anniversary
Punk birthday: 40 years Die Toten Hosen
The Toten Hosen feel “a huge gratitude”. Photo: Gregor Fischer/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
At least one thing is clear: The Toten Hosen will be 40 this year. There is already reason to celebrate at the weekend – a concert in Bremen on April 10, 1982 is considered the starting point.
Die Toten Hosen will not really celebrate with the fans until the end of May, when their career review «Alles aus Liebe» will be released on CD and vinyl. And in June, when a three-month tour by the Düsseldorf punk rock icons begins (of all places in the rival metropolis of Cologne on the Rhine).
But actually, Sunday is the Hosen anniversary – even if singer Campino restricts at the request of the German Press Agency: “The exact founding date of Toten Hosen is no longer comprehensible for us.”
However, there is evidence: 40 years ago, on April 10, 1982, the young band from Düsseldorf made their live debut at Bremen’s “Schlachthof” – incorrectly announced as “Die Toten Hasen”. The first album “Opel-Gang” with the programmatic opener “Tote Hose” was only released the following year. Then the dilapidated yellow pants bus picked up speed.
Today the musicians form one of the most successful German rock bands ever with 17 studio albums, eight live records and seven compilations. Since 1990, the Hosen have been number 1 in the German album charts eleven times.
“We started rehearsing together sometime in December ’81,” recalls frontman Campino (59, real name: Andreas Frege). “April 10th, the day of our first concert at the Schlachthof in Bremen, was then declared the official birthday.
I would like to celebrate our birthday with the others on the 10th, but unfortunately I have to go to Manchester to cheer on the Reds against City, which is my priority at this time,” said the loyal Liverpool fan.
Live for the moment
“Certainly not” the band thought of such a long existence 40 years ago, Campino said when asked by the dpa. “We only lived for the moment then, and basically we still do today.” He and the other trousers now felt “a huge gratitude for how long we’ve been able to pull this off and that our audience is still not fed up with us”.
At the age of 40, the band felt “that our life was a great pleasure,” says the still boyish singer. For him and the Toten Hosen it is “always essentially about encounters and friendship with other people, whether in Beijing, Buenos Aires or Kaiserslautern”.
But Campino also doesn’t forget to pay tribute to the deceased manager Jochen Hülder, “without whom we would certainly not be where we are today”.