Music has always been a love of Janey’s, and long before broadcasting, writing, and the ‘Imperfectly Natural’ cause she paid the rent as a jobbing singer, in everything from pubs and clubs to Stadiums in the USA with George Michael and Wham! From backing she moved to fronting with a 1992 top ten hit as 'Cola Boy' - the track '7 Ways to love' reaching number 8, spending seven weeks on the UK Top 40 in July 1991. She's released her own album 'Feel So Real' which is available from Realvision Records. She still writes songs and plays the odd live gig from time to time too.
Her entry into the radio world came in 1989 when she began presenting and producing an award-winning Gospel music show for BBC GLR called 'The Gospel Hour'. During this time, she also presented the BBC World Service 'Sounds Of Gospel' shows, Ministry of Sound, and look at the Gospel scene in both the UK and US for Radio 1, and this also led to her role as expert on BBC1's 'Songs of Praise'.
In 1993 she left to join the UK National AM station Virgin as a traffic reporter for Russ Williams and Jonathan Coleman's (Russ & Jono's) Breakfast Show, and she went on to host her own overnight show, followed by a weekday show and there was also weekend shows and daily what's on features. In particular, she was popular in her 11:00pm-3:00am slot Monday to Saturday.
To her radio credit, Janey has presented a pop and celeb feature for BBC Radio Five show Vibe! as well as a 1990s Radio 1 documentary on the popularity of Jesus in the modern era. Her voice has also been heard on commercials for Johnson's Baby Lotion, Levi Jeans, Nissan & Mastercard, whilst both her face and voice appear in corporate videos, award ceremonies and charity events.
Janey has also appeared on a significant number of television shows. These include the production and presentation roles on the Sky News Live At Five Gig Guide, a health feature for ITV1's 'Body & Soul', and a live magazine style show, also for ITV1, which handled issues of religious belief. The crossover between television and music radio was made when she stood in for Julia Carling on satellite music channel VH1 - she also presented coverage of National Music Day on the channel as well as the weekly show 'VH1 For You'. In that time, she interviewed a wide variety of music celebrities. Also on TV, Janey worked on the now defunct cable channel L!VE TV presenting 'Video Box' for four days of the week which reviewed the new music releases each week.
Amongst the best and worst bits of her career to date, her best moments were when she was presented with an award for her GLR Gospel show and when she attended the 2002 Sony Radio Awards when Radio 2 was again voted 'Station of the Year'. However, she also recalls the moments before she was due to interview Archbishop Desmond Tutu for Radio 2's 'Good Morning Sunday' when her tights laddered on the way, and all she could get was a pair of hold-ups. As she approached the Archbishop, the hold-ups fell to her ankles!
Today Janey currently co-hosts on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays with Steve Wright and Tim Smith on BBC Radio 2's most sucessfull daytime programme Steve Wright in the Afternoon - currently enjoyed by over 6 million listeners daily. Click the banner below for more info on the show and to listen on line.
It was from the many hundreds of emails Janey would receive on the Steve Wright Show that led her to become a kind of ‘holistic spokesperson’ for her life long passion of eco, and alternative health issues, much to the amusement of Steve and Tim on the show, and this would eventually lead to a small company - Crown House Publishing - commissioning her to write her first book ‘Imperfectly Natural Woman’ . The book straight away touched a nerve with many people in the UK, who like Janey, had a passion for these issues, but didn’t want to ‘beat themselves up’ about it. Those were the kind people that in their numbers, really did have a chance of changing the world.
Imperfectly Natural Woman went very quickly to the No 1 spot on Amazon’s best sellers list, the publishers ran out of books, and were into their 3rd reprint in 6 months. Janey continues the imperfectly natural theme with her new book ‘Imperfectly Natural Baby and Toddler’ out now on Orion Books, highlighting her passion for natural pregnancy and birth, attachment, and ‘green parenting’. She is also a passionate supporter of home education.
Janey now divides her time between writing books and articles on holistic issues, live speaking events around the country, and broadcasting.
She says….
“Radio, is an addiction for me, as ‘spreading the holistic word’ has also become…. someone once asked me, ‘if you won a million pounds, what would you do?’ well……. I’d be writing books, and on the Radio !
Janey lives in the Hertfordshire countryside with her husband Simon, a composer by trade, and children Sonny 10, Buddy 9, Rocky 5, and Lulu 3.
