Die Toten Hosen are a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. The name is taken from the German slang idiom tote Hose (literally "dead trousers"), which means "nothing happening"; "boring". The band has had an important success through the years, and it has built a loyal following both in Europe and South America, being particularly popular in their home country and in Argentina.
Contents
History
The current members of Die Toten Hosen are Campino (Andreas Frege), Kuddel (Andreas von Holst), Vom (Stephen Ritchie), Andi (Andreas Meurer) and Breiti (Michael Breitkopf). All members except one, Vom, who is English, are German, though Campino's mother, Jenny, was also English. Vom joined in 1999, after previous drummer Wölli sustained injuries in a car crash. Wölli had played from 1985 to 1999 and was an honorary member of the band until his death in 2016. The drummer until 1985 was Trini Trimpop, who became the band's manager when Wölli joined.
The band is reputed to have played for free at private birthday parties or similar events in their early years, so long as the host provided them with unlimited beer and covered all damage caused by the band.
1982–1987
Die Toten Hosen formed in 1982 at the Ratinger Hof, a Düsseldorf bar frequented by punk musicians. Its founder members were Campino and Andreas von Holst, both from local punk band ZK, with Andreas Meurer, Michael Breitkopf, Trini Trimpop and Walter November. According to their friend and one time promoter Andrea Berzen, they chose the name Die toten Hosen – which literally translates as "the dead trousers" but suggests the German idiom tote Hose, meaning "nothing going on", "it's boring" – over Die Pariser. According to Andrea Berzen, Campino preferred the former because it implied that their concerts might not be sold out, but there might be "tote Hose" on the nights.
At their first concert at the Bremer Schlachthof over Easter 1982, the compère mistakenly introduced them as Die Toten Hasen (The Dead Hares). The debut single "Wir sind bereit" ("We are ready") was released in 1982, and was followed by their first album, Opel-Gang, the next year.
Guitarist Walter November left the band in November 1983 due to his drug problems. One of the two A sides of the third single was the drinking song "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder" ("ice-cold Bommerlunder" schnapps), which received considerable radio airplay and increased their fan base. The band released their first album titled Opel-Gang in early 1983 on their own label Totenkopf (skull).
In July 1983, the band signed to EMI, who financed a video for "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder", directed by Wolfgang Büld. It depicts a chaotic wedding ceremony in a small Bavarian church, with Kurt Raab playing an alcoholic priest and Marianne Sägebrecht playing the bride. After the filming the congregation called for the church to be reconsecrated. German public television refused to screen the video for several years for fear of offending churchgoers.
At the end of 1983, they released "Hip Hop Bommi Bop", a hip-hop version of "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder", featuring New York rapper Fab Five Freddy.
In 1984, the band played a session on the BBC's John Peel Show. EMI were displeased with the band's high travel costs and by Norbert Hähnel publicly parodying their million-selling artist Heino at a Toten Hosen concert. Heino successfully obtained a court order to cease and desist. Die Toten Hosen left EMI and signed to Virgin Records. Their second album Unter Falscher Flagge (Under False Colours), was released in 1984. The title explained the front cover of the LP, which carried a picture of the band members dressed as pirates aboard a ship. The original back cover featured the skeleton of a dog sitting in front of a gramophone, a caricature of the His Master's Voice entertainment trademark. Legal action by EMI (who owned the rights to His Master's Voice in Europe at the time) prompted the album cover to be changed to the skeleton of an eagle, which, along with the Jolly Roger, became a band logo.
1988 to 1995: Recognition and early success
In 1988, the band released their commercial breakthrough, the album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau (A little bit of horrorshow). The album referenced the Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film of the same name and was largely written for Bernd Schadewald's theatre adaption of A Clockwork Orange. For half a year the band played on stage at the Kammerspiele Bad Godesberg theatre in Bonn, alongside Ralf Richter, the play's lead actor. In September 1988, Die Toten Hosen performed at the Lituanika Festival in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania. They were chosen by the jury as the best band of the event. The album included "Hier kommt Alex" ("Here comes Alex") was later re-recorded in an unplugged version in 2005, incorporating the opening piano phrase of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
Their spring tour in 1989 included a sell-out performance at the huge Westfalenhallen in Dortmund. The band released 3 Akkorde für ein Halleluja (3 Chords for a Hallelujah), a video documentary of their lives. In 1990, the Toten Hosen were invited to attend the New Music Seminar in New York and performed as support for The Rolling Stones in Cologne. That summer the band travelled to Italy to report on the FIFA World Cup for various newspapers and radio stations. For this purpose they recorded a rock cover version of "Azzurro" by Adriano Celentano, accompanied by a video satirising the behaviour of German football fans when abroad. The double album Kreuzzug ins Glück (Crusade to happiness) was released in 1990 and sold over 150,000 copies in its first week.
