Love Shop

Love Shop is a Danish pop/rock band with lyrics mainly in Danish formed by Hilmer Hassig (songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player) and Jens Unmack (songwriter, vocalist) in 1986. Hilmer was originally a member of the band Scatterbrain from Copenhagen, while Jens had a past in the band Næste Uges TV from Viborg. The band has officially been on a hiatus since the autumn of 2004. Hilmer Hassig was killed in a traffic accident in Copenhagen in November 2008.

In 1987 Love Shop recorded a 5 track demo with English lyrics that got the band a record deal with Garden Records (a follow up to the legendary Irmgardz Records, which put out the first two Gangway albums). The same summer, Mikael Dehn, who was a former member of Russia Heat, became a member of the band as background vocalist, and the work began finishing their debut album. From this time Jens began writing the lyrics in Danish. Four of the songs from the demo ended up as songs on the debut album.

In March 1990, the single En Nat Bliver Det Sommer was released and became a big radio hit on the Danish charts. The debut album 1990 hit the stores in May the same year. Two of the tunes, På Viborgvej and En Lørdag Aften, featured Henrik Hall, a member of Grabowski.
The critics were very positive, and Love Shop received a Grammy for 'Best pop release of the year" with "1990" in 1991. Love Shop played their first concert ever at Roskilde Festival the same year.

In the fall of 1991 Love Shop started recording the follow up album in Sweet Silence studios, and Henrik Hall became a full member of the band. In the beginning of 1992 Garden Records went bankrupt, and Love Shop signed a new record deal with Sony Music/Pladecompagniet, who re-released the debut album in a new mix entitled "1990/91".
The album DK, with the hit Pia Larsen followed quickly in september of 1992, and in November and December Love Shop hit the roads for their first tour.

In the process of recording the third album, Billeder Af Verden in 1994 Michael Dehn left Love Shop, but ended up singing backup vocals on nearly all the tunes on the album. The album was released in November 1994. He appeared for the last time with Love Shop on Roskilde Festival in 1995.

In 1995 Love Shop wrote eight songs for the theatre Metropoles show 'Lipstick Killers'. Three of the songs, 'Ind i dig', 'S.O.S.' and 'Højre hånd', where released on an EP called Playtime in December. At this time Hilmer had his own recording studio, and the songs on 'Playtime' were the first songs ever recorded in that studio. In the summer of 1996 Love Shop released the single Copenhagen Dreaming. This tune ended up on the album Go! that was released in May same year. This album featured several songs, which were originally written for 'Lipstick Killers'.

The same month as 'Go!' hit the record stores, Love Shop participated on Danish Railways' 150 years anniversary release 'Gå ikke over sporet' with the song '#1' - a tune that hasn't been available anywhere else. In October and November 1997 Love Shop toured with 'Go!. They visited 12 Danish cities, and had some sold out concerts.

After leaving Sony Music i 1997, Love Shop signed with Universal Music and used the summer finishing their next album, "Det løse liv". While working on this album, Henrik, Hilmer and Jens started collaborating with Mikkel Damgård (keyboards), Thomas Risell (bass) and Thomas Duus (Drums). Damgård, Risell og Duus recorded and toured with Love Shop, but only as associated backing musicians, never as actual band members.

2000 saw Love Shop nomineed for two Grammys - best male singer and best album. Love Shop performed on the Roskilde Festival this year for the first time since 1995, but the the fatality tragedy during the Pearl Jam performance on this year's festival cast a shadow on their performance as on the remaining parts of the festival.
Also the summer of 2000 finally saw the Grammy winning 1990 re-released by Sony Music in its original and intended form with songs in the intended order and mixed as the Garden Records original release. Until this day the album had been virtually unobtainable making it a collector's item.

The fall of 2000 saw Love Shop and Universal part ways, Love Shop signed to the Swedish label MNW (Music Network) and they began working on their 6th studio album, Anti, which was released on September 10th 2001. Thus the release never got much media attention due to the tragedies of 9/11.
In January 2002 Love Shop was nomineed for five Danish Music Awards, but none of these were awarded to them.
Love Shop won the Danish Radio live act award the same month though.

April 2002 saw Love Shop touring with Sort Sol, but during this tour they were forced to find new backing musicians, as Thomas Duus and Mikkel Damgaard had had offers elsewhere from that they couldn't resist. Replacements became Povl Kristian and Freddie Pedersen.

May 2003 saw the release of Love Shop's 7th studio album, National. In September 2003 they performed five nights in a row on five different venues in Copenhagen - all sold out. The highlights of this mini tour, called "Copenhagen Screaming" was later released as a live album with that name on Love Shop's own label Fan Star Records.
2004 also saw the release of a best of album called Sendt Fra Himlen, 1990-2004.

In the summer of 2004, Love Shop announce that a long lasting hiatus was to be expected, and they performed their last show before this hiatus on that summer's Roskilde Festival. On the 23rd of November, Hilmer announced though that he had left Love Shop for good.

www.loveshop.dk

Solo carreers:
* Jens Unmack has released two solo albums - Vejen hjem fra rocknroll (2005) and "Aftenland Expresse" (2007).
* Henrik Hall has released two solo albums as well - "Solo" (2006) and "Chok, Suk Og Koma" (2008).
* Hilmer Hassig founded a new "version" of Irmgardz Records called Irmgardz 2.0
* Mikael Dehn produced a four track EP in 1995 entitled "Går gennem regnen", but it was never released.