Vratislav Brabenec | |
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 At a concert in Kadaň. | |
| Background information | |
| Born | April 28, 1943 Prague |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, poet |
| Instrument(s) | Saxophone, clarinet |
| Years active | 1972–present |
Vratislav Brabenec (born 28 April 1943 in Prague) is a Czech musician and author, and a member of The Plastic People of the Universe.
Vratislav Brabenec was born in Prague into the family of a postal worker. He studied gardening at the Agricultural Secondary School in Mělník, and he practised gardening for several years after school. From 1964 until 1969 he studied theology at Comenius evangelical faculty in Prague, but he did not complete it. He worked in Great Britain in 1969, and when he returned to his homeland he worked for some gardening companies. In 1976 he was arrested and imprisoned for political reasons (March - November [1] ). When he was released after eight months, he signed Charta 77 and was forced to emigrate in 1982 as part of Akce Asanace. He lived in Canada from 1983 until 1997 (first in the east - meeting Josef Škvorecký and other Czech immigrants; then on the Sunshine Coast and finally on Vancouver Island [1] ) but since the Velvet Revolution he often visited Czechoslovakia (and after 1993 the Czech Republic). He returned to his homeland in 1997, and since then he has been pursuing a musical career and partly also working as a garden designer. [2]
His wife Marie Benetková (born 1945) is a poet and artist. He has a daughter, Nikola.
Vratislav Brabenec plays the alto saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet and he also sings. He has been a member of The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) and so he experienced the persecution of the 1970s in Czechoslovakia which, due to the banned concerts of PPU, led to Charta 77. He wrote much of the lyrics for the group with philosophical ("Jak bude po smrti" What it will be like after death with the use of texts by Ladislav Klíma) and religious themes ("Pašijové hry velikonoční" Easter Passion Play, first played in 1968 with the Spirituál kvintet [2] ). In 1997 he returned to the Czech Republic and joined a revival group. He also plays in the Sen noci svatojánské band. [3]
His first poems were published in 1968 in a religious magazine Kostnické jiskry. He also published in samizdat editions. The only one solo samizdat was his Svědkové (Witnesses, 1978). He prepared another one in 1982 (Sebedudy) but it was not published until 1992. His poems are in close relation to music. He has published in most Czech literary and music magazines and collective volumes in the 1990s (e.g. Revolver Revue, Host, Rolling Stone , Rock & Pop etc.). [2] In the last few years, Brabenec has appeared in several movies, usually about or with PPU ( Milan Hlavsa, Plastic People of the Universe, 2001 or ...a bude hůř, 2007).
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Němec, Václav Benda, Ladislav Hejdánek, Václav Havel, Jan Patočka, Zdeněk Mlynář, Jiří Hájek, Martin Palouš, Pavel Kohout, and Ladislav Lis. Spreading the text of the document was considered a political crime by the Czechoslovak government. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, many of the members of the initiative played important roles in Czech and Slovak politics.
Jáchym Topol is a Czech poet, novelist, musician and journalist who became a laureate of the Czech State Award for Literature in October 2017 for his novel Sensitive Man.
Ivan Martin Jirous was a Czech poet and dissident, best known as the artistic director of the Czech psychedelic rock group The Plastic People of the Universe, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the communist regime. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead", "loony", or "fool", a nickname given to him by the experimental poet Eugen Brikcius.
Prague underground was an underground culture developed in Prague, Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s and 1970s during the Normalization period. The movement was characterized by resistance against conformity, conventions, and consumerism. Because of its non-conformity, it had serious problems with the communist regime which considered it as a political opposition. It was mainly expressed with experimental rock, art rock and psychedelic rock music and samizdat literature, partially inspired by the culture scene around Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground. The unofficial leader of this commune was art-historian and poet Ivan Martin Jirous. He designated the status of the community as a parallel world independent on the mainstream regime. Although being imprisoned many times, he never gave up on leading role in the movement. Among the fans of this subculture was, for example, former Czech President Václav Havel. This friendship led to the creation of Charter 77, which was sparked by the imprisonment of Jirous and The Plastic People of the Universe.
The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band often suffered serious repercussions, including arrests and prosecution, because of their non-conformist ideals. The group continues to perform, despite the death in 2001 of its founder, main composer, and bassist, Milan Hlavsa. Up to 2023, they had released nine studio albums and over a dozen live albums.
D8 motorway is a highway in the Central and North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. It connects Prague through Ústí nad Labem with the German border at Petrovice and the Bundesautobahn 17 at Bad Gottleuba, leading to Dresden. It forms part of the major European route E55 and the Pan-European Corridor IV.
Vratislav Effenberger was a Czech literature theoretician. He has German Bohemian descent from his paternal side, but has assimilated into Czech.
