Jan Rampich

“So they wrote down that I would not move, then I had a peace for a fortnight , then they found out that I was present on some demonstrations, so they increased the pressure, rather a lot I would say. After a year, they gave me my passport, this was in 89, the same year I married my second wife. We wanted to go to Hungary for a holiday. Meanwhile, there was the Several Sentences campaign, a number of concerts and events. We went to see Budapest, Balaton and other sights. We arrived home and about a week later they came for me, quite suddenly. Well, we edited the journal, we were to move the stencils, the third issue was in the making already, I had it in my flat, in that bedsit. I was on my way to work, about seven, when the Secret Police arrived. They took me to their office in Slovany, put me in the cell and said they were going to see to something. The officer who stayed there said they went to the attorney for a house search warrant. I was done. I had all the journal in my flat, all texts. And, moreover, my wife would be impacted by it, as she was there, after her night shift in the bakery.”

“I must return to 1988. I had enough, it got on my nerves. In summer I went to police’s passport department, asking for an approval to emigrate. I decided myself. I really had enough. So I settled everything in my job, I didn’t have to pay for school since I had none, my military service… it was the quickest administrative action I ever witnessed. They wanted to get rid of me everywhere. I did everything in a single day and everywhere they gave me a stamp, ascertaining that they would not miss me. I had no problems in my job, they said it was my business if I wanted to leave. The only thing I didn’t have was a statement from another country that they would accept me. Austria used to issue these. It was in summer. But then I thought it over, I put the documents in my drawer. This was the only month I was not interrogated at all in five years. They gave you a month to move out. But then I came to my work and the foreman, my good friend, told me, ‘What are you still doing here?’ I reminded him I had told him already I would not go. He said no one believed me anyway. As soon as he spoke, the door opened and there was the Secret Police. They came for me, they wanted to solve the matter, they wanted to expand my deadline. They were even willing to drive me to any embassy. Or event to the border. But I told them I was not going anywhere. So they said they would put me in prison. I expected that. I even had my toothbrush, toothpaste and toilet paper on me. And they said we would go directly to the detention cell.”

“The house search was preceded by that for May 6 we had called a celebration of Pilsen’s liberation by the U.S. Army in the Peace Square. It was I who organised the event, alongside Mr Jiří Šašek and Mr Jindřich Kolář. We officially announced it at the municipality. Three days before the event they banned it, of course. All were arrested, put in the cells, I was taken to Kralovice to the forests where I was left. And on the same day, May 6, an article on me was published in Pilsen’s edition of Pravda, which was a communist daily. It was evident they would put me in prison. It was because of the Several Sentences — someone informed on me. I learned this when I was interrogated at Bory. I was prosecuted without custody. First it was a crime with prison sentences from three months to three years, then on Thursday they came to collect me and said it was reclassified by the attorney to a prison sentence from one year to five years. Meanwhile, though my lawyer, we filed a complaint against the article and asked for an apology. This, naturally, angered them even more, it was the first press complaint in Pilsen against communists since 1948.”

“For me, punk was the hardest musical stance against society. It does not matter what kind of society. And it does not matter who rules. It is a revolt. Besides that I like the music.” — “And a revolt against what, in particular?“ — “Against everybody that is above us. We had the experience with the communists, so we understood it as a revolt against the regime. In the West, it was divided. Half of the punk was strongly leftist, while the other half saw it as a protests, and this was the side we belonged to. We were not leftist, definitely not.” — “And punk music unified it.” — “Very much, but it united all people around the rock music, as we were on the same ship. I have this experience from an Odyssey concert, I had the mohican on my head, as the only one. I was there with my friends, head-bangers from Pilsen, and when I went to get a beer, a long-haired huge man said what was it I had on my head and was about to attack me. He had ACDC tattooed on his arm. This was in 1984, I think. And I told him: ‘Before you beat me up, I can tell you the names of all ACDC members. I like them, you like them, I have all of their records at home…’ He was much surprised. So I made it clear to him that he liked ACDC, I liked Sex Pistols and if we got into a fight, the police would arrest and beat both of us. Is it worth it? He sat down, put a hand on me shoulder, gave me a beer and me and the whole Přeštice band were friends.”