The Poodles

The Poodles
Background information
Origin Sweden
Genres Hard rock
Heavy metal
Glam metal
Symphonic rock
Years active 2006–present
Members Jakob Samuel
Christian Lundqvist
Henrik Bergqvist
Johan Flodqvist
Past members Pontus Norgren
Pontus Egberg

The Poodles are a glam metal/heavy metal band from Sweden. They are best known for their hits "Metal Will Stand Tall" and "Night of Passion", the latter of which was played in the Swedish Melodifestivalen in 2006.

The band was formed by singer Jakob Samuel (a.k.a. Jake Samuels) who in the early 1990s was Talisman's drummer, bassist Pontus Egberg (ex Lion's Share), guitarist Pontus Norgren (also Talisman, Humanimal) and drummer Christian Lundqvist.

The Poodles played in the Swedish Melodifestivalen contest in 2008, this time with E-Type. In addition, they played at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2006 and 2008.

Formation

In 2006, Jakob Samuel was asked to sing the track "Night of Passion" (lyrics by Sonja Aldén and music by Matti Alfonzetti, Johan Lyander and Robert Olausson). Samuel loved the song, and asked Christian Lundqvist to join him as drummer for that session. Later bassist Pontus Egberg and guitarist Pontus Norgren joined them to perform the song as a band called The Poodles.

The Poodles were one of ten finalists in the Melodifestivalen 2006, and by the time of their performance had added an old friend of Samuel's, Mats Levén, on backing vocals. Melodifestivalen is an annual music competition in Sweden that determines the country's official representative to the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Poodles finished in fourth place in Melodifestivalen 2006, then released their debut album called Metal Will Stand Tall to the Swedish market in May 2006. They inked a deal with Germany's AFM Records and then released the album in the rest of Europe on January 19, 2007.

The single "Night of Passion" was certified platinum and a follow-up single, "Metal Will Stand Tall" (a duet with Tess from the Swedish dance band Alcazar), was certified gold.

The song "Kingdom Of Heaven" was co-written by Jakob Samuel and Marcel Jacob.

The band made an initial selection based on 35 songs to be used for their second album. They chose 12 tracks for this release, which was titled Sweet Trade, and was released on September 28, 2007 by AFM Records.

"Seven Seas", produced by Matti Alfonzetti and Johan Lyander, was selected as the first single. The song was written by Jakob Samuel, Jonas Reingold and Peter Stormare, the Swedish actor.

In 2016 it was disclosed that The Poodles would appear at the three-day Rockingham 2016 melodic/hard rock festival, held in Nottingham, United Kingdom. They appeared on Saturday 22 October, fifth in a seven-act line-up headlined by Steelheart.[1]

Membership

Current members

Former members

On April 22, 2008, The Poodles guitarist Pontus Norgren left the band. He was since replaced by Henrik Bergqvist. The band issued the following press release: "We regrettably have to inform you that Pontus Norgren has decided to leave The Poodles. We would like to thank Pontus for all the great times we’ve shared and wish him the best of luck for the future". Norgren himself said the following: "I like HammerFall. I think they have amazing stage shows and I like their songs, so when I heard they were looking for a guitar player I thought I'd give it a try. Playing in The Poodles has been a wonderful experience in many ways, but I have always liked a little heavier music and have felt at times that this wasn't the right kind of forum for the music I'd most like to play. It's simply time to move on".

Discography

Albums

Studio albums
Year Album Peak positions Certification
SWE
[2]
2006 Metal Will Stand Tall 4
2007 Sweet Trade 8
2009 Clash of the Elements 5
2011 Performocracy 1
2013 Tour De Force 5
2015 Devil in the Details 27
Live albums
Year Album Peak positions Certification
SWE
[2]
2010 No Quarter 50

Singles

Year Album Peak positions Certification Album
SWE
[2]
2006 "Night of Passion" 2
"Metal Will Stand Tall"
(feat. Tess Merkel)		 2
"Song for You" 7
2007 "Seven Seas"
(feat. Peter Stormare)		 10
"Streets of Fire"  –
2008 "Line of Fire"
(E-Type & The Poodles) 		3
"Raise the Banner"
(Swedish official song for the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008)		 1
2009 "One Out of Ten" 1 Clash of the Elements
Other singles (non charting)

Compilations

References

  1. ↑ "rockinghamlive.com/#lineup". rockinghamlive.com. Retrieved 2016-08-09.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Poodles discography". swedishcharts.com. Hung Medien. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
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