Tour: Campino buys a pair of leather trousers

Campino, frontman of Toten Hosen, has bought a pair of Bavarian leather pants. Reason: The tour with the Bavarian cabaret artist Gerhard Polt and the Well brothers as folk musicians under the title “A cultural impertinence” – initially planned as “cultural appropriation”, which started on Friday evening in Schliersee in Upper Bavaria.

Before the start of the tour, Campino (61) said he bought the garment in a traditional costume shop. What convinced him was that, according to Bavarian tradition, these items of clothing are passed on to children and grandchildren. So he will give his son these leather pants for Christmas in due course.

Covered up in the costume shop

“If I’m walking through the streets of Schliersee in lederhosen and a Bavarian comes towards me, that’s no problem,” he reported on his first experiences with the unfamiliar piece of clothing. “But when a small family from Osnabrück points the finger at me and says: There’s the Campino with lederhosen – that’s the moment when I feel stupid.”

The other band members ended up in the same costume shop independently of each other and stocked up on Bavarian clothing. “Kuddel” Andreas von Holst actually stood on stage in lederhosen and a traditional hat. Another suddenly appeared with “such strange shoes” – so-called Haferlschuhe, which have nothing to do with the “Haferl” drinking vessel, but with “half”, i.e. low shoes.

You don’t have to like costumes, for example – but banning them is the wrong way, says Campino. According to the Düsseldorfer, carnival has always offered the chance to slip into a different role. “Carnival is there to do a role reversal.”