On June 28, 1997, 60,000 Tote-Hosen fans gathered in the sold-out Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf. The band gave their 1000th concert and everything seemed perfect: weather, mood and music. But things turned out differently. A 16-year-old girl died in the crowd in front of the stage.
A total of 300 fans were injured in the accident. As a result, the Toten Hosen did not give a concert in Germany for a year and a half and went through a serious band crisis. “We will never forget this day,” says an Instagram post commemorating the late Dutchwoman Rieke Lax.
The concert in the Rheinstadion was interrupted after three quarters of an hour – the band around frontman Campino left the stage. The Toten Hosen then found out about the accident and were asked to continue playing. The police are said to have feared a stampede.
Concert ended with fear
After the break, the performance continued, but the mood had changed. Gone was the energy, enthusiasm and hedonistic chaos. The band wrote on their website that the performance ended in a “depressed mood and with fear”.
“You lose a bit of your naivety. And you realize that you have a great responsibility,” said bassist Andreas Meurer about the accident. In 2002, the band Rieke Lax dedicated the song “Everything is one”.