Jane Suck

Jane Suck aka Jane Solanis nee Jane Jackman was a gifted freelance journalist from Weston Super Mare who wrote for Sounds music paper giving invaluable column space to the growing underground Punk bands of the first wave. She made no effort to be objective; hers were often impassioned, amphetamine-driven pleas for bands (Siouxsie & Adverts)  and a scene she obviously felt an affinity for. She wore her heart on the sleeve and was a welcome change from the calculated backstabbing of Burchill & Parsons and the misogynistic old guard of music paper journos. Interestingly Burchill viewed Suck as an imitation of herself.

She was often found at the Roxy Club and Vortex where she would do reviews of bands. See the below picture from the Roxy Club of ATV by Erica Echenberg of the band, with Jane Suck captured on the stairs. In a live review of X Ray Spex she inadvertently caused the firing of sax player Lora Logic by saying she was ‘the sound’ of the band much to the displeasure of singer Poly.

In her Adam & The Ants feature in Sounds 10/12/1977 she described her entrance into music journalism.

…I believe in rock’n’roll in its natural environment should be 75% visual and 25% heart-wrenching music. Clue: when I crawled into town at the beginning of the year I’d seen – count ’em three gigs. I was into reading the music papers, album sleeves and catching the odd gem (Bowie, Roxy Music) on TV, Within a month I’d seen every hip punk (punk? spunk) band in existence and I was so bored I developed nasty habits just in the hope the audience would go away and let the film begin! Then I saw the Banshees and, well you old voyeur…logical conclusion was to check out their favourite support band, the Ants.

In keeping with the times she also had a punk alias which was useful for freelancing at the music papers and signing on at the dole. However, the alias had its drawbacks as she explains in fellow Sounds journalist Jon Savage’s ‘Englands Dreaming’  ” …all I remember were the endless blowjobs; when you have a name like mine you have to live up to it.” 

Above left that first Siouxsie feature and right that Vermilion episode

Jane Suck was the first to write about Siouxsie and The Banshees, though her take on them was not without some reservations by the band as recounted a year later to Nick Kent in the NME.

The first actual feature written on the Banshees appeared in Snouds, where they were actively championed by the direly named Jane Suck. John McKay, who was soon to take Fenton’s place as Banshee’s guitarist …

“I was really turned off by parts of it, parts about making jokes of spastics – and yet other parts of the interview seemed very exciting, very clear in their mode of thinking. It was only later that I realised that the incongruous bits were more Jane’s projections onto the band than anything they consciously believed in.

Siouxsie, at least, speaks partly in Ms Suck’s defence. “Jane certainly did us some initial harm with her write-ups, but at least she saw something there that was undeniably a part of us – the uniqueness of it all. Unfortunately she started thinking that we were her personal property almost, and when Vivien Goldman wrote her piece it got incredibly heavy between the two of them, ending with Jane saying to Vivien, ‘well, they really are a bunch of Nazis so they pulled the wool over your eyes, ha ha.’” NME 26.8.1978

In late 1977 she even flirted with singing for the Moors Murderers for a few weeks and made their tape single of the week in 1978, but that was it band-wise.

Moors Murderers  – Photo credit Sheila Rock – Eve Goddard, Steve Strange, John Harlow, Egan, Jane Suck & Chrissie Hynde at Alaska Studios late 1977.

Check out her interview with hero Iggy if you can in Sounds. Have you ever seen or read anything like it by a journalist? The picture below gives you a clue

TheDay A Young Gurl’s Dream Came True…

Rags to riches. I met Iggy Pop. He opened the door stark naked. I sat in his lap. Got three kisses. Spent two whole days trying to see him again – rags. Mom threw me out for playing ‘Lust For Life’ too loud and being as stoned as my hero…

As someone with so much vested personal interest in Punk, she took it personally as the scene grew and fragmented becoming disillusioned and fading out of the picture. This though was more due to her burning the candle at both ends. An interview with Suzi Quatro had led to Suzi’s publicist demanding her sacking which happened.

Alan Lewis (Sounds Editor) recalls this in Paul Gorman’s excellent Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall Of The Music Press.

She was totally out there. One day I came in and she had totally destroyed the women’s toilets. The windows, washbowls, mirrors: everything was smashed to bit. [But] she was so talented that I rehired her the following week under another pseudonym.

That pseudonym was Jane Solanas (a nod to Valerie Solanas author of S.C.U.M – Society Of Cutting Up Men and who had shot Andy Warhol) and later under her real name of Jane Jackman.

In 1996 Denim wrote and released a rather excellent track called Jane Suck Died In 77.

In 2023 Jon Savage posted the sad news on Twitter that she had died. For that short golden punk period at Sounds, out of Viv Goldman, Sandy Robertson Steve Laver and Jon Savage, it was Jon Savage’s opinion that she was the best of them.

Hardly anything was said about her death online but Cindy Stern on Facebook did a moving post (13.1.2023) to Jane and Sounds that sparked the following comments.

Chalkie Davies I knew Jane, very talented writer, way better than Burchill.

Andrew R P Czezowski Sorry to hear that, I loved her independence and individuality, Jane was a regular at the ROXY and interviewed us a couple of times, also came to the FRIDGE once

Chris Salewicz Jane Suck was a great and very talented woman. Vivien Goldman told me Jane threw a typewriter through a glass window at Sounds. Punk rock!

Angie Taylor Jane was one-in-a-million! She was always kind, funny, sharp, witty and sweet and VERY flirty!!! I had a huge soft spot for her – she was a unique, innocent soul – sorely missed. And a fucking great writer. RIP Jane Suck, punk as fuck! ❤️🧷❤️

Vivien Goldman Thanks so much for writing this. My memories of Jane have been strong and so much of her life is still a puzzle. Always Challenging, often chuckling, gifted and a forceful writer. She did indeed live on and sometimes over the edge

At Punk 77 we had a lot of time for the legend that was Jane Suck.

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