Shihad rename themselves Pacifier

5.45 pm - By ELEANOR BLACK

New Zealand rock band Shihad have changed their name to Pacifier so they can keep their career on track in America.

Known as Shihad since forming 13 years ago, the band played their first gig as Pacifier, at the notorious Los Angeles club the Viper Room, on Wednesday.

They have spent the past six months working and recording in the US where they are trying to lift their profile. In January they announced that given the band name's similarity to the Islamic word "jihad", meaning holy war, they would have to change it.

Following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden declared jihad on the US.

The new name was to be announced at the Auckland Big Day Out in January, but was delayed as band lawyers sorted out contractual implications of the title change.

On the band website (still www.shihad.com), bassist player Karl Kippenberger said the name change was not what they wanted, but necessary. The band were making the best of a bad situation, he said.

Drummer Tom Larkin said earlier the Shihad name was a real hindrance to their progress stateside: "We wouldn't get played on radio, we wouldn't get tours and what would be the point?"

Pacifier is the name of a Shihad song, from the album The General Electric. The Concise Oxford defines "pacifier' as "a person or thing that pacifies" or "a baby's dummy".

The name Shihad was taken from a misspelling of the word jihad in the sci-fi novel Dune.