Hans Poulsen Cause Of Death

Hans Sven Poulsen (born Bruce Gordon Poulsen, 7 March 1945 – 17 February 2023) was a popular Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of Danish descent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, known for his eccentric hippie style. Poulsen had hits in 1970 with “Boom Sha La La Lo” and “Light Across the Valley,” as well as success as a songwriter with “Jamie/Rose Colored Glasses” for Johnny Farnham and “Monty and Me” for Zoot.

image credit; Sunshine

Although his ancestors are Danish, his paternal grandfather migrated to Victoria from Denmark during the early twentieth century, and being proud of his heritage, Poulsen took the first name “Hans Sven” while still a teenager. It is possible that he adopted the name as a stage name when he formed the Rimfires, a school band in 1961 in Frankston, an outer suburb of Melbourne, and played in the Mornington Peninsula region on the coast. It was here that he honed his craft and became known for his interpretations of Buddy Holly’s music and songs.

In 1965, Poulsen founded the first version of the Melbourne group 18th Century Quartet, which performed original material (mostly by Poulsen) in a style that later became known as world music; the group also differed from most of its contemporaries by its use of diverse acoustic instruments such as mandolin, autoharp, and bouzouki. The second iteration would have a more pop sound.