| Die Toten Hosen | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Die Roten Rosen |
| Origin | Düsseldorf, Germany |
| Genres | Punk Rock, Punk Metal, Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels | JKP, Charisma (US) |
| Website | dietotenhosen.de |
| Members | |
| Campino (Andreas Frege) Andi (Andreas Meurer) Breiti (Michael Breitkopf) Kuddel (Andreas von Holst) Vom (Stephen George Ritchie) |
|
| Past members | |
| Walter November (Walter Hartung; 1982-1983) Trini Trimpop (Klaus-Dieter Trimpop; 1982-1985) Jakob Keusen (1985-1986) Wölli (Wolfgang Rohde; 1986-1999) |
|
Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.
The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" (i.e. trousers) in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring". Their name is figuratively best translated as "The Dead Beats".
Contents |
The members of Die Toten Hosen are Campino (Andreas Frege), Kuddel (Andreas von Holst), Vom (Stephen 'Vom' Ritchie), Andi (Andreas Meurer) and Breiti (Michael Breitkopf). Although most of the members are German, drummer Vom is actually from England and replaced Wölli as the drummer in 1999; Wölli's untimely departure from the band was due to injuries caused by a car accident. Wölli himself had replaced Trini in 1985, and is still an honorary member of the band; Trini became the band's manager when Wölli joined.
The German band "Die Toten Hosen", literally meaning "The Dead Pants", was founded in 1982 replacing the band "ZK”. It was founded by Campino, Andreas von Holst, Andreas Meurer, Michael Breitkop, Trini Trimpop and Walter November in Düsseldorf at a bar for punk musicians – the "Ratinger Hof”. At Easter 1982 they were accidentally announced as "Die Toten Hasen” (meaning The Dead Rabbits) during their first concert at the "Bremer Schlachthof”.[1] The initial single "Wir sind bereit" (We Are Ready) and later on "Reisefieber" (Eagerness To Travel) were published in the same year. Suprisingly, the guitarist Walter left the band in November 1983 and joined Jehovah's Witnesses.[2] The third single, containing the party song Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder (Iced Danish spirit called Bommerlunder), is considered to be the first decent success since it was played on the radio a couple of times. The first album Opel Gang (Group of people who likes the German car brand Opel) was released in 1983 under the band’s own independent label Totenkopf (Skull).
In the summer of the same year the music video of "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder”, which was financed by EMI and directed by Wolfgang Büld, was produced in a small Bavarian church. It depicts a chaotic wedding ceremony with Kurt Raab playing an alcoholic priest and Marianne Sägebrecht playing the bride. Afterwards the community thought it would be necessary to anoint the church again and the music video was boycotted by German puplic television for a long time.[3]
At the end of the year 1983 the band, which was under contract to EMI since July, released in cooperation with the New Yorker Rapper Fab Five Freddy a Hip-Hop-Version of the song "Bommerlunder". They released it as a Christmassong called "Hip Hop Bommi".[4]
In 1984, the band accepted the BBC’s invitation to perform on the John-Peel-Show. The high travel costs provoked an argument with EMI. Another reason for the argument was the scandal about Norbert Hähnel, who did a parody of Heino in the opening program of a Toten Hosen concert. Heino, who was under contract with EMI, enforced a restraining order against Hähnel in Düsseldorf land court. Eventually, "Die Toten Hosen” separated from EMI and got a contract at Virgin Records. However, the dispute continued, as the second LP "Unter Falscher Flagge” was published in 1984. The original cover illustrated the skeleton of a dog sitting in front of a gramophone, which was a caricature of the EMI emblem His Master’s Voice. In court, EMI took out a modification of the cover. In the end, the dog skeleton on the black flag was replaced by the skeleton of an eagle, which is still used as the band’s logo, besides the Jolly Roger.
In spring 1985, the band toured France for the Goethe-Institut[5] and in fall they travelled Hungary and Poland. In late 1985, Trini Trimpop abandoned his post as a drummer and continued working in their management until 1992. Jakob Keusen became the new drummer for a short period of time and was taken over by Wolfgang Rohde in January 1986. Rohde’s first concert was simoultaneously the band’s first concert in front of a huge audience. Along with Herbert Grönemeyer, Udo Lindenberg, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, BAP, the Rodgau Monotones and many others, they performed at the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival close to Wackersdorf in July 1986 to protest against the construction of the local reprocessing plant.
In 1986, they recorded the third album Damenwahl ("Ladie’s Choice”). During the subsequent tour, named after the album, which was sponsored by the northern Germany company Fromms, the audience was generously supplied with condoms.[6] In 1987, the band celebrated its first chart success with the record Never Mind The Hosen – Here’s Die Roten Rosen ("Never mind the Trousers – Here’s the Red Roses”) using the pseudonym "Die Roten Rosen” ("The Red Roses”). The album contains exclusively rock versions of German pop songs; name and cover art of the record are a parody of the LP Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols by the Sex Pistols from 1977.
