Milan Hlavsa

Metal box at the entrance to the house in Ječná street in Prague, where Hlavsa lived for most of his life and where all the important people of the "underground" culture had been meeting. If you insert a 10 crown coin into the slot, the biggest hit song of Milan Hlavsa, , will start playing.

Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa (Prague, 6 March 1951 – 5 January 2001) 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.

Biography

Early life and musical exposure Milan Hlavsa was born on 6 March 1951 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. His father was employed as a bank clerk. Hlavsa himself labored as a butcher's apprentice before he founded the Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) in 1968. Due to oppression by Czechoslovakia's communist regime, access to Western music was limited. Native Czechs maintained a link to the Western music world by obtaining albums from friends and family abroad. This is how a young Hlavsa developed an affinity for American rock and roll. He was also a part of the movement called máničky.

The formation of the Plastic People In 1967, a friend of Hlavsa's introduced him to the music of The Velvet Underground. They would prove to be a tremendous influence, along with the music of Frank Zappa. At the time, Hlavsa was in a band known as The Primitives. In 1968, Hlavsa abandoned The Primitives and joined with Michal Jernek, Jiří Števich and Josef Brabec to form the Plastic People of the Universe.

Following their release from prison, the PPU would continue to perform discreetly until the government permitted them to play publicly in 1988.

“For us, Lou Reed was a god, you could say the biggest god, of the underground ideal and of our musical world. And suddenly our god was here and playing at the Úluv gallery. But he behaved very oddly, in a hostile manner, you could say. So for me the Lou Reed that I had previously had in my mind came to an end that evening. ”

15.6.1990 - Jouy-en-Josan,Paris,France - Velvet Underground reunion at Andy Warhol exhibition by Cartier Foundation