Campino
Encyclopedia
Campino is a singer/songwriter, and actor. He is most famous for his performance as the head of, and lead vocalist of the German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen
.
. His grandfather Ludwig Frege was the president of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany
. He grew up as the son of a judge and a teacher. His mother was English, and raised her children to be bilingual. He has five siblings, amongst them his brother John, who is twelve years older than he is, who introduced him to punk music.
At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Mettmann
. Campino attended the Humboldt
-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf. He ended up repeating twice and, due to this circumstance, he ended up in a class with Michael Breitkopf, co-founder of Die Toten Hosen. Both graduated successfully from secondary school in 1983. Campino was conscripted into the German Federal Armed Forces for eight months, until his refusal was approved, upon which he subsequently did his alternative civilian service together with Michael Breitkopf, in the psychiatry field in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg
. From 1978 to 1982 he was the singer for ZK, and later founded Die Toten Hosen with his fellow bandmembers Andreas von Holst, Michael Breitkopf, Andreas Meurer, Trini Trimpop and Walter November. Before becoming mainstream artists, Die Toten Hosen played many shows for just a "crate of beer" as "payment" by whoever hired the band.
He, and his bandmates, are huge fans of his hometown soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf
which the band sponsored between 2001 and 2003. Andreas also follows Liverpool FC and was injured after a Liverpool FC loss, in which he broke his foot by having kicked a garbage can, before the festival season started. Andreas and his band are currently sponsoring further social projects such as 'home work help for kids', 'fan projects against racism' and 'financial lawyer-support for asylum seekers'. He has a son with actress Karina Krawczyk
.
'Nur Zu Besuch' was written to help him cope with the death of his mother Jenny Frege and 'Unser Haus' is about Campino’s childhood and the death of his father. Both his parents died of bowel cancer and Campino has repeatedly participated in programs for better awareness of the cancer and has encouraged the population to undergo preventive medical checkups.
invited him together with his mother, another time with his friend Stephan Schröer OSB, the then abbot of the Benedictine Abbey in Meschede
. In both shows, he commented explicitly on the church, faith and religion. In 2001, the NDR did a documentation about him in connection with their serial program 'Gott und die Welt' (literally translated God and the world, habitually used meaning all the world and his brother).
Campino has acted as a journalist on several occasions. In 1994, for instance, the German magazine Der Spiegel
printed his interview with then Youth Minister Angela Merkel
in which he asked her about her own experience with drugs, alcohol and her first contact with pop music. In 1993, he had asked Paul McCartney
similar questions. One year before Joe Strummer
’s death, Campino interviewed the head of The Clash
in August 2001 for the SZ-Magazin.
Campino has also performed as an actor on several occasions. It was already in 1986 that he played a featured part in the movie 'Verlierer' by Bernd Schadewald and in 1990, he played a punk in the pre-primetime serial 'Der Fahnder'. In 1992, he played the main role along with Gisela Schneeberger, Dieter Pfaff, Ottfried Fischer, Jochen Busse and others in the comedy 'Langer Samstag' by Hanns Christian Müller.
Apart from a small role in the play A Clockwork Orange
in Bad Godesberg
in May 1998 for which Die Toten Hosen also wrote the soundtrack, he had his theatre debut playing the role of Mack the Knife
in Bertolt Brecht
’s “Dreigroschenoper” (engl. ‘The Threepenny Opera
’) from August to October 2006, amongst others with Gottfried John
, Katrin Saß
, Birgit Minichmayr
and Maria Happel. The play was directed by Klaus Maria Brandauer
for the Admiralspalast (engl. ‘admiral’s palace’) in Berlin.
In 2003, the ZDF
, one of Germany’s public TV channels, called an election for the 100 most significant German characters. Out of the 300 nominated people, Campino made it to number 65. In 2006, he handed the most significant German music prize, the Echo, to Bob Geldof
and held the laudation.
Since 6 December 2006, Campino has been the ‘godfather’ of the Regine-Hildebrandt-School in Birkenwerder
where he is taking care of the project 'Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage' (engl. 'School without racism, school with courage').
Campino plays the lead role in Wim Wenders
’ movie Palermo Shooting
(2008), which premiered in Germany on 20 November 2008.
Die Toten Hosen
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" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...
.
Biography
Campino is a descendant of the Frege family who owned the Frege House in LeipzigLeipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. His grandfather Ludwig Frege was the president of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany
Federal Administrative Court of Germany
The Federal Administrative Court is one of the five federal supreme courts of Germany. It is the court of the last resort for generally all cases of administrative law, mainly disputes between citizens and the state...
