2024-02-16 16:16:16
Drummer and guitarist David Koller is leaving the band Lucie. One of the most popular Czech teams published the information on Facebook on Sunday evening, which was soon confirmed by Koller. According to his own words, the 63-year-old rocker considered leaving for a long time. He wants to devote more time to his own group and family.
“After much consideration, I have decided to leave Lucia. Playing with Lucia was great and now I want to focus primarily on my band and family,” wrote Koller. He worked in the pop rock group with breaks from 1987, he also experienced the most famous era with it in the 90s of the last century.
“We are parting for good,” emphasized the teammates. They agreed with Koller that they will play all the contracted concerts together until the end of the summer vacation. “Lucie is moving on, preparing a new album and celebrating her fortieth birthday,” the group in which Michal Penk sang at the very beginning in the 80s wrote on Facebook without elaborating.
With three concerts in České Budějovice, Brno and Prague at the end of last year, Lucie commemorated the 30th anniversary of the album Černý kočky mokrý žáby, which received the Anděl award for a record of 20 years.
This year he will perform at the Castles CZ festival, which will begin on July 12 and 13 at Točník and culminate on August 30 and 31 at Bezděz.
The debut was already breaking records
The Lucie band played their first concert on February 13, 1986 as part of the ZK ROH Motorlet competition. She became a sensation especially after the Velvet Revolution, when she broke record sales records and won the Golden Nightingale poll four times.
David Koller at Lucia’s last concert in Prague’s O2 arena, December 2023. | Photo: Radek Vebr / MF DNES + LN / Profimedia.cz
It brought together distinctive types – eccentric guitarist Robert Kodym, bassist PBCH., keyboardist Michal Dvořák and Koller as one of the best drummers and singers of his time.
The original Lucia was founded by Kody with PBCH., she had a fashionable neo-romantic outfit at the time. Pravá Lucie was created only when Koller and Dvořák joined it. Koller worked in Lešek Semelka’s Company and Luboš Pospíšil’s group 5P, he also played with Jasná páka, Žentour and Blue Effect.
In the fall of 1987, Koller sang the composition Pár figlů, today known under the name Srouby do hlavé. As the first single, Lucie was released by Supraphon in a circulation of 1,200 copies and opened the door to the media for the group.
Lucie’s debut album from 1990 already broke sales records. Lucie sold out Prague’s Lucerna and a year later released her second album In The Sky, for which she won the first prize of the Academy of Czech Popular Music. However, the In The Sky tour was already a sign of the impending breakup that occurred in 1992.
First comeback
Koller and Kodym met a year later during the filming of Jan Svěrák’s film Accumulator 1, which signaled the return of the band. The PBCH bassist was then replaced by Slovakian Marta Minárik.
His big comeback and peak as a musician came in 1994 with the album Černý kočky mokrý žáby. To collaborate on it, Lucie invited Ivan Krále, a musician with experience from punk rockers Patti Smith and Iggy Pop, who recorded a lot of guitars, wrote two hits and turned the album into a work that still wins polls for the best post-revolutionary home album.
In the summer of 1995, the band also with the King symbolically underlined this by performing at the biggest domestic concert – at the Strahov stadium they preceded the British Rolling Stones in front of 130,000 spectators.
Lenka Dusilová also made a significant appearance on Lucie’s fourth album entitled Pohyby from 1996.
In 1998, the composition Medvídek, a Christmas carol about a teddy bear from Bogotá full of cocaine, was released, which became the biggest hit from the album Greater than a small amount of love.
After the departure of Minárik, PBCH returned to the band. The 2002 album Dobrá kočzka ché nemlsá became for many years “Lucie’s swan song” as far as serial records are concerned.
Michal Dvořák left the band in 2003 at the decision of his bandmates after the Lucie concert at the opera, where they played with a symphony orchestra. “I’m afraid that means the end of the Lucia group,” he said at the time.
That did not happen, he was replaced by Tomáš Vartecky. However, two years later, David Koller also announced his departure for the first time, for personal reasons. “I’m insufferable, extremely vain, I don’t listen, I act differently on the outside than I do on the inside, I have different opinions, I like different music, and I learned all this last week,” he said in 2005, adding that he would “not want to further annoy exes with my persona teammates”.
David Koller and Robert Kodym when they announced the Lucie concert series for the anniversary of the album Černý kočky mokry zaby last May. | Photo: CTK
The second return
Lucie then paused for a long time. Her comeback was only initiated by a concert at the Christmas party of the PPF group in December 2012, after which the musicians found common ground again.
Two years later, David Koller, Robert Kodym, Michal Dvořák and PBCH. they toured the country. They have continued since then.
In 2018, they also released a new studio album called EvoLucie. “Despite the name, the band managed to go back in time and defend its current existence,” wrote music critic Honza Vedral about it, according to whom Lucie draws from the last century, but thanks to cynicism and irony, it also remained relevant on this recording. “The band was not afraid of its own past, on the contrary, it cleverly draws from it and does what it has always done best,” the journalist summarized.
Kollerband works the longest
David Koller did not always devote himself only to Lucia. The former member of Jasná páka or Žentour already released his first solo album in the 90s. His best-known solo project Kollerband has been active since 2003. So far, last year he published the album LP XXIII, on which half of the lyrics were contributed by the writer Jáchym Topol. All members of this band worked on the music, such as guitarist Michal Pelant or bassist and keyboardist Matěj Belko.
Together with artist David Černý and filmmaker Alice Nellis, David Koller was also behind the building of the Prague cultural center MeetFactory, which opened in 2007.
He also became famous as a sharp critic of social conditions. In 2003, he was a co-author of the call We don’t talk to communists, and ten years later, before the elections, he drew attention to the growing influence of communists. In 2012, together with Bára Poláková, he released a sharp song against the political establishment called Sami. He supported Petr Pavel in the last presidential election.
Video: The 1990s were a big party for Lucie members
“The 1990s were a post-revolutionary party and boundless hope,” Lucie members said in an interview with DVtv three years ago. | Video: Martin Veselovský, DVTV