Interview with Filip

Hi Filip, we have prepared some questions for you concerning your project THE WALL 2009. Why did you chose Pink Floyd and their famous „The Wall“?

• The first time I heard Pink Floyd was when I was about fifteen. It was The Dark Side Of The Moon. I realized that this music has got absolutely different ambitions to those I was accustomed to before. What a sobriety and concentration on an idea, what a work with moods… Soon, The Wall was shown to me. Though I couldn´t speak a word in English, I was somehow able to understand what it is about. It was more than obvious, that in this music there is nothing to be dreaming about and that there is no place for the listener´s fantasy. Waters´ model is just to announce. He doesn´t care about confrontation with the audience. He just warns, indicts and complains. The urgency and the rudeness has taken and bewitched me. The content pictures passionate celebration of  human ugliness. Several levels are constantly repeated. The anti-militarist one that shows repulsive principles of interpersonal relationships, the one that shows  cruelty and stupidity of showbusiness, the one that unfolds hang-ups developed in childhood with remarkable help of our teachers. Waters´ father was killed in the war. In 2000 my brother was killed. He was a victim of a car accident. I feel there are lots of opinion parallels between me and Waters.

The concert is going to take place in O2 Arena in Prague, the biggest one in Czech Republic, so we can expect an amazing show, can´t we?

• Pink Floyd have never released a video record of this show and moreover they played it for a very short time. I´ve got a piratic one at home and we use some of their ideas in our show, too. The performance has got two parts. Between the stage and the audience a real wall is going to be risen. The special replications of the breeze-blocks are supplied by IRETEX. We use quadrophone sound that makes the music rotate round the hall. You will see the rock band counting about fifteen musicians playing electric instruments, string ensemble “Eve Quartet“, two trombones, three trumpets, flute and EWI (electric wind instrument). Another important part of the cast is the children choir “Chorus Angelus”. Various stage properties, small dramatic sketches, own film shots and Czech subtitles can´t be missing.

A project of such extent requires a lot of work and preparation. How long did it take you from the initial idea to the final realisation?

• We started working on it last October, so a year ago.

According to the promotional video the show is going to be very similar to the original Pink Floyd´s performance, dramatic scenes and graphic intercession are the inseparable moments. Will there be something special to be looking forward to see?

• Definitely. As for the music we bring The Wall complete. In Alan Parker´s film “The Wall” there is “Hey You” missing, on the record there isn´t “When The Tigers Broke Free” etc. We make big effort to show this piece being still alive. We do not just playback “The Wall”. We try to transmit Waters´ huge and duly justified worry from the human incommunication. And it´s still in bloom...

During the show there are going to appear some special guests, e.g. Michal Malátný (Chinaski), Jan Neckář (Bacily) or so called “guitar magician” Radim Hladík (Blue Effect). What was the purpose of your decision who to invite for the coaction?

• Jan Neckář together with Ota Petřina arranged the music of “Bacily” in the similar way as Donovan or Pink Floyd. The inspiration was evident. I was a small boy and we listened to their album “Sluneční Věk” that I still love. In that period he and his brother recorded a Czech version of “Another Brick In The Wall part II”. The fact, that he accepted my offer to be a part of my show, I treasure a lot. Radim Hladík is a musician that has never betrayed his music and for me, he is a symbol of a real and respectable bigbeat guitar player. There are not many of such musicians here... The next performing guest is Zdeněk Kluka – the leader of Progres 2 from Brno. He is a supervisor and an author we should all take hat off to. Besides, he can yell very well, so I decided to offer him the role of the judge in the final scene “The Trial”. His longtime workmate Roman Dragoun is my friend, we have just finished an album “Otlučená Srdce” and he is absolutely great at playing the Moog synthesizer. He is going to play a solo on that instrument. Michal Malátný is my pubmate from the pub “U Myslivce”. Once I played some pink Floyd songs from the juke box there and he became to bid more and more of Pink Floyd. He introduced himself later. I didn´t know him before and so didn´t he. But we stroke our hands and it was done. He is going to sing with us for the socond time...

Let´s summarize: when and where is it going to happen?

• I would like to invite you to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the release of one of the greatest rock pieces ever created. It is going to take place in O2 Arena in Prague on October 31, 2009 at 7 p.m.
  Come and help us to tear down the wall!

Thanks, J. Fridrich