Andreas Frege

Infobox musical artist
Name = Andreas Frege

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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name =
Alias = Campino
Born = birth date and age|1962|6|22
Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Instrument = Vocals
Occupation = Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Genre = Punk rock, Hard rock
Years_active = 1978-Present
Label(s) =
Associated_acts = Die Toten Hosen,
ZK
Notable_instruments =
URL =

Andreas Frege, commonly known by his artist name Campino, (born June 22, 1962 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is the singer, head and songwriter of the German rock band Die Toten Hosen and an actor.

Biography

Campino is a descendant of the Frege family who owned the Frege House in Leipzig. His grandfather Ludwig Frege was the president of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany. He grew up the son of a judge and a teacher. His mother was English and raised her children bilingually. He has five siblings, amongst them his brother John who is twelve years older than him and introduced him to punk music.

At the age of two he moved with his parents to Mettmann. Campino attended the Humboldt-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, had to repeat twice and thus ended up in one class with Michael Breitkopf, co-leader of Die Toten Hosen. Both graduated successfully from secondary school in 1983. Campino was part of the German Federal Armed Forces for eight months until his refusal was approved and subsequently did his alternative civilian service together with Michael Breitkopf in the psychiatry Düsseldorf-Grafenberg. From 1978 to 1982 he was the singer of ZK and later founded Die Toten Hosen with his fellow bandmembers Andreas von Holst, Michael Breitkopf, Andreas Meurer, Trini Trimpop and Walter November.

He has a son with the actress Karina Krawczyk.

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 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 Biolek 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 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 'Clockwork Orange' in Bad Godesberg in May 1998 for which Die Toten Hosen also wrote the soundtrack, [ [http://shop.dietotenhosen.de/V2/Shop/index.php/s.ab7a575b46727c7b0c6b4117c9ce28a1/n.35/l.86/ Die Toten Hosen - Ein kleines bißchen Horrorschau] ] 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.

At present he is working on Wim Wenders’ new movie "The Palermo Shooting" in which he is playing the main role.

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 December 6, 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').

Guest appearance

Campino had a guest appearance on the following releases without the Toten Hosen:

* 2007 Album La Vida… es un Ratico (Juanes) "Bandera de Manos"
* 2006 Album A Foot Full Of Bullets (Peter and the Test Tube Babies) "Smiling Through the Tears"
* 2006 Album 26 1/2 (Fehlfarben) "Paul ist tot"
* 1998 Single Raise your Voice (Bad Religion)
* 1997 Album Power Cut (The Boys)
* 1996 Album Honest John Plain & Friends (Honest John Plain & Friends)
* 1988 Album Wild Times Again (The Lurkers)

References

External links

* [http://www.dietotenhosen.de/en/startseite.php Official Homepage of Die Toten Hosen]
* [http://www.myspace.com/dietotenhosen Official Myspace]