Musicologica Olomucensia

On History of Rock Music Culture in Olomouc: Water-Supply Spectres (1970-1979)

Even though the Communist Party bodies in charge of governmental cultural policy in the period of so-called normalization restricted and liquidated rock music systematically, rock music life did not fully cease to exist. This in substantiated by the history of the WSS music band (Water-Supply Spectres) from Olomouc which succeeded in surviving for nearly nine years in the 1970s, the most critical period of the repressions enforced. The music band was established in December 1970. It broke up based on an intervention by State Security at the promoter of the band, which was the Socialist Youth Organization, basic unit 27, at the beginning of the year 1979. The artistic development of the band, in which Emil Pospíšil, an republic-wide known rock and folk guitar player, or Petr Večeřa, a member of the important Moravian jazz band Free Jazz Trio, started their careers, can be divided into two stages. In the first stage of its existence, the band performed at dance parties around Olomouc, playing the repertoire with musical pieces by geniuses of world hard rock, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, or Black Sabbath. Around 1975, WSS focused on jazz rock represented worldwide by the ensembles of Mahavishnu Orchestra type. WSS went down to the cultural history of Olomouc not only by their music activity, but also by their relation to Czech non-official culture and underground.