Judie Tzuke - Press Cuttings.
The following article was from the Sounds Lady Killers Magazine of 1983...
ALTHOUGH JUDIE Tzuke is held in high esteem as a singer/songwriter, she's found the road to access to be more than a litle rocky and has had a turbulant career, which has been a curious mixture of ups and downs. After attending drama and ballet schools, Judie finaly realised she was cut out for a professional singing career at 15. But even at that early age she encountered problems.
" My mother signed me to a contract when I was 15 to three guys who were involved in advertising jingles and things like that," she recalls. "One of them wanted to get into the music business, but he went off to America and never come back for three years! I was left high and dry and wasn't able to do anything for ages."
During this period, Judie bided her time songwriting and eventually met up with guitarist Mike Paxman. They formed a duo called Tzuke and Paxo and gigged around the London area before releasing a single called 'These Are The Laws' through the Independant Good Earth label.
Produced by Toni Visconti, it led to Judie's solo deal with Rocket Records which resulted in the emergence of her debut 'Welcome To The Cruise' album in 1979.
She scored an immediate hit with the delicate 'Stay With Me Till Dawn' but that single led many to believe that Judie was nothing more than a ballad singer. In actual fact, her music has always been extremely varied and she's even managed to amass quite a following amongst heavy metal fans.
After 'Welcome To The Cruise', Judie made two more albums for Rocket - 'Sportscar' and 'I Am The Phoenix' - before she switched and moved over to Chryslais Records at the end of 1981. Since then she's released another studio elpee called 'Shoot The Moon', as well as her most recent 'Road Noise - The Official Bootleg' live platter.
The latter was an excellent package, a splendid in-concert represntation of Judie's music to date. Unfortunately though, at the end of last year she was forced to break up her band, as she wasn't in a position to keep them on a permanent retainer. Over the past few months Judie has been writing new material at her Weybridge home and recently she popped into London's Mayfair Studios to lay down a couple of tracks for a possible single release.
How does she enjoy recording?
"I like it a lot actually, but the only problem in the past has been that we've had to do things in such a rush. Situations have come up where we've only ever had four weeks maximum in which to record an album. Next time I'd like to be able to do things without that kind of pressure."
Is there much material ready for the next album?
"Mike and I have got about eight songs together, but I don't think all of them are going to go on the album - probably only three or four. Generally though we tend not to write many more than we're actually going to use."
Have you found that all too often you're simply thought of as a ballad singer?
"Yes, Unfortunately it's happened quite a lot, especially when I was with Rocket. And I think even Chrysalis even to a certain extent are at a bit of a loss to know what singles to release because the only successful one has been a ballad."
Do you think there's a certain amount of difficulty in marketing a 'woman in rock'?
"Well maybe, I don't consider myself a typical 'woman in rock' - I don't wear all the gear and I don't leap about the stage or anything like that. I'm not that loud type of character. So maybe people haven't known how to market my image."
What do you consider your image to be?
"Well... I don't believe in images as such. I think what's happened is that I do have an image of my own but when I go to have pictures taken I tend to wear my best dress and have my hair done specially (courtesy of Godber!) and I'm not necessarilly me in the photographs. So obviously I do suffer. What I'm trying to do now is more what I am naturally. I don't want to be anyone else."
Your music seems to have got a lot heavier over the years - would you agree?
I don't hear it but, a lot of paople have said that about 'Shoot The Moon'. To me, it wasn't any heavier."
Are you surprised that you seemed to have built up a following of heavy metal fans?
"It surprises me a bit, but I like it. It is an area that I like occasionally. I don't think we're all 'heavy metal' but I think some of our songs are quite heavy."
So why do you think the HM fans do seem to relate to you?
"I haven't a clue - but I'm glad they keep coming. After the shows I always stick around, because I do like meeting audiences and finding out who else they listen to, just to get an idea of what I am as far as they are concerned."
That's rare to find an artist that's willing to do that these days?
"I know, because I was talking to someone the other day - I'm looking for a new manager - and this guy said he thought you should rush the artist out and they shouldn't have to stay around. But I couldn't do that. If I started rushing off I'd feel awful and that it wasn't real."
DO you think that's because a lot of peolpe want to retain an element of mystique?
"Well I'm quite into the mystique element to a degree because I don't particularly want everyone to know everything about me. But as far as when I'm on tour is concerned. I don't think that I should be mysterious because I am essentially just like the people who come along to the shows." (Modest and unaffected are words that best describe Judie Tzuke.)
Do you actually like touring?
"I do enjoy it sometimes, but I get very nervous which takes an awful lot out of me and I tend to feel sick every afternoon and it gets a bit of a bind. But being on stage is great."
Why do you get nervous?
"Because I think everybody knows every mistake that I make on stage and hears everything that's not quite right, which probably isn't true all the time. But I can't ever believe that people don't notice when I make mistakes. I'm always trying to sing the best I've ever sung and if I don't I get very depressed."
I'd have thought the nerves might have worn off over the years?
"That's what I thought... (laughs) ...but it hasn't really happened. Some nights I'm not as nervous as I used to be, but on others I'm absolutely petrified! I just can't bear to listen to things that I've done that don't sound totally right."
You mentioned that you're looking for a new manager - has the business side of things got you down over your career?
"Very much so and this is why I'm getting a manager. I haven't really had one for about two years and I think it's stopped me writing a lot because I've got so involved with business problems, which shouldn't really be anything to do with me. I want to sort out a manager who can do all that, while I get on with what I want to do."
"I had a manager in the beginning who was very good - he wasn't evil or anything like that - and then I was frightened to go with anyone else. When the band was splitting up before Christmas it really got me down and I didn't know whether I wanted to carry on, but now I'm really excited about trying to sort things out and do everything properly... I know it might seem like it's a bit late in the day!"
Had you intended to view the members of the band as back-up musicians?
"No, not at all. I always saw it as a proper band, there was never any resentment in them feeling it was a back-up group. When the split came, it was nothing nasty - it was just that we weren't going to be touring and we're not a really huge success. So they all went their separate ways, but they all want to come back. When we get a manager who's right and we start to tour again then hopefully things will be the same as they wete as far as the group's concerned."
"It was quite a major thing for me to lose a band because, apart from the fact that I really liked them a lot, there's also a certain amount of security there and it was almost like having the bottom taken out of everything I do. I was left on my own."
You've never really made any compromises towards commerciality - have you ever been tempted?
"Sometimes I do think it would be easy to do an old song and put it out as a single, and probably have a success. But doing things that way wouldn't be what I like to do - and what I set out to do. So there's no point I just wouldn't like it."
Do you ever feel that you're shying away from success?
"Not deliberately. I'm prepared to make commercial records but I don't know how to do it without compromising and I' not prepared to compromise. I'm in this business because I like what I'm doing and not to become rich. Although if I did well, I'm not saying I wouldn't like it."
Judie Tzuke certainly deserves a break and once she's got all of her business affairs in order let's hope that she'll earn greater recognition. She definitely warrants attention and is certainly one of Britains most talented ladies.
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