In late 1987, the first live-album Bis zum bitteren Ende ("Till the Bitter End") by Die Toten Hosen was released, reaching top 30in the German and Austrian album charts as well.
In 1988, the LP “Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau” (“A little Bit of Horrorshow”) came out, including among others the song “Hier kommt Alex” (“Here comes Alex”). This album is considered the commercial breakthrough of the band. For the most part, this record contains stage music written by Die Toten Hosen for Bernd Schadewald’s theater play “A Clockwork Orange”. The play was adapted from Anthony Burgess’s eponymous book and the film by Stanley Kubrick. For half a year, the band played on stage next to Ralf Richter who played the lead character at the “Kammerspiele Bad Godesberg” (intimate theatre of Bad Godesberg) in Bonn. In September of the same year, Die Toten Hosen performed in the Lithuanian cities Vilnius and Kaunas at the Lituanika-Festival, where they were chosen by the jury as the best band of the event.[7]
The spring tour in 1989 was also a success for the Toten Hosen, whose show at the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund was completely sold out. At the same time the band released 3 Akkorde für ein Halleluja (3 Chords for a Hallelujah), a VHS cassette documenting the lifes of the band members as musicians. In 1990 the Toten Hosen were invited to attend the New Music Seminar in New York[8] and performed as the supporting act for The Rolling Stones in Cologne. That summer the band travelled to Italy to report on the FIFA World Cup for different papers and radio stations.[9] For this purpose they recorded a rock cover version of the classic Azzurro by Adriano Celentano, accompanied by a corresponding video clip which satirically deals with the behaviour of German football tourists abroad. The double album Kreuzzug ins Glück (Crusade to Happiness), which was also published in 1990, sold over 150,000 copies in the first week.[10]
In 1991 the Toten Hosen released their album Learning English Lesson One, a tribute to the musical role models of the band. The songs are mainly cover versions of English punk rock classics. During the recordings, there was always at least one member of the original bands present. The personal highlight for the band was the cooperation with the British mail robber Ronald Biggs, whom they visited in Rio de Janeiro to record several songs. This production marks the beginning of the cooperations with T.V. Smith, the songwriter and former lead singer of The Adverts with whom the Toten Hosen work together up to the present day.
Afterward, from spring to autumn 1992, the band went on tour again with the slogan “Menschen, Tiere, Sensationen” (People, Animals, Sensations). They played many sold out concerts in halls and at festivals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Great Britain, Spain and France. For the first time they played in Argentina,[11] where they meanwhile have a strong fan community. The single “Sascha… ein aufrechter Deutscher” (Sascha… an upstanding German), which was released in time for Christmas 1992, was vehemently directed against right-wing radicalism. With the proceeds of this song, the band supported an antifascist campaign called “Düsseldorfer Appell gegen Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Rassismus” (The Düsseldorf appeal against xenophobia and racism). A German far right-wing party (called Republikaner) failed in the attempt to have the song banned for partisan defamation and thereby unintentionally contributed to the success of the single. The song grossed half a million Deutsche Mark.[12]
In 1993, the album “Kauf MICH!” (Buy ME!) was released, which hit number one in the German album charts. It mainly deals with topics like consumerism, advertisement and right-wing extremism. In the summer of 1993, Die Toten Hosen performed as the supporting act for U2 on their Zoo TV tour in Germany, with an audience of more than 50,000 people at each concert. The video to the song “Kauf MICH!” shows some footage of these concerts.[13] In the same year, the band released their first best-of album with the name of Reich & Sexy (Rich & Sexy). For the cover, the members of the band posed naked, portraying pretentious millionaires from the music industry surrounded by nude women. An international version of the best-of album was released in 1994 called “Love, Peace & Money.” At that time, Die Toten Hosen were represented in the German charts with three albums simultaneously.
In 1994 the band was on the road again for almost the entire year to fill the auditoriums in Germany and neighboring countries. In November they gave four concerts in the USA and in Canada as the supporting act of Green Day. Starting in April 1995, the Toten Hosen got their own radio program at the Berlin radio station Fritz. It was called “Tausend Takte Tanzmusik" ("a thousand beats of dance music”) and was aired a whole year every Sunday from 7 to 8 pm.[14] At the end of the year the band founded the business company JKP and so took the marketing of their CDs into their own hands.
