František Ringo Čech

František Čech was born in Prague in 1943 to František Čech Pražský, a musician of Viennese origin. From 1959 to 1963, he worked as a radio mechanic and television technician, while playing drums in various Dixieland and brass ensembles, such as Storyville Jazz, which also included Ivan Mládek and Ivo Pešák. In 1963, he cofounded the rock band Olympic together with Jaromír Klempíř, and began writing song lyrics for the first time.[1][2]

He studied drums at the Prague Conservatory from 1963 to 1965, as well as folklore, piano, and recorder. In December 1965, he travelled to the United States with the Jiří Srnec black light theatre, where his wife, Magda, performed, thus ending his stint with Olympic. It was around this time that he adopted the nickname Ringo, after Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.[1][2]

After fourteen months abroad, Čech returned home in February 1967. He formed his own beat orchestra, Rogers Band, which also included his brother Svatopluk, who played saxophone. The two left the band a year later and went on to start a new group called Shut Up, which acted as the house band at Semafor theatre until 1972 and included in its roster such musicians as Pavel Bobek, Viktor Sodoma, and Jiří Grossmann. In 1972, the band changed its name to Skupina Františka Ringo Čecha (František Ringo Čech's Band) and became autonomous. A year later, the ill-fated Jiří Schelinger joined the group on vocals.[3] Around this time, Čech switched from playing a standard drum kit to bongos, and began performing spoken word within the band's repertoire. He also wrote lyrics for other artists, including Karel Gott,[4] one of the most popular Czech singers and performers.[5]

Čech also began to write other material apart from his profuse musical output, such as short stories for the children's magazine Pionýr and a column in Mladý svět. In the 1970s, he obtained some of his first acting roles, including in the 1975 film Romance za korunu and the television production Na startu je delfín. His band travelled to a number of European countries such as Russia and Poland, where they opened for Smokie in 1975.[6]

In the early 1980s, Čech organized a number of music festivals and performed with the band Metronom. He also continued to write and began to try his hand at artistic painting. In 1983, he formed Čechovo prozatímní divadlo (Čech's Provisional Theatre), in which he held the roles of author, artistic director, director, and actor. He also appeared in several more films, such as How the World Is Losing Poets, and wrote song lyrics for such productions as Což takhle dát si špenát and Hop – a je tu lidoop.[1][2]

After the Velvet Revolution, Čech became involved in political life. From 1991, he ran as an independent candidate for the Club of Committed Non-Party Members, and later joined the CSSD. In the 1994 Czech municipal elections, he became a member of the Prague City Council for the CSSD.[7] In the 1996 Czech legislative election, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the CSSD,[8] retaining the seat until 1998. In the 1998 Czech Senate election, he unsuccessfully ran for the CSSD in the Jičín region, losing to Jiří Liška.[9]

Čech has long supported the anti-European and anti-immigration policies of Miloš Zeman and his allies. In the 2017 Czech legislative election, he was the national leader of the Party of Civic Rights.[10] On 28 October 2015 , President Miloš Zeman awarded him the Medal of Merit.