. He grew up as the son of a judge and a teacher. His mother was English, and raised her children to be bilingual. He has five siblings, amongst them his brother John, who is twelve years older than he is, who introduced him to punk music.
At the age of two, he moved with his parents to Mettmann
Mettmann
Mettmann is a Rhenish town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Mettmann, Germany's most densely populated rural district...
. Campino attended the Humboldt
Humboldt
-People:* Alexander von Humboldt, German natural scientist, brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt* Wilhelm von Humboldt , German linguist, philosopher, and diplomat, brother of Alexander von Humboldt- Counties :* Humboldt County, California* Humboldt County, Iowa...
-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf. He ended up repeating twice and, due to this circumstance, he ended up in a class with Michael Breitkopf, co-founder of Die Toten Hosen. Both graduated successfully from secondary school in 1983. Campino was conscripted into the German Federal Armed Forces for eight months, until his refusal was approved, upon which he subsequently did his alternative civilian service together with Michael Breitkopf, in the psychiatry field in Düsseldorf-Grafenberg
Düsseldorf-Grafenberg
Grafenberg is an urban borough of Düsseldorf. It borders to Gerresheim, Ludenberg, Flingern and Düsseltal.Grafenberg is one of the smallest boroughs in Düsseldorf. It is a green area and an expensive place to live Grafenberg is an urban borough of Düsseldorf. It borders to Gerresheim, Ludenberg,...
. From 1978 to 1982 he was the singer for ZK, and later founded Die Toten Hosen with his fellow bandmembers Andreas von Holst, Michael Breitkopf, Andreas Meurer, Trini Trimpop and Walter November. Before becoming mainstream artists, Die Toten Hosen played many shows for just a "crate of beer" as "payment" by whoever hired the band.
He, and his bandmates, are huge fans of his hometown soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf
Fortuna Düsseldorf
' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...
which the band sponsored between 2001 and 2003. Andreas also follows Liverpool FC and was injured after a Liverpool FC loss, in which he broke his foot by having kicked a garbage can, before the festival season started. Andreas and his band are currently sponsoring further social projects such as 'home work help for kids', 'fan projects against racism' and 'financial lawyer-support for asylum seekers'. He has a son with actress Karina Krawczyk
Karina Krawczyk
Karina Krawczyk is a German actress and occasionally works as a fashion model.-Acting career:Karina Krawczyk speaks Polish, German, English and French fluently. She studied acting at the theater school Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France and with Ariane Mnouchkine at the „Théâtre du soleil“...
.
Song dedications
Campino wrote the song 'Alles ist Eins' on the single 'Pushed Again' for Rieke Lax – the Dutch girl that died during the 1,000th Gig of Die Toten Hosen in the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf in 1997.'Nur Zu Besuch' was written to help him cope with the death of his mother Jenny Frege and 'Unser Haus' is about Campino’s childhood and the death of his father. Both his parents died of bowel cancer and Campino has repeatedly participated in programs for better awareness of the cancer and has encouraged the population to undergo preventive medical checkups.
Movie, TV and public commitment
As spokesman of the Toten Hosen as well as an individual, Campino has a high media presence. Since the Mid 80s, he has participated in numerous talk shows on TV and is a respected conversationalist. In Bettina Böttinger’s show, for example, he met Gretchen Dutschke-Klotz and Alfred BiolekAlfred Biolek
Alfred Biolek is a well-known German entertainer and television producer...
invited him together with his mother, another time with his friend Stephan Schröer OSB, the then abbot of the Benedictine Abbey in Meschede
Meschede
Meschede is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Hochsauerlandkreis.-Geography:Meschede is situated in the Ruhr valley, near to the Hennesee, south of the nature-park Arnsberger Wald...
. In both shows, he commented explicitly on the church, faith and religion. In 2001, the NDR did a documentation about him in connection with their serial program 'Gott und die Welt' (literally translated God and the world, habitually used meaning all the world and his brother).
Campino has acted as a journalist on several occasions. In 1994, for instance, the German magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
printed his interview with then Youth Minister Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
in which he asked her about her own experience with drugs, alcohol and her first contact with pop music. In 1993, he had asked Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
similar questions. One year before Joe Strummer
Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor , best remembered by his stage name Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the British punk rock band The Clash. His musical experience included his membership in The 101ers, Latino Rockabilly War, The Mescaleros and The Pogues, in...