The first album under their own label was released in 1996 and was called “Opium fürs Volk” ("opium for the people"). On this CD the band mainly deals with the topics of faith and religion. After “Kauf MICH!” (“Buy ME!”) and “Reich&sexy” (“Rich&sexy”) it was the third time they were platinum-certified.[15] With the uncoupling of the song “Zehn kleine Jägermeister” (literally "ten little hunters", in German it is associated with a counting song for children) they moved up to number one of the German speaking single-charts for the first time. Together with Iggy Pop the Toten Hosen appeared as the supporting act at the farewell concert of the Ramones in the River-Plate-Stadion in Buenos Aires in front of an audience of 75.000 people. An extended tour followed under the slogan “Ewig währt am längsten” ("Honesty is the best policy”) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Furthermore, they performed at the Gurtenfestival, the Forestglade Festival, the Berliner Waldbühne and at the Bizarre-Festival in Cologne. In May 1996 they appeared for the first time as a headliner at “Rock am Ring”. In the same year the band released their second live album with the title “Im Auftrag des Herrn” (“on behalf of the Lord”).
The band has existed for over 20 years, and their songs' focus gradually shifted from funny and nonsensical to serious; the songs from their 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.
Part of the folklore surrounding the band is the story that in their early days they played for free at private birthday parties or similar events. However, this was only under the condition that the host provided an unlimited beer supply and paid for all damages caused by the band.
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. In 1988, Die Toten Hosen released the LP Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau ("A little bit of horrorshow" ("horrorshow" is Nadsat for "ok", coming from the Russian word хорошо (horosho (good))) referring to the phrase in "A Clockwork Orange"), which featured the song "Hier kommt Alex" (referring to the movie A Clockwork Orange based on the book by Anthony Burgess); in 1988, Bernd Schadewald produced a German theater version of the book, in which the band performed as actors and musicians. "Hier kommt Alex" (Here comes Alex) was later redone for the unplugged show in 2005 with the opening piano of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
Their 1000th concert was on 28 June 1997, in the Düsseldorfer Rheinstadium, and was attended by more than 60,000 fans. A Dutch girl, Rieke Lax, died in the crowd; later the band produced the song "Alles ist eins" ("Everything is one") in memorial for her.
Their first tour after this event was as part of the 1998 Warped Tour to New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawaii, and included hospital visits for Campino after two of the nine Australian dates (Byron Bay and Geelong).
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 of Germany (esp. in South America, Australia, Eastern Europe) other notable bands being Die Ärzte and WIZO.
As longtime fans of their local football team, Fortuna Düsseldorf, they sponsored the club from 2001 to 2003. Fortuna Düsseldorf plays the chorus of "Strom" when a goal is scored at the Esprit Arena. They also published a song named "Bayern" in 2000, referring to the famous football club in Germany. Roughly translated, the text reads "many things can happen, many things can occur, I just know one thing for sure, I'd never join FC Bayern Munich".
In August, 2006, Campino (Andreas Frege) starred as Mack the Knife in a new version of "The Threepenny Opera" staged at Berlin's Admiralspalast, a short distance down Friedrichstrasse from where the play received its premier in 1928. Staged by actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, the much-awaited production opened to mixed reviews, with cheers for German rock star Campino, but scattered boos for Brandauer's "conventional" staging.
Artist Andreas Gursky sold a famous work called "Tote Hosen", a blown up photograph of the crowd from a Die Toten Hosen concert. It features a crowd of German youths, many wearing the red Hosen shirt, excitedly cheering for the band. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Faith No More seem to be fans as well, as bassist Billy Gould has been seen wearing a Mach et. .. ficken, bumsen, blasen T-shirt on their greatest hits album, This Is It: The Best of Faith No More. In addition, Faith No More have covered the song "Hofgarten" in live shows.
Fellow German rock group Samsas Traum covered "Hier kommt Alex". This was a remarkably different version to the original, as it featured a more goth orchestration take on the song, and main singer Alexander Kaschte changes the final lyric to "Hey! Ich bin Alex!" (Hey! I am Alex!) for a joke on the song's theme itself. Also, legendary UK punk band UK Subs recorded an English-language cover of the song on their 1993 album Normal Service Resumed. "Hier kommt Alex" is featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock as well as a song on the European disc of Rock Band.[16] The song was also released as a downloadable track on the American version of Rock Band on 27 May 2008.[17] Die Toten Hosen also have a special edition of "SingStar" for PlayStation 2, devoted exclusively to the band, featuring 24 tracks and videos from over the decades, which was released in 2007.
MC Frontalot, in collaboration with faux-German electronic musician KOMPRESSOR on the track "Rappers We Crush", rhymes "What did I do to deserve this?/What was my crime?/Was it because I sampled Die Toten Hosen that one time?"
