I still bear the consequences of the police raid on The Plastic People of the Universe concert in Rudolfov
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Pavel Marek was born on 18th May 1954 in Liberec and spent his childhood in Bakov nad Jizerou. His father was a foundryman, his mother a trained seamstress, they had three offspring and lived very modestly. Pavel Marek was a wild child, he ran away from home from punishments, he tramped. At the same time, he had artistic inclinations, played the guitar and did puppet theatre. After primary school his mother enrolled him in the military school in Martin, from where he was expelled after three weeks. He also had to leave the industrial school in Jablonec, and eventually became a locksmith. He completed the compulsory military service in 1972-1974 as a dog handler with the border guards in Libějovice. In 1974, while on leave, he attended a concert of the underground band The Plastic People of the Universe in Rudolfov near České Budějovice, which was ended by a brutal police intervention. He sustained injuries to his face and a blow to his head caused him to hear worse in one ear. In the 1970s, he worked at the Liaz company, got married and increasingly more often went to Prague, where he was drawn to the bohemian world of artists. He played in several unofficial bands, and in 1976 he obtained a permit to act under the banner of the Prague Cultural Centre. In 1977 he refused to sign the Anticharter. During this period, he was also remanded in custody for the crime of defamation and disorderly conduct, which he was alleged to have committed when he was arrested by the Public Security (VB) while climbing a statue of V. I. Lenin while drunk. In the end, the court punished him with three years of forced labour in the mines of Karviná and a three-year ban from entering Prague. After his return to the capital, he found it difficult to find any work. He was a waiter at a mountain lodge in the Krkonoše Mountains, a caterer of food wagons, a janitor. In the second half of the 1980s, he attended the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory for a year and after performances in front of a committee, he gained the status of a freelance artist. He wrote short stories and feuilletons for newspapers and magazines and performed in the theatre. During this period, he indulged in alcohol, partner relationships ended dramatically, and he had no place to live. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, he was involved in tourism, running beauty salons and an internet radio station. In 2023 he lived in Hoštka, where a few years earlier he had bought and renovated a guesthouse with a restaurant.
