Shihad

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Shihad
Shihad live in concert
Background information
Also known as	Pacifier
Origin	Wellington, New Zealand
Genres	Rock Industrial rock
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Warner Music Group
Website	Official website
Members
Jon Toogood Phil Knight Karl Kippenberger Tom Larkin
Former members
Hamish Laing Geoff Duncan Geoff Daniels

Shihad is a rock band, originally from Wellington, New Zealand, and now based in Melbourne, Australia. Formed in 1988 by vocalist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin, who were still in school at the time. The band has produced three #1 studio albums and three top 10 singles in their home country of New Zealand.

As of their 7th studio album Beautiful Machine, they are ranked as 1st equal for most Top 40 charting singles (along with NZ rock legends Split Enz) in New Zealand.^{[citation needed]} 3 of these singles are placed in the Nature's Best compilation, a collection of New Zealand's top 100 songs. These are Home Again (#30), Pacifier (#60) and Bitter (#83).

History

Shihad was formed by vocalist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin whilst still in school, in 1988.

Shihad supported Love Is the New Hate initially with dates in New Zealand, including the massive launch concert in Auckland's Aotea Square, to celebrate the start of NZ Music Month, and an extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand, including a spot on the main stage at Splendour In The Grass in front of an estimated 20,000 people. In August and September 2005, Shihad performed a seventeen date co-headlining tour of Australia with Australian band Cog, dubbed "The Homeland Security Tour".

Shihad were on a New Zealand tour with the The Datsuns during the Christmas/New Year period 2006/07.

Shihad supported Evanescence in part of their 2006/2007 world tour.

Phil Knight, Shakespeare Hotel, Napier, NZ.

Shihad's latest album, Beautiful Machine, was released on 21 April 2008 to good reviews and sales. In New Zealand the album went gold on its first day of release and debuted at number one on the charts. The material on the album is a lot more mellow than that of their previous album Love Is the New Hate.

The band embarked in February and March 2008 on a headlining national tour entitled 'One Will Hear The Tour' playing for 300-400 capacity crowds along the East coast. They band played 28 dates in 6 weeks.

Shihad played at Big Day Out 2008 in Auckland, New Zealand on the blue stage with an hour slot from 7:00pm – 8:00pm. They also headlined the rock stage of Vodafone Homegrown on 26 April at the Wellington waterfront.

In the second half of 2008, Shihad toured New Zealand on the "Beautiful Machine Tour", playing medium-size venues such as the Wellington Town Hall, with support from The Mint Chicks and Luger Boa. Shihad also toured with Gyroscope around Australia for Gyroscope's "Australia Tour".

The summer of 2008/2009 saw Shihad play new years eve in Gisbourne, as well as the Coroglen Tavern and the Lake Hawea Motor Inn over the summer holiday period. This came as a disappointment to many fans over the country who were expecting more of a tour rather than the two shows in fairly isolated areas of the country.^{[citation needed]}

As of late Feb 2009, they have annouced they are already working on an 8th studio album.^{[citation needed]}

Shihad have announced a series of 7 shows in New Zealand in which they will be playing one of their seven studio albums in entirety. The shows were said to be taking place in November 2009, however have been postponed until sometime in 2010. Jon Toogood has said recently that maybe there will be a vote for which album fans would most like to hear, so whether or not these shows will take place or whether there will just be one or two is at this stage not confirmed.

Shihad had said that May 2009 is when they expecting to release a new album which will feature the new song, Sleepeater which has been played at recent shows in Australia and New Zealand

Naming conflict

The name "Shihad" was chosen after members of the band heard the Fremen name for the "Holy War" - Frank Herbert obviously drew from the word "jihad" which is used by Muslims to describe a "Holy War" in the 1984 David Lynch film, Dune. From an interview in Opus Issue 7 - 2003 (Newcastle University student magazine) Interview: Pacifier - By John Grayson.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the band decided to change their name, ironically due to the similarity between the band's name Shihad and the Arabic word jihad. At the 2002 Big Day Out music festival in Auckland, New Zealand they released t-shirts with 'Shihad' on them, and 'Remote' below, indicating that 'Remote' was to be the new name. However, due to this name being taken already, they settled on "Pacifier", which was a successful single from their album The General Electric. They released an album, Pacifier, under this name in 2002.

On 17 September 2004, the band announced to the world that they would change their name back to Shihad. To quote the band, "The events surrounding the name change and our choice to be known as Pacifier are well documented. As much as we believed in what we were doing, and the reasons for doing it at the time – the truth is we were wrong." On an appearance on the ABC TV show Spicks and Specks, Jon Toogood talked about how band members do not usually have to consider holy war when thinking of a band name.

In an interview,^[1] Jon Toogood spoke about an event that contributed to their decision:

The band name "Pacifier" was immediately raffled on the Australian radio station Triple J by Jay and the Doctor and was claimed by a little known band from Tasmania, Theory of Everything.

Music style

Shihad's music has always been rooted in metal. The album Churn has a pronounced industrial influence, though Killjoy is considered their heaviest release, with heavy distorted riffs. The self-titled Shihad (a.k.a. the Fish Album) has a softer sound, which is largely made up of post-grunge and stadium rock riffs, while The General Electric incorporates a lot of electronics. Pacifier can easily be considered post-grunge, but Love is the New Hate is a shift to more alternative and punk rock. Their new album, Beautiful Machine, is their softest and most melodic release yet, even more so than Shihad.

Band members

Current

• Jon Toogood – vocals, guitars
• Phil Knight – guitars, synthesizer, backing vocals
• Karl Kippenberger – bass guitars, backing vocals
• Tom Larkin – drums, backing vocals, samplers

Former

• Hamish Laing – bass (left 1991)
• Geoff Duncan – bass (left 1989)
• Geoff Daniels– bass (left 1989)

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

References

External links

• Shihad.com - the official website before and after they were Pacifier
• Wildside Records Shihad Page
• "Shihad Wiki"