We played around Pilsen pubs
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Pavel Zýka was born in 1961 in Pilsen, grew up with his older brother and sister in the suburb of Čechurov, where he attended the first grade of primary school, and finished the second grade in Pilsen. His parents were devoted to Esperanto, so they were often visited by Esperantists from the West. His father died tragically in 1969 while diving. Pavel Zýka trained as a plumber, then went on to the building industry. At that time, he was already interested in non-conformist literature, listening to Western music, and played the guitar as an amateur. At the industrial school he met a circle of similarly oriented young people who, like him, wore long hair. Among them, literature that was generally inaccessible or forbidden circulated, they listened to Radio Free Europe or music from Radio Luxembourg. As musicians, they started playing in Pilsen pubs and various parties in private apartments or cottages. In 1980 they played as the support band for the then little-known Prague band Psí vojáci. Pavel Zýka didn‘t finish his industrial studies and worked for a year in a gasworks, then joined the Prazdroj brewery as a temporary worker. In 1983 he got married and a year later his daughter was born. To avoid military service, he faked a suicide attempt. After a stay in a psychiatric hospital, he was first given a deferment from military service, then a blue book. He then stopped playing the guitar and devoted himself to collecting, listening to and distributing Western music on tape recordings. He also transcribed for samizdat the texts of the Pilsen mystic and professor Karel Makona, Buddhist teachings and the Hindu sacred book Bhagavad Gita. In November 1989 he became a member of the strike committee and co-founder of the Civic Forum in the Pilsen brewery. From his position as a member of the strike committee in Pilsen, he took over the property of the People‘s Militia. After 1990, Pavel Zýka graduated from high school and also studied political science. He remained working at the Pilsner Urquell.
