From teenage Liverpudlian shoegazer to conceptual-pop mistress, espousing everything from pocket-punk, synth-pop, acid folk, indie-schmindie, dark-ambient drones and Hollywood soundtracks to girl-group psych, Jane Weaver has recorded five critically acclaimed solo albums in a twenty-year career.
Raised on the enthusiasm and inspiration of Factory records founder Rob Gretton and counting Doves and Elbow as her early backing bands, Jane’s desire to cultivate and promote Manchester’s lesser-documented female musicians led to her long-running Bird records imprint (releasing the earliest recordings of Cate Le Bon, Beth Jeans Houghton and Maxine Peake), housed in the anti-office of Andy Votel’s Twisted Nerve label.
Meanwhile her presence as a live performer has been requested by the likes of Jarvis Cocker (Meltdown), Laetitia Sadier, Richard Hawley, Josephine Foster and Gruff Rhys, while she has also flexed her knowledge in the DJ booth as a one-time member of Sean Rowley’s Guilty Pleasures DJ team. Jane’s music has also appeared in a wide-range of TV and cinematic productions such as the most recent soundtrack to ‘Kiss Of The Damned’ directed by John Cassevetes’ daughter, Xan. In early 2014, Jane’s voice was sampled by the band Coldplay, on the track ‘Another’s Arms’, with other high-profile friends and supporters including David Holmes, Damon Gough and Dave Brock.
However, latest album ‘The Silver Globe’ is, in Jane’s own opinion, her most complete and realised commitment to vinyl to date. Released via her own Bird Records imprint in late 2014 (and then re-released, March 2015, via Finders Keepers), it garnered the instant accolade of Piccadilly Records Album Of The Year, a notion shared by many music fans and blogs. Gilles Peterson gave first single ‘Don’t Take My Soul’ a Top Ten place in his Best Tracks of 2014, adding to the unanimous support of radio DJs such as Jarvis Cocker, Marc Riley, Stuart Maconie, Lauren Laverne and Mary Anne Hobbs. Early DJ mix encouragement came from the likes of Andrew Weatherall and Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve (Erol Alkan & Richard Norris). Having debuted songs to a proud list of sold-out headline gigs, as a key artist at 2013’s Festival Number 6 and on tours with Black Rivers and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier, Jane’s bursting live-diary for festival and shows, 2014-2015, required a time-machine and cloning science. Beneath the rays of The Silver Globe anything is possible.
