KEY POINTS:
Don't worry, the wiry frontman won't be on the field getting twisted round like fuse wire. Shihad and local act Pluto play a free concert after the game at the Supertop for Warriors supporters.
At school Toogood played sport against some of New Zealand's foremost sportsmen, including Chris
Cairns. "I always used to shit my pants against him because he was one of those kids who was a man before everyone else was."
We catch up with Toogood in Melbourne where the band have just finished writing a new song called Rule the World and according to Toogood it, well, "rules".
What is your sport? My parents were both Londoners so in winter I was brought up playing soccer as a kid. But the only time I enjoy watching soccer nowadays is the World Cup and the occasional premiership final or FA Cup. Nowadays I'm more interested in what happens with the All Blacks and I enjoyed the Super 14 the year before this one because I was in New Zealand rather than here because in Melbourne you don't get rugby union at all. I always like a good game of cricket. I still haven't seen anything quite as good as the Ashes test series in 2005 when Britain beat Australia. That was the best cricket I've seen since the days of Edgar, Coney, Wright and Hadlee, who I used to love as a kid. And I do like to watch a little bit of rugby league too. Man, they're big boys.
Speaking of league. Do you follow the Warriors? Well, again, living in Melbourne they do follow league but what they play most of all is Australian Rules football and it's a religion here. Every game is covered, no matter what division. So it's a bit of a pick and mix as to what you get in terms of rugby union and league. So to tell you the truth there's many times I don't know what's happening with the Warriors, but if ever I do watch it I back the Warriors.
They broke their losing streak on the weekend. Yes. Thank God. I was hearing about the losing streak and thinking, shit - will there be anyone to play to after the game?
What is your golden sporting moment? There's many. But, and even though it didn't include New Zealand, that Ashes series was the first time I thought, "This is a real game where the total underdogs beat the best team in the world." And it was like, 'Yes, [expletive]'. Shihad had been touring through Australia for Love Is the New Hate and I was enjoying Australia getting beaten. After the tour I went to London by chance and arrive on the day that England take the series. The next day I got out of the train station right where the team were hopping on the bus for the street parade. That was a good sporting moment for me. Plus, I enjoy watching Federer play tennis because it's like watching Bruce Lee. And I always enjoy watching the All Blacks play because they are the best team in the world. I've grown more into rugby union as I got older and I think the turning point was when they used our song Run as the World Cup song.
So where do music and sport meet? If you have a word like "run" then ... [laughs]. And I've noticed the Foo Fighters are really good at it. [singing] "You gotta give it the best, the best ... ". I don't know if Dave Grohl's conscious of it when he writes his songs but he writes really good highlights package music.
Has sport in any way inspired your music? My background goes like this: I was sport mad as a kid. I picked up the guitar at about 8 or 9 after meeting my uncle in England and thought that's cool. So I always loved music. But my thing was sport when I was at school and I managed to become captain of the Wellington rep cricket team. I had Marc Ellis, and Danny Haimona [from hip-hop act Dam Native] was the opening bowler. We'd play against Chris Cairns who was in the Canterbury secondary schools' team. Then I rediscovered the guitar and music at 14 or 15 and I remember my dad being really bummed out when I started growing my hair long and getting into bands and giving the soccer and cricket away. But that's the age when you tend to get into music hardcore and it becomes your religion. Scott Kara
* Shihad and Pluto play the Big Night Out at the Supertop after the Warriors game tomorrow night at Mt Smart Stadium. Kick off is at 8pm; the concert is due to finish at 11.45pm.
