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.

Jane Walker's illustration for 'Toy Love on Toy Love', Rip It Up Extra, 1980
Squeeze (with remastered audio)
Jane Walker, Toy Love in the studio.
Photo credit: Murray Cammick
Jane Walker, Christchurch - June 1978
Photo credit:  Kevin Hill
Toy Love recording their debut single at Mandrill Studios, 1979
Photo credit: Murray Cammick
Jane Walker with Jed Town and Anna Bailey, Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Jane Walker, Christchurch - 1977
Photo credit: Kevin Hill 
Jane Walker with Jed Town and Anna Bailey, Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Jane Walker in Titirangi, 2011.
Photo credit: Stuart Page
Toy Love in Christchurch, outside the Gladstone, probably in October 1979: Chris Knox, Jane Walker, Paul Kean, Mike Dooley and Alec Bathgate.
Jane Walker by Jane Walker, 2010
Photo credit: Jane Walker collection
Toy Love signing with WEA Records (NZ) and DeLuxe (Australia), 1979: Alec Bathgate, Jane Walker, WEA's Tim Murdoch, DeLuxe's Michael Browning, Paul Kean, Mike Dooley, WEA's Terence Hogan and Chris Knox
Photo credit: Chris Knox collection
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
Interview with Jane Walker, bFM, 2012