The World's First Hard House DJ and Why She "Fucking Hates America'

When Mrs Wood was the highest ranked female jock in DJ magazine's 1997 top 100 DJs survey, a realistic list of her hard house female competitors would have been limited to Rachel Auburn, Queen Maxine and Vikkie Red. 3 years on, Lisa Lashes, Lisa Pinup, DJ Lottie and Anne Savage all made DJ's top 50, while the former Tony De Vit cohort is nowhere to be seen. Mezzmusic caught up with Jane at Baby Doc's London studios, as she began recording new tracks with the Doc and discovered that as well as loathing the States she also spent the early 80's working alongside Soft Cell.


Mezz: What's your problem with America-

Mrs Wood: "I'm playing abroad quite a lot right now, touring America and Japan but I also went to Guam recently and got deported from there. It's a mid Pacific island, near the equator but it's American and I didn't fucking know, did I-' I tried to get in and basically they were nasty to me and I got deported. They wouldn't even let me out of the airport - bastards. I fucking hate America and I never want to go back there again, so that's good."


Mezz: What happened with US immigration exactly-

Mrs Wood: "Because I was nasty to them, they were treating me like a bloody criminal, saying things like, 'You do realise, everyone wants to get into America because it's so great.' I replied, 'It's a fucking shit-hole, who'd want to go there-' which I shouldn't have done, I was shattered after a 20 hour flight. Fucking American bullies! Anyway, I can't ever go back to America, isn't that fabulous-' Good thing I didn't like it. You go to play there, thinking 'great, it's gonna' be so cool', but they're fucking idiots, they haven't got a clue. They just need someone to tell them what to like. They're thick."


Mezz: You're well known fan of Australia, what do you like about the place-

Mrs Wood: "I like Australian's sense of freedom and the country's 'off-the-wall vibe - it's not a class orientated place and you can be what you are there. It's comfortable and the more you are yourself there, the better. You're allowed freedom of thought there, it's really creative."


Mezz: Turning to your past, how did you get involved with Soft Cell and Marc Almond in the early 80s-

Mrs Wood: "It was a long night. I met Marc's manager, Stevo, first and we got on (made friends) really quickly - we share the same birthday. I met Marc, then we went out and took loads of drugs,. What happened was, we were showing the Sex Dwarf video at a PA (live gig with microphones) and the audience went mad, it was in the middle of nowhere and these really straight people were absolutely disgusted by the video. Somebody swung for Marc, he swung for them and we ended up barricaded in this little room all night. I couldn't get to work, which led to me being sacked from my job of running a guesthouse in Finsbury Park. So Marc gave me a job running the Soft Cell fan club. I did that for a year, then ran Some Bizarre with Stevo after that. Marc was great to me, he took me all over the world."


Mezz: Were you partying at the Paradise Garage in New York at that point-

Mrs Wood: "We used to go to Danceteria more, and also the Hellfire Club (Manhattan's only straight (-ish) hardcore sex club of the time), that's where I took my first ever E. That club was brilliant - to go to the toilet, you had to literally piss on someone (laughing). Freedom. It was great, it was just people doing their own thing, in a safe space. I liked it because everything seemed so normal but there was people licking your shoes, and that kind of thing. I like the real S&M thing, it's a bit scary but I like it."


Mezz : What's the new connection with Baby Doc and S-J-

Mrs Wood: "I started working on the track at home then 'good old Babes' (Baby Doc) helped me out quite a lot here at the studio- half of the track is definitely his. It's been fucking brilliant just to be abl Tags

• Lisa Lashes