Půlnoc (pronounced "pull-knots" and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

for "midnight") was a Czech rock band established in 1988 by three members of

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 o ...

Milan Hlavsa Milan "Mejla" Hlavsa (Prague, 6 March 1951 – 5 January 2001) was the founder, chief songwriter, and original bassist of the Czechoslovakia, Czech band the Plastic People of the Universe, which was part of the inspiration for the anti-establish ...

(bass guitar),

Josef Janíček Josef Janíček (born 28 December 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic) 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 ...

(keyboards), and

Jiří Kabeš Jiří Kabeš, alias ''Kába'' (* 26 March 1946 in Křemín, Czechoslovakia) 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 violi ...

(violin and guitar). 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 Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

named a bootleg of a concert the band played in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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 San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

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." In 2011, the band reunited (without Hlavsa and Kabeš) and played a number of concerts during the following decade. In April and May 2022, they embarked on an eight-date final tour, culminating on 13 May 2022 in

Jihlava Jihlava (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. Jihlava is the capital of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava (river), Jihlava River on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. Historically, Jihla ...

Discography

*''Pulnoc'' (Globus International, 1990) *''City of Hysteria'' (

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

, 1991)

References

External links

AllMusic BiographyReview
by

Greg Kot Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...

in the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

''
Reviews of Pulnoc's albums
by

*http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/guests/jy/jy-ppu.php {{Authority control 1988 establishments in Czechoslovakia 2022 disestablishments in the Czech Republic Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2022 Czechoslovak rock music groups Arista Records artists