Miroslav Wanek on the girl with the beautiful eyes
Being a musician on tour abroad can be a lonely, anonymous experience, but there can also be pleasant surprises. For the last 18 years Miroslav Wanek has been one of the leading figures in the rock band "Uz jsme doma" which has a huge following here in the Czech Republic. He sings, plays guitar and piano, and writes many of the band's songs - with lyrics that in communist days won them many enemies in the corridors of power. Here Miroslav remembers an experience that left a lasting impression when the band was playing in Berlin a few years ago.
"At the very end of the sound check I saw a girl in the corner, and she had really beautiful eyes. I was watching her, but later on I forgot about that and we went somewhere for dinner. Then we came back for the concert. And she was still there. We started to play the whole show, but I still saw her in that corner. It was a strong feeling. And she came after the show, and she was telling me her story - that she was maybe twelve years with her boyfriend, and they split, and she was really very near to suicide. She didn't want to live any more. She didn't go out maybe two weeks. She was at home crying and it was a sad situation. After these two weeks she finally went out. She was walking down the street and just accidentally she heard some tones from some room - and that was our venue. She joined our sound check and it started to be something interesting for her so she stayed there the whole show. And after the show she was smiling, she was very happy and she told me that she found her sense of life - and also, she didn't understand the lyrics, but she felt something from these lyrics or from these songs - a kind of positive message or something. This could be a nice ending, but it was even nicer. One year later I met her in Prague and she was studying the Czech language [laughs]... she decided to study the Czech language. And then she was here maybe four or five years. She met a boyfriend here and maybe she is married here now. The very end of the story I don't know. It's open still. But this kind of story gives me the power to continue and I feel some sense in what we do."
