Shihad History

It would be good if people can put dates to things and pad this out and if necessary spin pieces off into their own pages, for instance the name change could be spun fairly easily. And also the album's already have their own pages. Also things don't need to be under specific date headings they can be more general of that time period.

2007

• Expected release of Beautiful Machine

2006

December-January 2007

Shihad does a NZ Tour with The Datsuns and Shaky Hands

2005

May

2nd

• Release of Love Is the New Hate

2004

• Announcement of their name change back to Shihad

2003

November

23rd

• Release of Live

2002

August

19th

• Release of Pacifier

1999

October

4th

• Release of The General Electric

1996

Throughout

• Whilst they put the finishing touches on their new album (half of which was mixed by Adam Kasper - REM, Soundgarden), Shihad continued to work live throughout Australia and New Zealand, again playing before boyhood heroes AC/DC, as well as alterna-noise merchants The Young Gods.

October

15th

• Release of Shihad

Mid

• Before recording their third and most recent opus Shihad, Shihad performed live at the New Zealand Music and Entertainment Awards. The first band of their kind to perform at these awards, Shihad allowed themselves a wry smirk as they realized that their brand of hard melodic rock was being delivered, courtesy of the New Zealand government broadcaster, straight into the homes of middle New Zealand. In addition to this personal triumph the band picked up awards for Best Group, Best Album (Killjoy), Top International Recording Artist, and Jon Toogood grabbed the award for Best Male Vocalist.

January

• Again Shihad returned to New Zealand to re-charge their batteries for the next album (most of which was written in the US) and for the summer festival season. However, tragedy struck when manager Gerald Dwyer was found dead on the floor of his hotel room just hours after watching the band deliver a blistering set at the Auckland BDO. Skipping the Brisbane BDO to attend Gerald's funeral, the band rejoined the BDO tour in Sydney and worked their customary magic alongside Rage Against The Machine, Porno For Pyros, and The Jesus Lizard.

1995

September - December

The band finally inked a deal with Noise records in the US and they flew from Europe to play at the Foundations Forum alongside Monster Magnet and Motorhead. Yet again the music won over the press and Shihad remained in the states a further three months playing clubs around LA and New York and completing two national tours. The band received many accolades during this time; not the least of which included praise from Iggy Pop who came to see the band play in New York, and Paul Barker from Ministry who gave US magazine Pulse a list of his top 10 desert island discs which had Killjoy as #1.

July

27th

• Release of Killjoy

February - August

• Shihad boarded a flight for Europe to join Faith No More on a seven week tour that visited every major city in Western Europe. Shihad remained in Europe after the tour for a further four months, solidifying their growing fan base and riding on the fanatic media support that accompanied the release of Killjoy. During this time Shihad played some of the biggest festivals in the world including Dynamo in Holland, the Phoenix festival in Britain, and the Roskilde in Denmark.

January - February

• Shihad exploded with appearances at several major festivals including the Big Day Out where they performed between Hole and Primal Scream and were consistently reviewed as the main attraction alongside US industrial rockers Ministry.

1994

August

• Shihad had secured a deal for Europe with Noise Records and the band then spent two months in Europe on the road. The European press took to the band like wildfire.

June

• Killjoy, the follow up to Churn was recorded, it was a retro-cyber balls to the wall rock album. The layering and atmospherics of Churn were peeled back and replaced by a huge, fat wall of power and rhythm.

1993

July

12th

• Release of Churn
• The first single I Only Said reached #3 and the band spent the following 12 months touring Australasia expanding their fan base far in excess of what had been achieved during the previous two years.

January

• A brief alliance with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke took place during the production of Churn.

Sometime

• Tom Larkin was enlisted to play on Killing Joke's album Pandemonium - an experience that was amazing musically but personally disillusioning. Tom was asked to join Jaz Coleman and his cohorts on a year long international tour, but turned it down due to his increasing commitments with Shihad and Coleman's now apparent megalomania.

1991

Late

• The band's sound was rapidly changing. Local outfits such as the Skeptics and Bailter Space and Headless Chickens had a personal and musical effect on Shihad.

August

• Long serving bassist Hamish Laing left, Karl Kippenberger joined as replacement. Karl had a baptism of fire - his second live show with Shihad was before 20,000 during the band's first show with total rock legends AC/DC, the next night infront of 40,000!

Sometime

• Shihad released their first recorded work Devolve. Surprisingly hit top 20 on National charts.

1990

• Management was picked up by Gerald Dwyer - former front man of local punk legends Flesh-D-Vice. Sold out national tours and gigs with Faith No More and Motorhead.

1988

• Later that year Phil Knight joins Shihad.
• Shihad was formed by Tom Larkin and Jon Toogood while at Wellington High School.