Savage Rose

Danish rock group founded in 1967 by Anders Koppel and Thomas Koppel with Annisette Hansen, Jens Rugsted, Flemming Ostermann, Alex Riel and Ilse Maria Koppel as a backing-project for a TV-show. Their debut as an established rock-group was in May 1968 on Plænen in Tivoli, Copenhagen. The Savage Rose became rapidly popular in Denmark, but also to some extent abroad. Their lyrics were inspired by Bob Dylan, and the music was a mixture of classical music and US westcoast psychedelic rock, characterized by vocalist Annisette. In fall 1971 The Savage Rose became reduced to a trio on account of musical disagreements – The Koppel Brothers and Annisette wanted to change the musical style towards soul and gospel. The Savage Rose reorganized as a group in 1973, and recorded 1015713, - but split up in January 1975. The group reformed as Savage Rose in 1977 now with Danish lyrics, a strong political engagement and in opposition to the established commercial music industry. Through the 80s the group played in Palestinian refugee- and partisan-camps, in Albania and at many manifestations on the political left wing. In this underground period Savage Rose released eight albums (almost all on independent labels) – while living among the underprivileged of Copenhagen. Core members in this period were Thomas Koppel, Annisette and John Ravn. In 1995 Savage Rose had their second commercial break-through with the album 1219100 – the first album in English for many years. The successor Tameless and subsequent releases were again released as The Savage Rose, while the band for a period lived in US. Even after the sudden death of Thomas Koppel in February 2006, The Savage Rose continued releasing and doing live performances.