Brutus (band)

Brutus is a Czech rock musical group with a long tradition. They call their style "true bigbeat" (the Czech word "bigbeat" is different from the English use more or less connected with the music of the 1960s from rock and roll to rock music played for dancing)

Brutus was established in 1967 under the name "Mandragora". In 1973 their performances were banned by the communist censorship and they started playing under the name "Elektronik". The name was changed to "Brutus" in 1980 and there was a period (1982-1989) when the band had to play as "Kyklop". Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989 the band has again been called "Brutus" and has performed every Friday and Sunday of the year all around the Czech Republic. They played with British UK Subs, TV Smith, Suzie Quatro, Dr. Feelgood or Slovak Zóna A, or No Name. They also cooperate with The Vibrators.

The group appeared in the movie "Indian Summer" (1995) by Saša Gedeon.

Members

There have been 42 members in the history of the band. [http://www.brutus.cz/historie.htm] The fouders of the band in 1966/7 were Vlastimil Beneš, Libor Laun, Miloslav Černý, Zdeněk Havelka, Vladimír Lankaš, Václav Matějka, Ivan Mikšovic, Jindřich Průcha, Zdeněk Steidl and Milan Tyburec.

Present members are Petr Bradáč, Michal Cerman, Pavel Fišar, Vladimír Hasal, Václav Košař, Milan Křížanovský, František Matějovský, Jan Monhart, Alexander Pleska and Zbyněk Šlajchrt. [http://www.brutus.cz/fotogale01.htm]

The band master is Vladimír Hasal (born 1955) and the front man is Alexander "Sáša" Pleska (born 1947) who plays the keyboard, sings and feeds the audience with his humour.

Concerts and lyrics

The performance of Brutus takes four hours of music played almost with no break. They play every weekend on two places, big cities as well as whistle stops.

The lyrics of the songs are mostly cheerful and the topics turn around music itself, dance, beer-drinking, rough sleepers and love.

The group also plays the classic British and American rock and roll during their concerts.

Discography

* "Třikrát denně akt" (1991, 2nd ed. 2002)
* "Mám horečku" (1992)
* "Somráci - Live" (1993)
* "Celý večer rock and roll" (1994)
* "Gorila" (1995)
* "Best of Brutus"(1997)
* "Deme na to" (1998)
* "Alko alkohol" (1999)
* "Dík za číslo" (2005)
* "To samozřejmě můžeš" (2008)

External links

* [http://www.brutus.cz/index.htm Group Page in Czech]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0n7n17IZ1U A Sapmle live from YouTube]