Biography

Introduction

Jim Noir (real name Alan Roberts) is an English singer-songwriter from Davyhulme, Manchester. Noir's stage moniker is in homage to Vic Reeves, whose real name is Jim Moir. He has released two albums to date, 2005's Tower of Love and 2008's self titled LP. Tower of Love and all of the preceding EPs were self-recorded at Noir's parents' home in the suburb of Davyhulme in Manchester.

Noir's music has been described as psychedelic pop electronica with simplistic, often repetitive lyrics and compared to The Beach Boys, Super Furry Animals, The Beta Band, The Bees and fellow Mancunian Badly Drawn Boy. He is also known for a slightly eccentric dress sense, frequently appearing in a bowler hat. Noir is a multi-instrumentalist, playing all the instruments on his work. However, he uses a band at performances.

He played at the 2006 and 2008 South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas and is currently signed to Seattle-based indie label Barsuk Records in the States, and Manchester label My Dad Recordings in the UK.

Noir released the single "My Patch" in the UK on May 1, 2006.

Jim Noir's second album, Jim Noir was released on April 14, 2008, and Noir announced via MySpace blog that his currently unnamed third album was complete as of March 14, 2009.

Commercial and pop-culture appearances

Several of Noir's songs have been featured on television programs or adapted for commercials.

On the TV series Grey's Anatomy, the song "I Me You I'm Your" was featured on episode "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and was also included on the Season 2 soundtrack. The show has also featured the songs "My Patch" and "Tell Me What to Do" in other episodes.
Noir covered Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby" for a 2006 Chase Manhattan Bank commercial in the US.
In 2006 Adidas used a remix of "Eanie Meany" for their World Cup advertising (Josè +10, second part). The song begins, "If you don't give my football back, I'm gonna get my dad on you."
Ginsters used "My Patch" for an ad campaign in the UK in 2006 and 2007.
For the 2007 holiday season, Target featured a commercial in which an adaptation of Noir's song "My Patch" is playing while windows in a large Advent calendar open and close. The original lyrics, "If you ever step on my patch / I'll bring you down, I'll bring you down" were modified. In the commercial, A different singer sings "Holidays are times of magic / We're counting down, we're counting down".
The BBC Radio 4 panel game The Unbelievable Truth uses the opening bars of 'My Patch' as its theme song.
'My Patch' was used in a trailer for the PlayStation 3 video game LittleBigPlanet which was shown at the E3 games conference, and also as a main track in the full game.
On the TV Series Life, the song Don't You Worry was used on episode 218 and Happy Day Today was used on 208.