Jan Pelc is a Czech writer.
Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa was the founder, chief songwriter, and original bassist of the Czech band the Plastic People of the Universe, which was part of the inspiration for the anti-establishment movement Charter 77.
Josef Janíček is a Czech rock keyboardist, singer, accordion and guitar player. He was a former guitarist of The Primitives Group; from 1969 he played with The Plastic People of the Universe. He was also a member of Milan Hlavsa's band called Půlnoc. Since 1990, he is a member of The Velvet Underground Revival Band.
Garage is a Czech rock band from Prague, formed in 1979 by Ivo Pospíšil under the name Garáž. In the 1980s, the band included guitarist Milan Hlavsa, from the Plastic People of the Universe. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Garage played concerts abroad, including in New York City, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and France. In 1994, the group released the album Garage, produced by Ivan Král.
Jiří Kabeš, alias Kába is a Czech rock singer, violist, violinist, guitarist and songwriter. He was a longtime member of The Plastic People of the Universe where he played on viola and violin, occasionally sang and played on theremin. In the early seventies he played with rock'n'roll group The Old Teenagers. Since 1997 he is also a member of The Velvet Underground Revival Band where he plays the guitar. He was also a member of Milan Hlavsa's band called Půlnoc and Echt!.
Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned is an album by Czech underground band The Plastic People of the Universe. It was recorded in 1974/75, mainly at Houska Castle, enabled by the castle's then warden Svatopluk Karásek, with some songs being recorded in Prague. The album could not be officially released and distributed under the former Communist regime in Czechoslovakia; instead fans duplicated tapes with one another, often resulting in poor technical quality. It was released in 1978 in France by SCOPA Invisible Production. In the Czech Republic a remastered version was published in 2001 by Globus Music. The album title is a parody of The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Most of the songs on the record are settings of poems by Egon Bondy. The author of the album title is Ivan Hartl, a Czechoslovak emigrant living in London.
Joe Karafiát is a Czech singer and guitarist. In 1980, he emigrated from Czechoslovakia to London and he left England after two years. Settled in Canada, he played with various musicians and also recorded an album with another Czech musician Vratislav Brabenec. After the Velvet Revolution, he returned to Prague, where became a member of Garage. In 1997, he joined The Plastic People of the Universe. In 2014, he released debut EP called Zodiak, which was produced by Boris Carloff. Same year, he guested on Dva divoký koně by Czech singer Dáša Vokatá.
Petr Placák, also known under pseudonym Petr Zmrzlík, is a Czech writer. During the communist regime in Czechoslovakia he published his works in samizdat. He was clarinettist in the Plastic People of the Universe since 1983 and recorded two albums with this band: Hovězí porážka (1982) and Půlnoční myš (1986). Later he worked as a journalist for many newspapers, such as Respekt and Lidové noviny. In 1989, he was attacked by members of StB. They were punished in 2014.
Líně s tebou spím is a studio album by Czech rock band The Plastic People of the Universe. It was released in June 2001 by Globus Music. It is their first album after death of singer, bassist and main composer Milan Hlavsa; it contains some of his compositions that he wrote before his death. It was produced by Tomáš Uher. The album was received negative critical acclaim. Album booklet contains lyrics in both Czech and English.
Pavel Zajíček is a Czech poet and musician. In 1973, he founded the experimental band DG 307 together with bassist Milan Hlavsa. The band was persecuted by the communist regime at the time, turning Zajíček into one of the prominent figures in the Czech underground scene during the 1970s. In 1980, he emigrated from Czechoslovakia and lived in Sweden, and later in the United States. After the Velvet Revolution he returned to Czechoslovakia, where he played with the restored DG 307.
Půlnoc was a Czech rock band established in 1988 by three members of the Plastic People of the Universe: Milan Hlavsa, Josef Janíček (keyboards), and Jiří Kabeš. Hlavsa chose his sister-in-law, Michaela Němcová, to be the band's lead singer. Hlavsa started Pulnoc because the Plastic People was denied permission to travel or perform openly by the Czech government. In the spring of 1989, Pulnoc went on a tour of the United States that led to them gaining considerable favorable attention there. For example, Robert Christgau named a bootleg of a concert the band played in New York City the best album of 1989. Steve Hochman described this tour as "remarkable at least as much musically as it was culturally," writing that when the band played a show in San Francisco in 1989, "Plastic People fans and the uninitiated curious alike were floored by the combination of heavy metal, art-rock, operatic vocals and locomotive-worthy propulsion."
Jiří Neduha is a Czech singer-songwriter and short story writer. He is the younger brother of musician and writer Jaroslav Jeroným Neduha.
Jaromír E. Brabenec is a Czech graphic designer and sculptor. He is the older brother of poet and musician Vratislav Brabenec.
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