The Poets - Welcome To The Heathen Reserve (1992)

One of the most prominent Danish alternative rock bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s, evolving around the nucleus of multi-instrumentalist/singer/composer Troels Bech and singer/lyricist Lars K. Andersen. Previously named Poets Of The Signature, the band name was shortened to The Poets in October 1985 when remaining members Andersen, Bech and percussionist Flemming Borby teamed up with singer Birgitte Bang and bass player Mads Frederik. During the recording of debut album Four Days In Florence in early 1987, Borby left the band and was replaced by first Susanne Unruh and then Colin Wilkinson. Keyboardist Torben Engberg had also joined by then. The album was released to mixed reviews, and poor sales made Bang and Frederik leave the group in December same year. They were replaced by singer Aud Wilken and bass player Nikolaj Bülow Davidsen in January 1988 and the band toured with this constellation in East Germany throughout the spring of that year and in the USSR March 1989. By early summer 1989, Wilkinson and Engberg were replaced by Niclas Tange and Jens Nørremølle respectively. The recording of second album The Poets took place over the summer of 1989, but before the recordings were completed Wilken had left the band. Singer Sanne Gottlieb was brought in as replacement, and she re-recorded most of Wilken´s vocals. The album was released in 1990 in several European countries and received good reviews in France and the UK, and in Denmark it became the commercial breakthrough for the band. By early 1991 guitarist/keyboardist Frithjof Toksvig and bass player John Krog Hansen had replaced Nørremølle and Davidsen in what was to become the final lineup. After a sold-out tour in Denmark and extensive touring in the UK, including as warm-up for Pop Will Eat Itself the band started recording their third album in the autumn of 1991. Welcome To The Heathen Reserve was released in November 1992 in Denmark to rave reviews, but lack of cooperation between three different record companies obstructed a coordinated international launch. Frustrated, The Poets slowly fell apart during 1993. Gottlieb left after a final concert at that years Roskilde Festival, and before a new singer had been recruited Toksvig also departed. When in September the nucleus of Bech and Andersen, friends since high school, fell out with each other, the band finally folded. The same month, Welcome To The Heathen Reserve was finally released in the UK to good reviews but poor sales. The story repeated itself in January 1994 when the album was also released in the U.S. under the moniker The Sealand Poets. Though “album of the week” in Billboard Magazine, the story of The Poets had come to an end. The different members have since had considerable success in Danish music and in the Scandinavian film & TV industry as film composers and screenwriters.