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From Long Hairs to the Underground: Czechoslovakia 1970–1975

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  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: October 16, 2018, 10:00 – 14:00

The fourth edition of this international conference maps a crucial period in the Czech underground. At the end of 1969 virtually nobody would have believed that just five years later there would be a sizable underground throughout the Czech regions, what’s more with its own “programme”.

The ever more psychedelic Plastic People of the Universe, as a professional group under the artistic “supervision” of Ivan Martin Jirous, known as Magor, were still appearing until May 1970. However, two years later they finally came into inevitable conflict with the normalisation powers, culminating in mass purges across the community. Magor himself found himself in a Communist jail for the first time (from 28 July 1973 until 31 May 1974) and “his” Plastics made what was in effect their final public appearance on 1 December 1973. Only invited audiences were able to attend further concerts, risking trouble with the police. This was seen in full effect in Rudolfov on 30 March 1974 when brutal and shocking violence was used against young people who had gathered for a (never played) Plastics and DG 307 concert. It was no coincidence that not long afterwards Jirous penned one of his key texts, Report on the Third Musical Revival (February 1975), which not only “defined” the Czech underground but also described how things then stood. The first half of the 1970s saw not only “notorious” underground events, such as the First Festival of the “Second” Culture in Postupice (1 September 1974) but also a rich and varied sub-cultural life in northern Bohemia and elsewhere.

The period in question is also inextricably linked to the emergence of artists of the calibre of Pavel Zajíček and the, today unfairly downplayed, influence of Milan Knížák in shaping the (proto)underground. Knížák reacted very critically to Jirous’s Report but was otherwise accepted enthusiastically in the non-conformist world. 

These and other subjects will be the focus of the conference, at which speakers will include Barbora Bothová, Jan Blüml, Jan Cholínský, Ladislav Kudrna, Martin Machovec, Petr Placák, František Stárek Čuňas, Michal Stehlík, Martin Tharp, Martin Valenta and Petra Veselá.

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