Jane has spent the last 20 years confidently carving her own path through the creative industry in Australia and around the globe.
Listen to our chat here!
Competitive dancing and an obsessive curiosity for the arts lead Jane to falling head over heels for Brisbane's 90s club scene. She later made the move to Sydney which gave way to a serendipitous leap into the world of artist management.
After building up and stripping back her successful management business, a soul searching trip to Indonesia lead to working in the region for 5 years as a music director. This culminated in the foundations of the Electronic Music Conference, of which Jane is now the Director.
At the peak of Sydney's lock out laws in 2016, Electronic Music Conference brought out Mirik Milan as a keynote speaker, Amsterdam's former Night Time Mayor (2012-2018). This lead to a collaboration between Jane and Mirik to create Global Cities After Dark, a one day forum which exchanges knowledge between international cities, highlights best practices and focusses on the future solutions for positive and thriving nightlife globally.
Their collaborative venture VibeLab Asia Pacific also includes Lutz Leichsenring. VibeLab is currently working on a Global Nighttime Recovery Plan.
Throughout her global creative industry trekking, Jane is still keeping close to her roots, currently managing Brisbane's Sampology and Middle Name Dance Band. Jane has been kind enough to provide some pictures and posters from the vault! Ecstatic to be able to share these as part of this post :) Thank you so much Jane!
Jane's Photo & Poster Vault
"I think this pic is from my first ever “club gig” - it was a little party called ‘Vaudeville’ at a venue in Alice Street in Brisbane that’s no longer there and I can’t remember the name of. It was a night of great music and a kind of fashion / theatre show. It was such a wonderful group of creatives that were a part of this era in Brisbane. I was the young one here - I was so inspired by all creative people in that group. I would have been 15 or maybe 16 at this time."
"This was the first ‘dance party’ I threw with two friends in Brisbane in 1995 as a fundraiser for the QLD Cancer Fund. Still great friends with many of the artists that performed at this party."
"There used to be a club called Metropolis in the basement of the Myer Centre. This was 1991 - can you imagine an all out rave in a shopping centre today, and for twelve bucks presale?"
"Sunnyside Up was my absolute favourite club night in Brisbane. The music was perfection (thanks to Ravi and Will) and it was a real tight community, such a joyful crowd. On the left was their opening night flyer from back in 1991. Right poster was from 1993, Ravi and Will had moved it to the Empire Hotel by then. It was SUCH a fantastic space back then. Best sprung wooden dance floor, the beautiful Queenslander balconies, this was the Empire in its best era in my opinion"
"Someone shared this image on Facebook in the last few years so I hope I’m not breaching copyright! To whoever shared this image - thank you! This is the dance floor at Sunnyside Up at the Empire. People were always SO happy at Sunnyside Up. There was a regular called Wolfgang who used to wear shoes with massive springs, he bounced around the dance floor all night on his funny trampoline shoes. It was such an awesome time in Brisbane."
"Brisbane promoter Michael Watt did a ‘concept club’ in the mid 90s called UKDT. It was at OUT, which is now a putt putt place called Holey Moley. (Brightside is out the back in the old OUT carpark) I think this was 1996. Georgie Pinn and the late Jeremy Hynes worked on the multi-media and 3d animation and I was a dancer at the club. This year I’ve actually been working on an exciting new project with Georgie, almost 25 years after this."
"This is a backstage shot from a fashion parade at ‘Shock’ dance party in Brisbane. (Image taken from theabasiliou.com) Fashion parades at raves, dance parties and club nights were a real thing in Brisbane for many years - all the way through the 90s especially."
"This is the beautiful Thea Basiliou in 1991. She had a fashion label in the early 90s called Theodora Goes Wild, and a store called Blonde Venus in the Elizabeth Arcade. (It’s now a food court in that arcade, I think) One of the most favourite outfits I ever bought was a Theodora Goes Wild get up. In the mid 90s, Thea moved Blonde Venus to Ann St, just a little down from The Beat. Thea is the best fashion buyer I think this country has ever had. I did a bunch of fashion shows for Thea, in clubs and restaurants. She’s an amazing person with incredible style."
"This was another fashion parade I was in at a club called Soho at Grand Orbit, which was on the Brisbane River. It was a pretty big club. Michael Watt was also the promoter of this club. Each Wednesday night, a collective of creatives - models, dancers, hair and makeup crew, choreographers would put on a show. It used to pack out every Wednesday night. It was a funny and fun time."
|I used to write for a bunch of media in Brisbane, (many of which don’t exist anymore) - Time Off, Scene Magazine, (now Scenestr) Plastic Magazine and Large Magazine. The Australian music and street culture landscape has always been really tough. We need good local media to support our local culture, so I think that supporting the media outlets that still exist is absolutely vital.|
"I was working on the Australian edition of Remix Magazine and this was the free mix CD that came with the debut issue. This project really steered my path into artist management. Jesse (Kid Kenobi) and I worked together for a decade after this and in that time he toured the world, released many compilations, won multiple awards, it was such a great journey for our little team. We’re still really close friends today and I’ll forever be grateful that we met each other. I’ve no idea what I would be doing professionally today, had our paths not crossed."
"This was the project that kicked off my management relationship with Sampology. He gave me this DVD recording he created of his first ever AV show. We’ve been working together for over a decade ever since, and he’s evolved so much as an artist over this time. I’ve always been so inspired by Sam and proud of all of his creative work, but especially over the last five or so years I’m so impressed by him and his work on his own projects, on Middle Name Records and the projects he’s produced for other artists."
