About Shihad
Shihad are a rock band formed in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1988. The band consists of founders Tom Larkin , Phil Knight and Jon Toogood , who were joined by Karl Kippenberger in 1991. The band were known as Pacifier between 2002 and 2004.
Six of Shihad's studio albums have peaked at number one–The General Electric , Pacifier , Beautiful Machine , Ignite , FVEY and Old Gods . They share the honour for most number-one records for any New Zealand artist with Hayley Westenra. As of 2014 Shihad had the most Top 40 New Zealand chart singles for any local artist, with 25; three of these reached the top ten. The singles "Home Again", "Pacifier", and "Bitter" are listed at No. 30, 60 and 83, respectively, in the Nature's Best compilation, an official collection of New Zealand's top 100 songs.
Tom Larkin and Jon Toogood formed Exit in 1985 in Wellington with various short-term fellow school members. Larkin and Toogood had met at Wellington High School, and shared an interest in heavy metal. They were generally found in the school's music room, as Toogood later recalled, "That's where we learnt to be a band – it had amps and a guitar and a drum-kit – that's what kept us at school." During their Year 11 school ball, having no one to dance with, they spray-painted graffiti in the toilets, including "AC/DC Rules", and were suspended from school.
Exit were renamed Shihad in mid-1988 when Geoff Duncan on bass guitar and Phil Knight on guitar joined. The new name was a misspelling of jihad as used in Frank Herbert's science-fiction novel, Dune . They had heard the term when watching David Lynch's 1984 film of the same name. Larkin later told John Grayson of Opus , "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."
The group's influences were Metallica and Slayer, and later included Pink Floyd, AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. The group began performing in local pubs, even though they were under-age and performed cover versions of Metallica and Motörhead tracks. At Shihad's debut performance they provided a cover version of Sex Pistol's "Anarchy in the U.K." but blew out the venue's PA. Duncan left soon after and following a succession of temporary musicians they were joined in 1989 by Hamish Laing on bass guitar. In 1990, Gerald Dwyer, the former frontman of local punk band Flesh-D-Vice became their talent manager. He also managed Shihad's then-support act, Head Like a Hole .
The line-up of Knight, Larkin, Laing and Toogood recorded their debut track, "Down Dance", which was issued in August 1990 as a B-side of a split single with the A-side, "Dogs Are Talking" by Australian group, the Angels. The other B-side, "Live It Up", was by Auckland band, Nine Livez. Both Shihad and Nine Livez supported the Angels at their New Zealand shows during 1990. Shihad supported tours by international visitors, Faith No More and Motörhead. "Down Dance" also appeared on their first extended play, Devolve via Pagan Records, which was re-released in mid-1991 and reached the New Zealand singles chart top 20 in July. Another EP track, "The Wizard", was a cover version of Black Sabbath's 1970 work. Bridget Herlihy of Ambient Light described the EP as a "thrash-metal affair" with "four hard and fast tracks."
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