Jane Walker


During her time in the New Zealand music scene, Jane Walker was as much an iconoclast as Toy Love, the band in which she became well known. Apart from Clare Elliott – Zero in the Suburban Reptiles – there were very few female musicians in the early punk and post-punk bands.

Jane was not there for novelty or shock value, though she was unmissable in her thrown together, primary coloured, op-shop outfits. On stage, while all was chaos at the microphone, she was one of four musicians keeping the maelstrom together. Toy Love was the sum of its parts, each distinctive, but her clavinet gave the band a pop element that helped transport those great songs – credited to every member – beyond the post-punk audience.

Mike Dooley, Paul Kean and Jane Walker in Sydney, early 1980
Photo credit: Photo by Carol Tippet
Jane Walker and Mike Dooley, Toy Love, Willy's Wine Bar, Wellington, 27 August 1979.
Photo credit: Chris Bourke
Jane Walker with Jed Town and Anna Bailey, Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Chris Knox and Jane Walker, Toy Love, Island of Real, 1979
Photo credit: Murray Cammick
Jane Walker, Christchurch - 1977
Photo credit: Kevin Hill 
Toy Love: Paul Kean, Mike Dooley (rear), Jane Walker (front), Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate
Jane Walker and Paul Kean (obscured), October 1979
Photo credit: Simon Lynch
Jane Walker with Jed Town and Anna Bailey, Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Cuba Street, Wellington, 4 November 1979: David Maclennan at centre. Toy Love’s Paul Kean & Jane Walker to his right. Terrorways’ Chris Orange partially obscured behind him. Fine weather and a good turnout made this one of the better Cuba Mall sessions.
Jane Walker performing in Toy Love at XS Cafe, Auckland.
The Detroit Hemroids at Punakaiki on the West Coast, c. 1977. The lineup in these was Nicky Carter, Oliver Scott, Jane Walker, Paul Kean and Mark Wilson
Jane Walker in Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Toy Love at Squeeze
Photo credit: Murray Cammick
Jane Walker, Toy Love in the studio.
Photo credit: Murray Cammick
Interview with Jane Walker, bFM, 2012
Toy Love album, 1980; cover designed by Jane Walker
Jane Walker's design for 'Stitched Up: the Songs of Toy Love', a tribute album on Burning Sky released in 2011. As well as many artists from the Burning Sky stable, the album featured recordings by Proud Scum, Don McGlashan, Hamish Kilgour, and Shayne Carter. 
Photo credit: Jane Walker
Jane Walker, Christchurch - June 1978
Photo credit:  Kevin Hill

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