Michal Prokop (born August 13, 1946) is a man of various interests and professions, known in the music domain especially as a singer being associated with rock, soul and blues genres.In 1968 he graduated from the University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic.
Through the studies, he already acted as a guitarist and singer of Michal Prokop & Framus Five. During their first breakthrough, the band focused themselves on soul and rhythm and blues and was influenced by afroamerican artists, particularly by Ray Charles.
At the first czechoslovakian beat festival in 1967, Michal Prokop was awarded best singer. Michal Prokop & Framus Five released two albums: Blues in Soul (1968), an all-covers soul album, and Město Er (1971) which was sung in Czech with a long opening track featuring lyrics by Josef Kainar.
After the band broke up, Michal Prokop devoted himself to the mainstream for most of the seventies and was even a member of Semafor theatre. In 1978 he reunited Michal Prokop & Framus Five under a slightly different name Michal Prokop & Framus 5.
An initial search for band's line-up and style (captured on the Holubí Dante album from 1980) led to a perfect symphony with the poet Pavel Šrut and the composer Petr Skoumal combined with a sound harmony of a line-up headed by the violinist Jan Hrubý.
This lucky period culminated in an outstanding album Kolej Yesterday (1984), which initiated an open album trilogy of Prokop's (so far) best creative period. It is completed with recordings Nic ve zlým, nic v dobrým (1987) and Snad nám naše děti… (1989).
At the very beginning of the nineties, Michal Prokop left the career of a professional singer and became a parliament representative, later a deputy minister of culture (this is where he took the advantage of his college studies of culturology from the second half of the eighties), then again as a representative.
In the years 1998 - 2000 he was a company manager of Praha 2000 - Evropské město kultury (Prague 2000 - European City of Culture). He was a member of Czech Radio Council from 2002, its chairman from 2004 till the end of his term of office in February 2006.
In the years 1998 - 1999 he used to prepare and moderate a political talk show Nic ve zlým for Prima channel. Since 1999 he runs his own show in Czech Television, which is called Krásný ztráty and reaches far beyond the political orientation.
During the last seventeen years, Michal Prokop performed on a rather sporadic basis. It was particularly on two projects: First, an acoustic trio with the guitarist Luboš Andršt and violinist Jan Hrubý (recorded on live album Unplugged Live in 2004), second, with a Friends band.
In the year 2006, Michal Prokop resumed the collaboration of the late eighties line-up and released new studio album Poprvé Naposledy and that has practically brought him back into the spotlight. The album is both appreciated by critics and selling successfully, which reinitiated touring and triggered a series of Michal Prokop & Framus Five concerts with an anniversary act at Lucerna Music Bar in Prague in November 2006 on the occasion of singer's 60th birthday.
This outstanding concert with a number of exclusive guests was recorded by Czech Television and released in April 2007 as a live DVD and audio CD Live 60, Lucerna 2006. Michal Prokop was elected to the Beat Hall of Fame 2007 (Beatová síň slávy 2007) by Radio BEAT listeners.
Official site:www.michalprokop.cz