In 1991 the Toten Hosen released their album Learning English Lesson One, a tribute to the band's musical influences, consisting mainly of cover versions of English punk rock classics, including 'Dirty Pictures' by Radio Stars. Each track featured at least one member of the original band that had recorded it. Several songs were recorded in Rio de Janeiro with Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs. The album also marked the beginning of the band's collaboration with T.V. Smith, songwriter and lead singer of The Adverts, which continues to the present day.
The band's 1992 'Menschen, Tiere, Sensationen' (People, Animals, Sensations) tour included concerts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Great Britain, Spain, France and a their first ever dates in Argentina.
1996 to 2020: JKP – beginnings with their own label
The first album under their own label was Opium fürs Volk (opium for the people), released in 1996. Its songs deal with faith and religion. The album went platinum, their third record to do so, after Kauf MICH! and Reich und sexy. The single "Zehn kleine Jägermeister" (ten little master huntsmen or rather: ten little Jägermeisters) went to number one of the German-speaking singles charts. Die Toten Hosen and Iggy Pop were a supporting act at the Ramones farewell concert in the River-Plate-Stadion of Buenos Aires in front of 75,000 people. An extended tour followed under the slogan "Ewig währt am längsten" (Eternity lasts longest) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Furthermore, they performed at the Gurtenfestival, the Forestglade Festival, the Berlin Waldbühne and at the Bizarre Festival in Cologne. In May 1996 they headlined the Rock am Ring festival. In the same year the band released their second live album Im Auftrag des Herrn (on the Lord's behalf).
Their 1000th concert was on 28 June 1997 in the Düsseldorfer Rheinstadium, and was attended by over 60,000 fans. Lack of effective crowd control resulted in a crowd collapse which injured a reported 70 people, and caused the death of Rieke Lax, a 16 year old Dutch girl. The band later released the song "Alles ist eins" (Everything is one) in her memory.
The 1998 Warped Tour took in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawaii. Campino was twice hospitalised after concerts in Byron Bay and Geelong in Australia.
Die Toten Hosen have collaborated with numerous other musicians (like Bad Religion, AC/DC, U2, Rolling Stones); they are also one of the few German punk bands popular outside Germany, with a large following in South America, Australia and Eastern Europe.
The band's members are passionate fans of their local football team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, which they sponsored from 2001 to 2003. When a goal is scored at the club's ground, the Esprit Arena, the chorus of the band's song "Strom" is played. The band released a football-themed song named "Bayern" in 2000 in which they proclaim that they would not join Bayern Munich under any circumstances. Campino mentioned that the band lost significant CD sales in southern Germany after the release of the song.
Musical style
All band members are self-taught musicians. At the beginning of their musical career most of them were still at school. Their first album was recorded in a studio rented by the hour. The band kept to simple guitar chords and lyrics, in garage style. Die Toten Hosen were mainly influenced by punk bands from the 1970s, to whom they frequently pay tribute in recorded work and live performances. On occasion they have played songs by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Some of the band's songs have been described as "Schunkelpunk", a fusion of German schlager music and punk, exemplified by "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder", numerous cover versions of German schlager songs and tracks such as "Azzurro". They can be seen as pioneers of "Volxmusic", which combines elements of German folk music with jazz, hip-hop or rock. In some of their songs Die Toten Hosen experiment with strings or wind instruments. A few songs have elements that are lifted from jazz (e.g. "Warum werde ich nicht satt"), reggae ("Zehn kleine Jägermeister") or Yugoslavian gypsy music ("Das Mädchen aus Rottweil").
