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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=November 2011refimprove|date=May 2008Infobox musical artist | name = Shihad| alias = Pacifier| image = Shihad.jpg| caption = Shihad live in concert| image_size =| background = group_or_band| origin = Wellington , New Zealand | genre = Alternative rock , industrial rock , hard rock | years_active = 1988present| label = Wildside (former), Polydor (former), Festival (former), Noise Records (former) Warner Music|Warner Music Group , Roadrunner Records|Roadrunner | associated_acts = HLAH|Head Like a Hole , The Datsuns | website = URL| http://www.shihad.com/| current_members = Jon Toogood Phil Knight Karl Kippenberger Tom Larkin | past_members = Hamish Laing Geoff Duncan Geoff Daniels Shihad is a New Zealand hard/alternative Rock music|rock band, currently based in Melbourne, Australia . During Shihad's recording career, they have produced four number-one studio albums and three top-ten Single (music)|singles in their home country of New Zealand .
At the release time of their seventh studio album Beautiful Machine , Shihad are ranked as 1st equal for most Top 40 charting singles for a New Zealand artist in the New Zealand charts with 19.cite web|url= http://www.radioscope.net.nz/index.php? option=com_content& task=view& id=1305& Itemid=9 |title=Chartbitz & #124; June& nbsp;8, 2008 - RadioScope New Zealand |publisher=Radioscope.net.nz |date=10 June 2008 |accessdate=15 July 2011 (although Dave Dobbyn has 22 with Th'Dudes, DD Smash and as a solo artist.) Of these singles, Home Again, Pacifier and Bitter are listed at number 30, 60 and 83 respectively in the Nature's Best compilation, an official collection of New Zealand's top 100 songs.
History
Shihad was formed by vocalist/guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin in 1988. The band's musical style was originally indebted to San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth, although the band found wider popularity over the following decade playing a mixture of modern rock, post-grunge and pop-rock that gained the band opening slots with professional US rock acts, as well as favourable reviews. Now entering their 22nd year together, the band are still a major drawcard on the NZ and Australian live circuit, and continue to be offered top headline and support billing. In 1990 management was picked up in Wellington by Gerald Dwyer - former front man of local punk legends Flesh-D-Vice . Gerald was also the manager of local band HLAH|Head Like a Hole . Gerald Dwyer died of a drug overdose before Shihad's performance at Big Day Out Auckland 1997.cite web |url= http://www.salient.org.nz/features/issue-01-3 |title=Home Again |first=Brannavan |last=Gnanalingam |work=Salient |date=20 February 2006 |accessdate=9 July 2011
Shihad opened their Love Is the New Hate album tour with a free concert in Auckland 's Aotea Square , 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 audience of approximately 20,000. The band has also toured with Cog (band)|Cog , the Datsuns , and opened for Evanescence on part of their 2006/2007 world tour.
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 (band)|Gyroscope around Australia for Gyroscope's "Australia Tour".
The summer of 2008/2009 saw Shihad play New Year's Eve in Gisborne, as well as the Coroglen Tavern and the Lake Hawea Motor Inn over the summer holiday period.
Shihad proposed a series of seven shows in New Zealand in which they will be playing one of their seven studio albums in its entirety. The shows were said to be taking place in November 2009, however have been postponed until sometime in 2010. Jon Toogood suggested having a vote for which album fans would most like to hear, so whether or not these shows will take place is at this stage not confirmed.
Shihad supported AC/DC for the New Zealand leg of the AC/DC Black Ice World Tour in January/February 2010.cite web|url= http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0912/S00131.htm |title=The Concert Event Of The Summer & #124; Scoop News |publisher=Scoop.co.nz |date=10 December 2009 |accessdate=15 July 2011
In January 2010, a new track by Shihad titled 'Cold Heart' was added to the Homegrown festival website for free streaming.
The single 'Sleepeater' was released in April 2010, followed by 'Lead or Follow' in July. Shihad's new album 'IGNITE' is due to be released 24 September 2010.cite web|url= http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com.au/page/News? news_page=1 |title=Shihad: Ignite tour has been announced& #33; |publisher=Roadrunnerrecords.com.au |date= |accessdate=15 July 2011
The band toured New Zealand in August 2010 performing their albums Killjoy and The General Electric in full. During this time the band featured on the cover of Rip It Up (magazine)|Rip It Up Magazine .
At the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards Shihad won the Legacy Award, and were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame .cite news |url= http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm? c_id=1501119& objectid=10670403 |title=Shihad win NZ Herald legacy award and enter hall of fame |first=Scott |last=Kara |newspaper= The New Zealand Herald |publisher= APN News & Media |date=1 September 2010 |accessdate=24 October 2010
Naming conflict
The name Shihad was chosen after members of the band saw David Lynch 's 1984 film, Dune (film)|Dune , based on Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel of the same name. Incidentally, "Jihad" is also the term used by Muslims, roughly translating to "the struggle", or as a reference to the "Holy War".
Quote from an interview in Opus (magazine)|Opus Issue 7 - 2003 ( University of Newcastle, Australia|Newcastle University student magazine) Interview: Pacifier - By John Grayson.
cquote|John Grayson: How did the name Shihad come about anyway? Tom Larkin: Well, see that's the biggest cock-up out. When we were 15 we were all into this sci-fi movie Dune. See, Dune uses all these Arabic words throughout the movie and the end battle is a Jihad. We were stupid and thought it'd be a great name for a band so we called ourselves Shihad cause we couldn't even spell it. Following the September 11 attacks|11 September terrorist attacks , the band decided to change their name 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' printed 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 (music)|single from their album The General Electric . They released an album, Pacifier, under this name in 2002. The American release of the album featured a different track listing to the Australian and New Zealand release, and included the song My Mind's Sedate from the The General Electric .
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 Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC TV show Spicks and Specks (TV series)|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, http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3264255a4500,00.html dead link|date=July 2011 Jon Toogood spoke about an event that contributed to their decision: cquote|We were in America while it 2003 Invasion of Iraq|invaded Iraq and had to play at festivals that were supposedly 'support the troops festivals' when we didn't believe in the war at all. That's what the song "All the Young Fascism|Fascists " is about the day we played Miami in front of 30,000 kids at this festival that was originally just a rock festival . A week out, just because of the timing, it was turned into the support the troops show and it was being simulcast live to Iraq. We were on this bill with these really ugly what we call World Wrestling Entertainment|WWF metal bands, and we were shitting ourselves. I just wanted to get out of there. Beside the stage was a paintball gun alley where kids were lining up to shoot effigy|effigies of Saddam Hussein , Osama bin Laden and (French president) Jacques Chirac . That was the weirdest one. The amount of times I actually pointed out to Americans the fact that their Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French and they were supposed to be mates. The band name "Pacifier" was 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.
Band members
Current
Jon Toogood vocals, rhythm guitar
Phil Knight lead guitar, synthesizer, backing vocals
