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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 four 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/Australian rock legends Split Enz) in New Zealand.^{[citation needed]}

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.

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 every song from all of the 7 studio albums. The shows are said to be taking place in November 2009

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.^{[citation needed]} 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 don't 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:

We were in America while it 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 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 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 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 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

Year	Title	Label	RIANZ chart^[2]^[3]	Certification	Copies sold^[4]	Notes
1993	Churn	Wildside Records	9
1995	Killjoy		4	Gold	7,500+
1996	Shihad		11	Gold	7,500+
1999	The General Electric		1	2x Platinum	30,000+
2002	Pacifier	WEA Records, Warner Music Group	1	Platinum	15,000+	Released as Pacifier
2003	Pacifier: Live		19	Gold	7,500+	Released as Pacifier
2005	Love Is the New Hate		2	Platinum	15,000+
2008	Beautiful Machine		1	Gold	7,500+

EPs

Year	Title	RIANZ chart^[2]^[3]
1990	Devolve EP	20
1995	Happy Families Tour
1996	B-Sides
1997	Flaming Soul/Grates of Steel
1998	The Blue Light Disco EP	17
2002	Suck On This EP
2005	Alive	5
2008	ZM Live Lounge EP

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions		Album	Notes
Year	Title	NZ chart peak^[5]^[6]	US chart peak	Album	Notes
1993	"I Only Said"	3		Churn
1994	"Stations"	35
1994	"Derail"	33
1995	"You Again"	20		Killjoy
	"Bitter"	20
	"Gimme Gimme"	39
1996	"Deb's Night Out"	41
	"La La Land"	39		Shihad
	"It's a Go"				European release only
1997	"A Day Away"	44
1997	"Home Again"	42
1998	"Yr Head Is A Rock"	45
1998	"Ghost From the Past"				Australian release only
1999	"My Mind's Sedate"	6		The General Electric
2000	"The General Electric"	22
	"Pacifier"	48
	"Sport and Religion"				Radio and television only
	"Bootleg: The Channel Z Tapes"
2002	"Comfort Me"	36		Pacifier	Released as Pacifier
2002	"Run"	36
2003	"Bullitproof"	48	27
2003	"Everything"	36
2005	"Alive"	5		Love Is the New Hate
	"All the Young Fascists"
	"Shot in the Head"
	"Dark Times"				Radio and television only
2006	"None of the Above"				Television only
2008	"One Will Hear the Other"	21		Beautiful Machine
	"Vampires"	31
	"Beautiful Machine"
	"Rule the World"

References

^ http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3264255a4500,00.html
^ ^a ^b "Shihad Album Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
^ ^a ^b "Pacifier Album Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
^ "The Official New Zealand Music Chart". RIANZ. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
^ "Pacifier Single Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
^ "Shihad Single Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

External links

Shihad.com - the official website before and after they were Pacifier
Wildside Records Shihad Page
"Shihad Wiki"
Shihad brief bio and videos for All The Young Fascists and My Mind Sedate on NZ On Screen

[1] ttp://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3264255a4500,00.html

[shihadalbum-2] "Shihad Album Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

[pacifieralbum-3] "Pacifier Album Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

[copies-4] "The Official New Zealand Music Chart". RIANZ. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

[pacifiersingle-5] "Pacifier Single Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

[shihadsingle-6] "Shihad Single Chart search". Charts.org.nz. Retrieved 2008-04-25.

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

@@ Line 46: / Line 46: @@
 ==Naming conflict==
-The name "Shihad" was chosen after members of the band heard the Fremen name for the Sandworms in the 1984 [[David Lynch]] film, ''[[Dune (film)|Dune]]''.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} Following the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|September 11 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' 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 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 (film)|Dune]]''.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} Following the [[September 11, 2001 attacks|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 (music)|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 [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] TV show [[Spicks and Specks (TV series)|Spicks and Specks]], Jon Toogood talked about how band members don't usually have to consider holy war when thinking of a band name.