’s death, Campino interviewed the head of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
in August 2001 for the SZ-Magazin.
Campino has also performed as an actor on several occasions. It was already in 1986 that he played a featured part in the movie 'Verlierer' by Bernd Schadewald and in 1990, he played a punk in the pre-primetime serial 'Der Fahnder'. In 1992, he played the main role along with Gisela Schneeberger, Dieter Pfaff, Ottfried Fischer, Jochen Busse and others in the comedy 'Langer Samstag' by Hanns Christian Müller.
Apart from a small role in the play A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....
in Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...
in May 1998 for which Die Toten Hosen also wrote the soundtrack, he had his theatre debut playing the role of Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
in Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
’s “Dreigroschenoper” (engl. ‘The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
’) from August to October 2006, amongst others with Gottfried John
Gottfried John
-Life and work:During the 1970s and early 1980s, Gottfried John played various roles in films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, notably that of Reinhold in the epic Berlin Alexanderplatz . He is internationally known for his portrayals of General Ourumov in the James Bond film GoldenEye and Julius...
, Katrin Saß
Katrin Saß
Katrin Saß is a German actress, best known internationally for playing Christiane Kerner in the 2003 tragicomedy film Good Bye, Lenin! Before German reunification, she was well known film and stage actress in the German Democratic Republic She won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 32nd Berlin...
, Birgit Minichmayr
Birgit Minichmayr
Birgit Minichmayr is an Austrian actress and singer born in Linz, Austria. Birgit Minichmayr studied drama at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Vienna.-Career:...
and Maria Happel. The play was directed by Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer
Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
for the Admiralspalast (engl. ‘admiral’s palace’) in Berlin.
In 2003, the ZDF
ZDF
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
, one of Germany’s public TV channels, called an election for the 100 most significant German characters. Out of the 300 nominated people, Campino made it to number 65. In 2006, he handed the most significant German music prize, the Echo, to Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
and held the laudation.
Since 6 December 2006, Campino has been the ‘godfather’ of the Regine-Hildebrandt-School in Birkenwerder
Birkenwerder
Birkenwerder is a municipality in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany....
where he is taking care of the project 'Schule ohne Rassismus – Schule mit Courage' (engl. 'School without racism, school with courage').
Campino plays the lead role in Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
’ movie Palermo Shooting
Palermo Shooting
Palermo Shooting is a film written and directed by German director Wim Wenders, and starring Campino, Dennis Hopper, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Lou Reed as himself, and an uncredited Milla Jovovich, also playing herself. The film was released in Germany on 20 November 2008. The film had its U.S...
(2008), which premiered in Germany on 20 November 2008.
Guest appearance
Campino had a guest appearance on the following releases without the Toten Hosen:- 2007 Album La Vida… es un Ratico (JuanesJuanesJuan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez , better known as Juanes is a Colombian musician who was a member of heavy metal band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. In 2000, his solo debut album Fíjate Bien won three Latin Grammy Awards.Juanes has sold more than 13 million albums...
) Bandera de Manos - 2006 Album A Foot Full Of Bullets (Peter and the Test Tube BabiesPeter and the Test Tube BabiesPeter and the Test Tube Babies are a punk rock band that was formed in the small town of Peacehaven, England in 1978 by Del Strangefish and Peter Bywaters. Due to their humorous tongue-in-cheek lyrics, they have been considered part of the Punk Pathetique subgenre...
) Smiling Through the Tears - 2006 Album 26½ (FehlfarbenFehlfarbenFehlfarben is a German post-punk band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The band name is from a German printing term referring to erroneous colors in prints: singer Peter Hein was in this line of work at Xerox while in the band...
) Paul ist tot - 1998 Single Raise your Voice (Bad ReligionBad ReligionBad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
) - 1997 Album Power Cut (The BoysThe Boys (UK Band)The Boys are an English punk rock band formed in London in 1976.Members of the band had previously played in other groups, such as London SS and Hollywood Brats. After recording four studio albums and eight singles, as well as recording Christmas themed music under the name The Yobs, they disbanded...
) - 1996 Album Honest John Plain & Friends (Honest John Plain & Friends)
- 1988 Album Wild Times Again (The LurkersThe LurkersThe Lurkers were a late 1970s English punk rock group from Uxbridge, West London, notable for being the first group ever on Beggars Banquet Records.-Career:...
)