The Year 1987
After this successful tour, the Hosen surprised everyone again by anticipating the hit parade revival which was to sieze Germany in the 90's. The record "Never mind the Hosen - this is the Roten Rosen" comprised twelve cover versions of more or less well-known hits from German hit parades down the decades. A piece of post-war culture, tenderised, tossed into the mincing machine and served up all bloody and raw!
"We wanted to show that the difference between punk and bourgeois conformity is sometimes merely a question of rhythm," commented Campino when pressed for an explanation. And there has been sustained documentation suggesting that gems such as Freddie Quinn's "Wir" ("We") could also be worthy of the Hosen treatment. The reward for all the effort wasn't long in coming. As part of their preparation, the Hosen had had to wade through about 500 records from these hit parades, but they entered the charts for the first time with the "Rosen" album nonetheless.
Fired up by this unexpected success, the Hosen also found time to release their first live album "Bis zum bitteren Ende" ("Until the bitter end"). The album consisted of 18 portions of unholy row from performances on the road - a multifarious selection of musical highlights from their repertoire, recorded on the '87 "Colourful Evening for a Black Republic" tour. In Pilsen the Hosen took part in the first festival for "underground" bands to be officially sanctioned in the Czech Republic. The only one to have any abiding bad memories of the year was Woelli, who inadvertently broke his foot in Roskilde when trying to take a slash in one of "Europe's" speakers.
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