Real name: Skupina Františka Ringo Čecha

Effective period / Period of releases: 1970 - 1972

Members: Jiří Korn, František Ringo Čech, Jiří Helekal, Petr Rezek, Svatopluk Čech, Bohdan Mikolášek, Zdeněk Merta, Jan Reiner, Jiří Kaleš

Czech pop-rock group, focused on the “bubble-gum” sound. Founded in Prague by drummer and lyricist František Ringo Čech in 1968 as one of the Semafor Theatre backing groups (along with the Ferdinand Havlík Orchestra, and replacing Country Beat Jiřího Brabce). Involuntarily renamed to Skupina F. R. Čecha in 1972. Besides regular gigs as a part of the theatre’s musical plays and comedy shows by Miloslav Šimek & Jiří Grossmann, they were backing songs by standalone singers like Pavel Bobek or Miluše Voborníková. Shut Up also released numerous 7-inch records on their own, with changing lead vocalists like Jiří Helekal, Viktor Sodoma, Jiří Korn, Petr Rezek or Bohdan Mikolášek.

Notes:
• After 1972 and until 1989, reissues of original Shut Up recordings were usually credited to Skupina F. R. Čecha due to censorship.
• Sometimes the group was also credited as “Orchestr divadla Semafor” (2), same name as Orchestr Divadla Semafor (alias Ferdinand Havlík Orchestra). To tell both groups apart, watch out for the credited conductor/leader: Ferdinand Havlík (1) vs. František Ringo Čech (2).