Architect Pleskot designs a music club for Nohavica

Ostrava - Singer-songwriter Jaromír Nohavica is building his own home stage in Ostrava. He has chosen the former reception area of the so-called new bathrooms of the Hlubina Mine for this purpose. Here, the Heligonka club is being established. In addition to concerts by the popular singer-songwriter, it will also feature performances by his guests and friends from both the Czech Republic and abroad, as well as cabaret, dance nights, theater, and even football evenings with the Champions League.
    "I want it to be colorful above all. For everything we love to appear here. Serious things and more trivial genres," the musician told ČTK. However, he does not have a specific dramaturgical plan. According to him, time will show what will be successful in the club.
    Nohavica has embarked on this new project together with producer and dramaturge Pavel Giertl, who led the Parník club in downtown Ostrava for 18 years. In one of the most successful Ostrava clubs, Nohavica performed regularly. "Without Pavel, I wouldn't have gone into this. He took care of a lot of things. I have an idea, and he will bring it to life. The weight of the construction, dramaturgy, and operation is largely on him," said the singer-songwriter.
    And it was precisely Parník that played a significant role in the successful musician's desire to have his own club. "Club concerts are very important to me. Parník, where I previously had my home stage, had its limits. I couldn't do everything I envisioned there," he said.
    Thus, he began searching for suitable spaces in Ostrava. Eventually, he chose the former entrance to the so-called new bathrooms of the now-defunct Hlubina Mine. The ground-floor building once housed offices and mainly a reception area with time clocks. The building, in Brussels style from the 1950s, has been empty since 1992, when coal mining ended there.
    A bar and a stage are now being created there, with the interior designed by architect Josef Pleskot, who has already participated in several large projects in the neighboring industrial area of Dolní Vítkovice. Nohavica is satisfied with his solution. "Mr. Pleskot knows me. He knew that I wanted a space for 120 to 150 people that would be intimate, cozy, and welcoming. A place where people will feel good," he said.
    Currently, construction activity still reigns in the building and its surroundings. Work is being completed on the surroundings and interior. The stage is being polished, and wooden flooring is being laid. The official festive opening, planned by Nohavica and Giertl, is set for September 1. A café will already be operating there from July.
    The club is to be primarily a multi-genre space. "People of various age groups and social standings come to my concerts. Everyone meets everyone. That's how I perceive Ostrava, which often connects the unconnectable," Nohavica said. The Heligonka is to operate on the same principle. A large part of the program will consist of his concerts. However, these will not be classic recitals, but rather thematically focused evenings. "For example, a program composed of chansons, a program with songs by Karel Kryl, or Okudžava and Vysotsky, and others," he listed.
    Even today, the club inspires him. "Last night I wrote a new song. I dare say it's a good one. And that is partly due to how I imagined myself on that new wooden stage," he said. The song does not yet have a title, the musician is tentatively calling it Cable Car. It is about the cable car that leads above Ostrava. In it, people ride and observe the life beneath them. The singer-songwriter comments on current events in Ostrava in a rap rhythm. How exactly, interested parties will hear, perhaps already in September at the new Heligonka.