This week my Czech coworkers invited me to a gig of The Plastic People of the Universe, an underground Czech band from the 70s. They are especially noted for opposing the Czechoslovakian Communist regime, which often led to the band's arrest, and their instruments being taken away. Despite all that the band continued to play (for free) and even had to build their own amps.
The gig I attended was held in the Czech culture center in Berlin. It was free, and even free beer and goulash were served!!! (the latter finished quickly and we didn't make it).
It was a special evening dedicated to protests held in 1976 against the arrest of the Plastics, which became a milestone in the opposition against the country's Communist Regime.
Boy were Boris and I excited to hear something like this live. Not to mention my fellow coworkers were excited too, and we had a fun evening with them talking about music.
Here's a video I filmed. I encourage you to watch the whole thing, as I wish for every guitar player to be able to play solos like this when they're that many moons old!
One of the songs played on the gig
Fun Fact: if the name tells you anything - Boris and I saw Už jsme doma live in Israel. They performed in a bar on our street (!?!!?) and we just spontaneously decided to go, it's not everyday that a Czech band comes to your small town. Little did we know that they are actually another cult underground Czech band. They were kick ass live! Funny how those things come to a closure so many years later ;)
Maria
Hehe, Im czech and I love Plastic People of the Univerese!! It's really basic music for all alternative people here. I am child of underground parents, my father played in underground band called IRA and my uncle knows all members of Plastic People, he was one of the uncomfortable people in communist regime, long hair and underground. He also played with them (he had stick and he was just hitting the floor with it - we call this stick "vozembouch", it litteraly means "on the ground bounch" ) and he also shoot some videos! He worked as a analogue film developer and cutter and when he finnished his work, he was secretly developing and cutting his shoots from PPotU concerts.
ReplyDeleteI was also on PPotU revival?? or how to say. They're called B4 and if you write "B4 plastic people" on youtube you should find it. The concept is like... if Plastic People were in Germany, they would be playing everything with synths. So it's all synth music with german lyrics - they are the same lyrics as Plastic People, but translated. Try it - at least you will understand the lyrics :D
Woah, what a cool story!!! Thanks for sharing! I will look up the revival project, sounds like a cool idea to mix up with synths, also very fitting to the 70s.
DeleteI had no idea the band is basic music for alternative people, looks like they got pretty famous!