underground music inspired by MR.Zappa,Velvet Underground,Fugs and others  >

Cd "Kolejnice duni" .Cd is NEW and  sealed .For fans of Velvets,Zappa,Cpt.Beef.,Fugs, This heat and others; very essential band.Look into it.

THIS IS MY LITTLE TRY FOR A REVIEW(sorry for my sometimes improper english):They started like everybody else,wanted to be famous rock star.Well that did not happened.Instead they were persecuted by the state.Even today they are not widely known in the public.I am glad because to me it is the only undergound band who never sold out.Their spirit remained free untill today still performing for small audiences and what is more important playing still psych,underground rock music!!How many bands can say that?Anyway by listening to this album  while  writting this add I have to admire them for playing stuff like this in those years (69-72) in Czechoslovakia.This raw and often harsh sound was unbeliavable to people in this country,to them it was crazy freaky hashis, lsd stuff which they did not understand.I know because I was there!!What's amazing that they found music of Mr.Zappa,VVU and Cpt.Beefheart and The Fugs in 60's when even in their country (USA)people hardly  knew  them.Anyway their music inspired them greatly.I can say that often  PPU's  music was more enthusiastic and expressive then those above mentioned(some can argue about their musicianship at that time but they made it up by their creativity and enthusiasm).Who could belive that?The band started to be hated by officials and soon their rights of playing were revoked.Well PPU were very stubborned and played anyway.Court hearings,persecutation,prison followed.That did not stopped them.That made them stronger and stronger.Haw many bands could measure up to this level of artistic courage  in USA and UK?They were continuing playing illegaly in farm houses,on friends weddings,organising secret gigs in small villages.IMAGINE THIS PICTURE:groups of  long haired strangelly dressed freaks in kind of zappish-beefheart fashion walking from train and bus stations through the woods just to see and experince illegal secret show in a country were idols were polka and Karel Gott(national singer) . Through the rest of the decade, the band found it increasingly difficult to perform their music without retribution. Whenever their friends had marriages, a wedding party provided an occasion to rent a hall and put on a private concert. Usually, however, putting together a concert was more akin to a cloak and dagger movie. A remote site in the woods near an isolated Bohemian village was picked, word of the location was then passed among friends, whispered from ear to ear. The exact location of the site was never revealed more than one day in advance and sometimes not revealed until that night. Fans would get off at the nearest rail station, then walk miles through the forest and across farms, sometimes for hours in rain or snow, searching for a remote farmhouse or barn. Their shows were very sporadic and many times police found out and stopped it,beated and arrested many of them including their fans who also deserve big time applause for their courage for wanting to be around those dangerous rebels to society where there was no tolerancy whatsoever..They were in total isolation,no money,no future.It made them stronger and stronger.They lived for their  music and for their freedom.Actually they created their freedom,their little world no matter what.The Velvets influence extended to the PPU's live shows, in which they would employ psychedelic light shows, makeup, and outrageous costumes to create a multi-media happening not unlike the Velvets' early concerts as part of Andy Warhol's Plastic Inevitable.  Like the Velvets, they also employed the unusual (for rock) feature of a viola player to give their music a shrill edge.Although the primitive technological conditions made them sound like a garage avant-rock band, the originality of their vision comes through in the creepy cheap electric piano, ominous violin scrapes, gravel-textured vocals, and dissonant melodies that owed as much to the recesses of the Bohemian forest as Western pop.  In some ways, it was a fusion of the sensibilities of the Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa -- an ironic critical postulation, considering that the Velvets took mean-spirited swipes at Zappa on several occasions during interviews.  Lyrics were supplied by Czech dissident poet Egon Bondy.  PPU would record several more albums over the next dozen or so years, but Egon Bondy remains Hlavsa's personal favorite.  .

Strange things were happening.The house where they were recording their music next day burned to the ground,that happened on more occasions.Probably just to warn people not to contribute in this fight.
On the end it sounds like a fairy tale of underground music and for PPU:playing in the national castle in front of president Vaclav Havel and other dissidents who became members of the goverment of Czech Rep,playing in Paris on Andy's Warhole exhibition,Zappa singing with them in Prague same as Lou Reed and finally even playing along Lou Reed in front of President Clinton in the White house at the dinner.Who could imagine that  in 60's and 70'.

Three days before the end of the decade, on December 29, 1989, Vaclav Havel (big time friend of Plastic People and disident who were jailed along PPU)became President of Czechoslovakia and began replacing the Communist officials in his office with his friends including other Czech dissidents and rock musicians. In January of 1990, just as the new democracy had begun, Frank Zappa flew to Prague at the invitation of Havel, one of his greatest fans. 5000 rock fans were waiting at the airport to witness the historic arrival of the famous American. A Prague film crew captured Zappa's arrival at the airport just as Shirley Temple Black, the former "good ship lollipop" girl, then the acting ambassador to Czech , was leaving. Mrs. Black was asked about her views on the distinguished Frank Zappa's visit. Czech citizens did not understand her horrified reaction to this question. Zappa met Havel at Prague Castle and presented the new president with several ideas on how to help Czechoslovakia move into the democratic age, such as cellular phones and tourism. Zappa was emotionally overcome upon meeting older fans of his who had endured beatings by the Secret Police for the sake of his music.

Another historic meeting was that between Havel and Velvet Underground founder Lou Reed, who had traveled to Prague in 1990 to interview Havel. In Prague Castle, Reed presented Havel with a copy of his latest album as Havel unfolded the incredible story of the Plastic People to an awed Lou Reed, explaining how influential the Velvet Underground and rock music had been in the Velvet Revolution. Later that night, Reed was taken to a club where a band was playing. As Reed recalled, "I suddenly realized the music sounded familiar. They were playing Velvet Underground songs „ beautiful, heartfelt, impeccable versions of my songs. To say I was moved would be an understatement." The band was Pulnoc. Reed joined them on stage as they performed for Havel and 300 of his friends. After the concert, an ecstatic Havel introduced Reed to his friends, most of them former dissidents, as they recalled reciting Reed's lyrics in prison for comfort and inspiration.

The Plastic People were ultimately a major catalyst to the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe. History would most surely have been very different without them. Apart from the aforementioned Beatles and the Velvet Underground, there's not a lot of rock and roll bands you can say that about.