Judie Tzuke - Press Cuttings.
The following article was from What Hifi Magazine.
Hey, Jude!
Kevin Whitchurch talks to Judie Tzuke about her hi-fi,
recording and touring
I visited Judie Tzuke just after she'd finsished her nationwide tour. She lives in a large, attractive Weybridge cottage with a supine, very pregnant cat.
She'd just released a new album (Judie, not the cat), called Ritmo. Together with Maike Paxman, one of the producers of the record, we talked about it, the tour and her hi-fi - a recently aquired Yamaha 500 system with NS-1000 monitor speakers.
Judie Tzuke: I wanted to get a new system because the old one kept blowing up. It's good - much better than the one I had before - and it looks so nice. But I think one of the tweeters has blown... We put a drum box through it the other night, not the best thing to put through a pair of speakers.
Mike Paxman: No, it has a lot of peaks...
Kevin Whitchurch: What do you use most on the system. Turntable or tapes?
Judie: Tapes. I don't seem to play records anymore, especially on this system. It's such a good quality turntable that nothing will play on it. English pressings are so bad that you can't play them. I've got one record, which is Maniac [the Michael Semello track for the movie Flashdance] that I can play on it. It's such a good cut, it sounds wonderful... Nothing else sounds any good.
Paul [Muggleton - co-producer] did the cut on Ritmo, and really worked hard on it but it's pointless in England because you do all that hard work in the studio and get a really good quality, clean sound, send it off to get pressed and it comes back like a floppy disc. Have you seen the new records? They're like the ones you get free with magazines and you just can't play them on this sort of system at all. I play cassettes now, if I can buy cassettes.
'I don't seem to play records anymore...'
Mike: Yeah cassettes are definitely better these days...
Judie: I bought Lionel Ritchie, both the seven inch and the 12 inch because I was doing a radio show... ' you know ' My six party records'. I tried to play both of them and it was such a bad pressing. The vocal on it sounded terrible, the sibilance was really bad. I got the Shalamar album as well, on record and on cassette - I can't play the one on record.
Kevin: Obviously the Japanese pressings are better, but what do you think about American pressings?
Judie: Americans are much better aparently, we haven't had any of ours done there yet but I think overall the pressings are better. Trouble is, a lot of the albums we get over here are American but they've been repressed over here... But just going by the Maniac Single I don't beieve it was pressed here - You can turn it right up and there's only a little bit of breaking up - and it's a single.
Kevin: Have you noticed the floppy-disc syndrome with your own albums?
Judie: Oh, Yeah, it's horrible. I don't play my records on album - just cassette. In fact the copies from the studio before they were actually mastered are better than the record.
Kevin: Have you thought about putting your albums on Compact Disc?
Judie: Not particularly because we're not in a position to, and our record company just wouldn't do it.
Mike: It's still early days but I think in about five years just about everyone will be using it - and the sound quality will be really good.
Kevin: Some people are already releasing CD simultaneously with record and cassette, Culture Club's Colour By Numbers for example...
Mike: Which is great because if you mix themm digitally that means it never gets cut, messed up, taped or anything - it just goes straight onto Compact Disc.
Kevin: How did the tour go?
Judie: Really well, I was surprised. I'm always a little pessimistic about tours - I always think, well, thet're not going to come and see us.
Mike: We sold out everywhere. We have a really good following - but if we didn't tour we wouldn't sell any records because we're not getting advertising and the radio isn't playing us. The only way people know we're doing anything is because we're on the road.
Judie: I enjoyed this tour more than any because for the first time ever I wasn't so scared that I couldn't do anything. This time I was still nervous but just that little bit less nervous so I actually enjoyed it.
Mike: We did a lot shorter tour this time - last time it was 45 gigs - this time we did 17.
Judie: I got flu at Hammersmith. I'd had such a good time on the rest of the tour, singing the way I'd always wanted to sing. I thought 'Great, Hammersmith's gonna be wonderful this year', and I got the cold the day before.
'I enjoyed this tour more than any...'
But I sang alright on the first day of the cold - the two days at Hammersmith were the worst two days.
Usually I sing alright with a cold and I went on stage thinking it would be okay, then my voice went totally on the first song. I went off stage in hysterics trying to get the show stopped. I thought it must sound terrible and I was cheating the audience - you know they've spent all that money. But apparently it sounded alright and the second night I bluffed a lot better.
Kevin: I guess a rough throat helps some singers...
Judie: ...Apparently Frank Sinatra always sings with a cold.
Kevin: Do you listen to the radio a lot?
Judie: We've been listening to Radio Caroline lately. Terrible reception but it's a much better radio station than any of the others, and they play us. No-one else does.
Kevin: That is strange. I don't seem to have heard the new album on radio...
Judie: ...I don't think we've ever been on either Radio One or Capital's playlist, not even with Stay With ME Till Dawn.
Kevin: Why is that?
Judie: I've no idea. I've been trying to work out if I did something wrong sometime, or upset someone. I can't think of anything.
If I do something different from what I used to do they don't like it because it's not like the old stuff. If I do something like the old stuff they don't like it because it's like the old stuff. If I do something heavy it's no good for daytime playlisting - you just get it on occasionally at night. If I do something ballady it's not right either - you just can't win with them at all.
It's just got to a point where they've not been playing me for so long that I don't even worry about it anymore.
Kevin: Who did the photographs for the album sleeve?
Judie: Brian Aris, I always go to him. The album [Ritmo] had a lot more to do with us, we had a lot more to do with what was going to be on it. We've always came up with our own ideas but then the record company says 'Oh, yeah, but I've got this thing going and we're going to have it.'
The last album - Shoot The Moon - we had this idea but it didn't come out quite how we wanted it. The first few albums weren't much to do with me at all. Phoenix was nothing to do with us, I hate that cover. We actually had a friend of ours doind a painting but that wasn't right either, but it was a lot more right than the one that they used. We took our idea into Rocket and they said they had their own artist, they wanted to do a painting.
Mike: ...it's the grimmest cover you've ever seen in your life...
Judie: ...even Elton [John] went on the radio and said it was the worst cover he'd ever seen, and he thought I'd designed it. I was so cross because they designed it and I had nothing to do with it.
Mike: So you get a grim cover, a bad pressing...
Kevin: ...and the stations don't play the album anyway!
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