Information about the 'Czech Girls'

We had a call from Steve Scott (Steve Scotts Changes) who told us that the band featured in the video clip had been brought to the UK by Alan Cackett.

We contacted Alan and asked for any information, and below is his reply.


Hi,

Sorry to say I don't have too much information - I had most of it on my old PC and not everything got transferred to the 'new' one about 15 years ago. It was way back in 1992-4 that I brought them over to the UK
/> Here are the details I do have -

Czech Country Girls - 1994

The new freedoms now enjoyed by the people of the Eastern European countries has opened up all sorts of new possibilities, and the Czech Country Girls have been taking full advantage of that. Since their formation just over five years ago the group have toured extensively, playing such major events as The International Banjo Jamboree Festival in Germany, The Golden Prague TV Festival, Karl Marx Stadt in Germany and the Pony Express International Show in the Czech Republic.

"Being on the road and able to travel to all these different countries is great fun," explains Hana Fialova, the Czech Girls guitarist and singer who comes from Ostrava. "Before joining this band I was with the Tyrkys one of Czecholslovakia's top bands, then I sang with several bands working across Germany, Switzerland and Holland."

Dark-haired Hana is a little too modest to say that she won first prize for two consecutive years performing her own original songs in the Czechoslovakia National Talent Contest, and that as lead singer of the widely acclaimed Tyrkys pop band that she walked away with the first prize in the Lochotin Festival.

Like all the Czech Girls, Hana is a classically-trained musician. A graduate of the Ostrava Music School, she has been playing music professionally since she was 16. Youngest member of the band is 18-year-old Petra Gavlasova, a pretty blonde girl from Ostrava who plays keyboards, sings lead and harmony vocals and is also a talented songwriter. When not on tour, Petra is continuing her musical studies at the Prague Conservatorie of Music and has played with various chamber orchestras and pop groups on Czech television.

"We all have different musical likes," Hana says. "We enjoy classical music very much, but I love to hear country-rock and blues music. Some of this music is new to us in the Czech Republic, so we are still learning and listening and I'm sure we will do much learning when we are in England, listening to the way your bands play country music."

Kamila Sniehottova, the band's dynamic fiddle player, has played traditional Czech folk and Gypsy music professionally since her teens and brings a touch of maturity to the band. Though she will delight audiences with her exciting rendition of Orange Blossom Special, she is a tasteful player continually embellishing the songs with neat little touches and is now regarded as one of the best country fiddle players in the Czech Republic.

Eva Dajcova, one of the original members of the Czech Country Girls, plays lead guitar, banjo and also adds harmony vocals. She has studied guitar and music theory, and for several years played as a soloist in various Chamber orchestras and performed at the Guitarfestival in Estorgom, Hungary and the International Chopin Festival in Marianaske Lazne.

Another of the original band members is bass guitarist Iva Svehlikova, who after studying guitar and music theory, has played in various amateur pop and country bands throughout Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Soviet Union before joining the Czech Country Girls five years ago.

Best wishes
Alan Cackett
Maverick AAG Publishing Limited
Company Registration:04350455
24 Bray Gardens, Maidstone, Kent, ME15 9TR
www.maverick-country.com