For the most part, The Toten Hosen have not departed substantially from their original style of music, choosing power chords, straightforward lyrics, simple melodies and anthem-like choruses over long instrumental solos. Other influences on the music of Die Toten Hosen include hardcore punk, punk blues, heavy metal, thrash metal, and hard rock.
The focus of the band's music has gradually shifted from funny and nonsensical to serious. The songs from the band's first LP were mostly about having fun, but by the end of the 1980s they were focusing more on political and social issues such as racism.
Members
Campino (Andreas Frege) - vocals (1982–present)
Breiti (Michael Breitkopf) - guitars (1982–present)
Kuddel (Andreas von Holst) - guitars (1982–present)
Andi (Andreas Meurer) - bass (1982–present)
Vom (Stephen George Ritchie) - drums (1999–present)
Former members
Walter November (Walter Hartung) - guitars (1982–1983)
Trini Trimpop (Klaus-Dieter Trimpop) - drums (1982–1985)
Jakob Keusen - drums (1985–1986)
Wölli (Wolfgang Rohde) - drums (1986–1999)
Discography
1983: Opel-Gang
1984: Unter falscher Flagge
1986: Damenwahl
1987: Never Mind the Hosen, Here's Die Roten Rosen
1988: Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau
1990: Auf dem Kreuzzug ins Glück
1991: Learning English Lesson 1
1993: Kauf MICH!
1996: Opium fürs Volk
1998: Wir warten auf's Christkind...
1999: Unsterblich
2002: Auswärtsspiel
2004: Zurück zum Glück
2008: In aller Stille
2012: Ballast der Republik
2012: Tage wie diese
2017: Laune der Natur
2017: Learning English Lesson 2
2026: Trink aus, wir müssen gehen
Social involvement
Political activities
The band openly support political and social organizations in their music, interviews and by donations, but are not affiliated with any political party. They turned down a request from Germany's SPD (Social Democratic Party) to write a song for their European election campaign in 1994.
In 1991, their track "Fünf vor Zwölf" ("It is high time") was published on the sampler Nazis raus (Nazis get out) and in 2006 they supported the band ZSK's Kein Bock auf Nazis (can't stand Nazis) campaign. In 1992, the band participated in a demonstration against xenophobia in Bonn. They performed together with Herbert Grönemeyer, Nina Hagen and others for nearly 200,000 demonstrators. In 1995 they supported Greenpeace, IPPNW, Aktion Atomteststop (an initiative for a nuclear test ban), the BUND (German Friends of the Earth chapter) and they were featured on the track "Tout Pour Sauver L'Amour" ("Everything to save love") on the Stop Chirac compilation album.
In 2002, the band attracted publicity by posing undressed for posters of the animal rights group PETA under the slogan 'Lieber nackt als im Pelz' (Better naked than in fur). in 2005 they funded On the Run, a compilation album to raise funds for immigrants' rights organisation Pro Asyl, and contributed the song "Meine Stadt" ("My town").
From 1999 to 2004 their web site had a public discussion forum but this was terminated without explanation.
Ties to Düsseldorf
Over the course of the band's history, Die Toten Hosen have expressed their loyalty to their home town in various ways. In summer 1995, the band staged an ice hockey game called Powerplay des Wahnsinns (Power-play of insanity), playing in a team alongside professional players from Düsseldorfer EG against a team composed of Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys and Finnish national ice hockey players. The match took place in the stadium at the Brehmstrasse in Düsseldorf. Their team Knochenbrecher Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Bonebreakers) lost 9:10. In 1996 they slipped into women's clothing, silk stockings and high heels and took part in the Düsseldorf Mardi Gras parade with their own float under the slogan "We bury good taste".
Die Toten Hosen are supporters of the football club Fortuna Düsseldorf. At the end of the 1980s, they helped the club by donating 200,000 DM towards signing the player Anthony Baffoe. From 2001 to 2003, they sponsored the club after it had experienced major financial difficulties. In 2002, the band signed an advertising contract with the Diebels Brewery, and donated the proceeds to the club's "Nachwuchs" (youth side), who wear the band's skull emblem on their shirts.
Die Toten Hosen have reserved space for 17 people at Düsseldorf's Südfriedhof cemetery, where they wish to be buried.