Jon Toogood: Shihad frontman on why the band will split up after their last tour

It's the end of an era for Kiwi rock fans - as iconic band Shihad are set to call it quits after their last tour.

After nearly 40 years, the group has confirmed they will split up for good, with demand for this final tour causing their website to crash.

Shihad frontman Jon Toogood says the group's priorities have changed - as all the members have children and families now.

"Everyone's busy all the time, this is a great band that deserves that full-on attention - and I just think we just sort of came to a collective agreement that we couldn't do that. It was time to put it to bed, but go out on a high."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever duplessy Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
So the bad news is that the rumors are true
and she had will be splitting oufter nearly forty years now.
They've announced one last tour so you can still get
to see them, and the demand is already so high
for the tickets that the server on the website crash. Now,
of course you know this. John too Good is the
lead singer.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
John. Hello, Hi, Heather, how are you going? John?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm well, I'm sad at this news because you guys
have been a fixture of so many of our lives
growing up. I was only speaking to you, like, when
were you in the studio with me three or four
weeks ago? Did you already know you were doing this?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I did, but I couldn't say anything.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Were you dying to say something like it's one of
those secrets we want to get it out.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It was a secret, you know, I was there to
talk about when you record, so you know I wanted
to talk about that. So, but it was something that
we've been sort of thinking about for a couple of
years now, And because when we were young, it was
always one hundred percent. She had all the time, even
before the families, before everything all came first and I

(01:00):
think we just got to that point where it was like,
to do this properly, we need to give it one
hundred percent of the time. But none of us we've
all got kids now, we've all got other things going on,
and it was just like, well, rather than end in
a whimper, let's go out.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
With a band, but a hold on, John, I mean,
you've got kids, but Bono's got kids and they made
it work.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, but we've also all got different and jobs and
what sorts of things going on. So everyone's busy all
the time, and it's just this this, this is a
great band that deserves that's full on attention. I just
think that we came to a sort of collective agreement
that we couldn't do that, and yeah, so it was

(01:41):
time to sort of put it to bed, but put
it to bed in a going out on a high
rather than going out with a whimper.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
What are the other businesses you guys have got? Are
you guys holding down regular people jobs as well?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well? Everyone does. I think Tom manages about three different
bands in Australia. Phil is basically a tour manager for
international acts around Australia. Carl runs a organic food store
down in Pokakoee.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Stop it does he Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
So it's there's everyone's doing everything all this.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I come from Pookakoe. I'm going to have to go
and visit Carl's store. John, Okay, so you guys are
gonna you're gonna have You're gonna go out with one
last hurrah and is it going to be epic?

Speaker 1 (02:27):
It is going to be absolutely epic. We've literally laid
down the gortland to ourselves to make sure that we
cover the whole career, like from first EP right to
the last album. We're going to make sure that we
played bangers off every single one. But the other new
thing we've built which we've never done before, which is
we're going to make every show a bit different. So

(02:47):
usually when Sheehad go touring, we get acceptless together at
the front of the tour and we just play it
to death. And this is the summer around, it's like,
no each We're going to make sure every show is
unique and different, and specially.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
What's the song that you finish on?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, it'd be pretty hard to not play the game last.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Yeah you know, I'm yeah, yeah, I think you've nailed that,
all right, John, listen, thank you, go well, and I'm
I'm personally sad, but you know, all good things have
to end.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, I think, yeah, we're, We're. It's going to be
a bittersweet, but I think it's going to be at
the same time.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, I think it might well be. Go well, John
too Good, she Hard's lead singer. That's the one. You'd
wait to the end of the concert for this one,
wouldn't you? Absolutely? You were nineteen away from six.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
For more from Hither Duplassy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.