In 2002 and 2005 the band played at the biggest open-air festival in Europe (400.000 - 500.000 rock fans every year) - Przystanek Woodstock[18] in Poland.
In 2010, the band played several dates in Central Asia and became the first non-local rock band to perform in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan since 1991. These concerts were later criticised when it was confirmed that the supposedly anti-establishment group had sought and accepted 68,000 Euros of German government funding to support their tour [19].
On Saturday, 2 October 2010, The band played for the first time in the Middle East for the 20th anniversary for the fall of Berlin Wall, specifically in Amman, Jordan. And the concert was a great success.
Although the band has its roots in punk rock, their style is far more than just punk rock. The band has visible influences from Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Hardcore Punk and also Alternative Rock.
Every member of the band taught himself how to play his own instrument. At the beginning of their musical career most of them still attended school. Their first album was recorded unprofessionally in a studio which was rented on an hourly basis.[20] The band kept to simple guitar chords and lyrics and they played their music in a dilettante style, which was common for punk rock. Die Toten Hosen were mainly influenced by Punk bands from the 1970s, to whom they paid tribute on most of their albums and at all of their concerts. In addition they occasionally covered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The band often plays “Schunkelpunk”, which is a fusion of German Schlager music and punk, like the song Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder, numerous cover versions of German Schlager songs and tracks like Azzuro. Because of that they rank among the pioneers of the so called “Volxmusic”.[21] “Volxmusic” is a musical genre which combines elements of German folk music with elements of jazz, hip-hop or rock.
Die Toten Hosen constantly improved their skills through many years of stage experience, new contacts with other musicians and the experience they gained in foreign countries. Since the late 1980s the band had great commercial success which put them in good financial standing and in 1995 they even established their own record label JKP. All in all this enables them to put through their own ideas according to their own visions.[22] 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. Beaten quavers and power chords[23], easily understandable texts, simple melodies, anthem-like choruses and dropping of long solos belonging to that.
The band Die Toten Hosen not only repeatedly aligned themselves in public with various political and social organizations through music, speeches and financial support, but also participated in their projects. However, the members of the band clarified that they are not attached to any political party. According to that, they rejected a request of the SPD (social political party of Germany) to write a song for their European election campaign in 1994.[24]
Already in 1991, their track Fünf vor Zwölf (“it is high time”) was published on the sampler Nazis raus ( “not up for Nazis”) and in 2006 they supported the campaign Kein Bock auf Nazis (“cannot stand Nazis”) of the band ZSK.[25] In 1992, the band participated in a demonstration against xenophobia in the courtyard garden in Bonn. They performed together with Herbert Grönemeyer, Nina Hagen and others in front of nearly 200,000 fellow demonstrators. In 1995, they supported Greenpeace, the campaign Ärzte gegen Atomkrieg (IPPNW: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclearwar), Aktion Atomteststop (an initiative for a nuclear test ban), the BUND (“Friends of the Earth Germany”) and they were featured with the track Tout Pour Sauver L’Amour (“Everything for saving love”) on their sampler Stop Chirac.[26]
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”).[27] Moreover, they funded the sampler On the Run of the human rights group Pro Asyl in 2005 and were represented with the song Meine Stadt ("my city").[28]
From 1999 on, they operated a public forum for discussion on the internet, in which everybody could state his or her opinion anonymously. Nevertheless, in August 2004, the band closed this section of their official homepage without explanation.
Over the course of the band's history, the Toten Hosen have expressed their bonds towards their home town through various actions. In summer 1995 the band participated in the ice hockey game “Powerplay des Wahnsinns” (“Power-play of insanity”) and formed a team together with part of the city's hockey team "Düsseldorfer EG". The opposing team was the Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys which were supported by the Finnish national team. The match took place in the stadium at the Brehm Street in Düsseldorf. Under the team name of “Knochenbrecher Düsseldorf” (“bone breakers of Düsseldorf”) they suffered a narrow defeat of 10:11. In 1996 they slipped into women's clothing, silk stockings and high heels and took part in the Mardi Gras parade of Düsseldorf with their own float using the slogan “We bury good taste” The Toten Hosen are considered to be the most prominent supporters of Düsseldorfer´s soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf.
At the end of the eighties they helped the club with a donation of 200,000 DM to finance the transfer of the player Anthony Baffoe to the club.[29] From 2001 to 2003 they sponsored the club after it had gotten into major financial difficulties. In 2002 the band signed an advertising contract with the Diebel Brewery and passed on their earnings to the youth of the club, who wear the skull emblem on their tricot.[30][31]
The Toten Hosen have rented a space at the cemetery “Südfriedhof” for 17 persons in which they want to be buried after their demise.[32]