The Year 1997
Sometimes the realisation of how close joy and sorrow are to one another is a truly bitter one. This was the year in which the band wanted to fulfil the dream it had most ardently desired: For once, to play the Rhein Stadium, the scene of so many a glorious footballing performance of their beloved Eleven.
The Hosen made sent out the signal and the people came - 60,000 fans and brilliant support acts such as Bad Relgion, Goldfinger and the Leningrad Cowboys. But the dream turned into the worst nightmare the band had ever experienced. During the concert a young girl from the Netherlands was killed in the crush in front of the stage. On the advice of the police and fire service, fearful of mass chaos should the concert be abandoned, the Five were forced to continue their show. It was an accident which might have happened anywhere, at any other concert or festival, in any other large arena, but the shock hit them hard and has not left them to this day.
The Hosen cancelled all remaining gigs for that year and spent a great deal of time analysing just how or whether indeed they could carry on. In such moments the very fact that they were a group of friends who had known and trusted one another for longer than most of the people around them, stood them in good stead. They arrived at the conclusion that what the band stood for, the music and their friendship, after all the years together, was the single most important thing in their lives.
The Band's autobiography "To the Bitter End" appeared that autumn in paperback, extended to include an epilogue. Campino explained: "It was important for us not to finish the story without documenting the events of this year, but to supplement it with our view of things and express our gratitude to everybody who supported us during that period."
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