European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 07, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes saturday september 7, 1985 Bluegrass music in Eastern Europe by Larry Gerber associated press Bluegrass music has put Down roots i communist Europe and it s flourishing despite censorship politics and language barriers. Fiddlers Banjo pickers guitarists and mandolin players have sprouted in Czechoslovakia Hungary and Poland. In these restrictive countries they Are Seldom heard on the radio and record contracts Are practically unknown. Many artists have emigrated seeking Western audiences. Many More have stayed. I Don t need to eat i Don t need to sleep drink or smoke said Banjo player Fulgo Zapletal. I need to play  Zapletal lived and played in Pilsen Beto e emigrating to Canada. The West Bohemian town famous Foi its Beer and heavy Industry has become the annual meeting place Lor czechoslovak artists and tans of Bluegrass country Western and other american style Tolk music. Twenty thousand of them a Day converged at the local Fairgrounds during the recent Porta music festival which has grown since 1967 from a Small concert to Czechoslovakia s most popular unofficial music show. To agr thronged two main Dally concerts Over the tour Days of this year s Porta. Czechoslovakia s top Amateur groups played songs approved by censors for crowds of 10,000 or More. It had the atmosphere of a 1960s pop festival in the West without drugs. Une popular Sanzar used gentle irony to get across a message about a Crow who Sang of Freedom but was denounced by ants and punished by a Fox. Such songs with hints of protest were wildly cheered one reason Why Porta is the Only event of its kind in Czechoslovakia. Staged acts were chosen irom organized regional Competition across the country. They ranged from excellent to what one Bluegrass connoisseur called truly  some people just brought their own instruments and played. Thousands had tape recorders keeping alive the second culture on homemade cassettes passed hand to hand. In Shady Groves and parking lots Impromptu Jam sessions Drew scores of listeners. Some Sang in English which is crowned on by authorities. Bluegrass itself is officially seen As american and generally undesirable. Newy Jou. One of the country s top Bluegrass groups droned an instrumental red River Valley As 50 couples practice Square dance moves on a Sun baked Asphalt slab. An announcer explained the technique of do so do in czech. After Midnight Newy Jou and friends crowded into a Cabin to drink Beer and pick in Earnest. They Sang Bluegrass standards Fox on the run and Rocky top in memorized English even though none could speak it Well. But unto Bwl Wurm were czech originals Sung in tight three or four part Harmony with fiddle upright Bass mandolin guitar and Banjo providing fast and Fine accompaniment. Foreign groups such As amazing grass from Franco have been occasionally allowed to visit but the czech Bluegrass scene is essentially fenced off from the rest of Europe and America. Even bands from Poland and Hungary soviet bloc allies Are rarely heard in Czechoslovakia. Country Road is Poland s most popular Bluegrass band. Several country Western groups also draw crowds there. But Korneliusz Pacudan chairman of the country music association in Poland said no country style records would be produced this year even though the genre had Best Sellers in 1983 and 1984. Hungarian musicians work under fewer restrictions. They travel to the West sell tens of thousands of records a year and stage an annual music fest on shipyard Island in the Danube River North of Budapest with foreign and local groups. Tha Story of Zapletal the expatriate Banjo player is the Story of Many soviet bloc musicians. Following threats from secret police he left Czechoslovakia Lour years ago with tour friends. The group went to Yugoslavia where vacation travel is Legal for czechs. From there they tried to Cross into Austria without travel documents. We were sitting there at the guard Shack and got out our instruments and played for the  Zapletal said. Maybe they got to like us. They told us about the . Office in  the Littfe known Belgrade Bureau helps refugees seeking political Asylum. After months of waiting and paperwork Zapletal was allowed into Austria. He spent three years playing with Vienna groups and doing Kitchen work while trying to get a visa to the United states. It was denied. Just before this year s Porta festival he headed for Toronto Canada papers in order in search of a fiddle playing Friend and Oiher musicians who had emigrated before him. Rok around the Kremlin by Alison Smale associated press t he Kremlin May not be wild about it but Rok music has taken firm hold in the  and Rock music onco condemned outright by soviet authorities have a wide audience and slowly have gained a measure of official acceptance. Selected Rock bands such As autograph which took part in last july s worldwide live Aid concert have the backing of state concert organizations. They Purchase Western equipment and perform across the nation. Many restaurants have Bonds that Belt out russian and italian pop hits and television regularly airs soft Rock and pop. Young muscovite troll through Parks with tape recorders in hand most wearing jeans but some in More punish styles. Such fads usually Are the preserve of the so called Golden youth the children of the elite with Access to Western goods records and tapes copied and re copied for wider circulation. The trend started in the 1960s, when the offspring of those who travelled abroad brought their first beatles recordings Back to the soviet Union. Officially frowned upon the passion Lor what the soviets Call Rok spread via foreign radio broadcasts and imports traded on the Black Market. By the mid-1970s, Homegrown Rock groups started performing publicly and some soviet i la discos opened. In 1977, the Moscow youth newspaper Moskovsky Komsi motels began publishing a monthly pop Chart compiled from questionnaires in record stores. Some local stars like Alia Pugacheva have gradually acquired the trappings of Western idols a huge following sell out concerts and comparative riches. Yet soviet Rock culture has some decidedly in Western facets. The no Cable television and no officially sanctioned Rock video. Soviet television has never shown an entire Western Rock concert and while it took in the 16-hour telecast of live Aid it has yet to broadcast edited excerpts or say the concert look place. The English language Moscow radio has regular programs featuring local jazz and Rock and Light pop is played on other soviet stations. But All pop stations Are unknown. Rock concerts take place under the wary Eye of hundreds of uniformed police who keep fans seated during performances that often seem More Tike a variety show than Woodstock. When the popular estonian band Vitamin played in Moscow last year its songs were crammed Between acrobatic and comic acts. Youth clubs and houses of culture stage discos and concerts but also lecture teen agers about Rock presenting its development in the West in the ideologically acceptable Guise of a protest against Bourgeois society. State run Media print an occasional usually critical feature on Western Rock stars such As Michael Jackson and Prince and refer casually to groups such As Pink Floyd. But the records of those stars have never gone on sae officially in the soviet Union. Rok is allowed but Only half acknowledged by authorities who want soviet youth to build a communist world distinct from the West. In soviet Media have recently debated How Best to develop a soviet Rock that will satisfy appetites for pop but not Foster the rowdiness and self doubting introspection of much Western Rock. Much of the debate focuses on How much official backing to give so wiled Amateur groups whose music often is much More modern and punish than he 1970s sound of off Chalfy sanctioned Rock groups or the melodious Light pop of popular italian singers. The Amateur groups currently circulate private tapes and give Small concerts said to be strictly for insiders. By contrast popular sanctioned groups such As autograph Zodiac. Vitamin and Arsenal and soloists such As Pugacheva and Alexander Gradsky give Large concerts for up to 20.000 people. The state record firm. Melodia issues their records and has just put on Sale a flashy double album of Gradsky s Rock opera stadium. Some artists have difficulties with authorities the most popular group time machine whose lyrics tend to focus on individual loneliness in society still Aives concerts but not in Moscow. In a s ick azz Rock ensemble recently gave the first Public showing of break dancing in Moscow. But teen agers break dancing in the Street afterwards scattered when plainclothes policemen appeared