Judie Tzuke

Judie Tzuke earned admiration from figures such as Elton John, Queen’s Brian May, and violinist Nigel Kennedy while cultivating a loyal following in the 1970s and 1980s through her emotionally charged mix of pop and rock, sustaining both recordings and live appearances deep into the 2010s. Born Judie Myers in London on April 3, 1956, she adopted her family’s original Polish surname for her career after her immigrant parents had switched to Myers upon arriving in England, where the name was widespread in Yorkshire. Her father, Sefton Myers, managed acts that included Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice while the pair developed Jesus Christ Superstar, and her mother, Jean Silverside, took acting roles in numerous films and television programs. As a teenager Tzuke began writing poems and adding guitar parts, performing the resulting material at nearby folk clubs. She soon teamed with Mike Paxman as the duo Tzuke & Paxo; producer Tony Visconti signed them to his Good Earth label, yet they issued only the 1977 single “These Are the Laws” b/w “It’s Only Fantasies” before she moved to Elton John’s Rocket imprint as a solo artist. Her first Rocket release, “For You,” received moderate UK airplay and reached the Top 40. The 1979 debut album Welcome to the Cruise yielded the stronger hit “Stay with Me Till Dawn,” which remained on the British charts for sixteen weeks and prompted several Top of the Pops appearances. Although she opened concerts for Elton John, including a Central Park show estimated at 450,000 attendees, label distribution changes in the United States hindered access to her records there. Her standing nevertheless strengthened in Britain, producing Sportscar in 1980, I Am the Phoenix in 1981, and Shoot the Moon in 1982, along with major festival slots and sold-out Hammersmith Odeon dates. A subsequent contract with Chrysalis Records failed to expand her reach abroad; her 1983 album Ritmo passed largely unnoticed in America. She continued releasing material, among them The Cat Is Out in 1985, recorded at her home studio, Turning Stones in 1989, Left Hand Talking in 1991, and Wonderland in 1996, which featured Brian May. Founding Big Moon Records, she issued Under the Angels and the live set Over the Moon in 1997, Secret Agent in 1998, and Six Days Before the Flood in 2000. Around the same period Elton John returned the rights to her first three albums, leading to remastered reissues on Big Moon. Later studio projects included Queen Secret Keeper in 2001 and the covers collection The Beauty of Hindsight in 2003, followed by The End of the Beginning in 2004. The two-volume Songs series arrived next, its 2007 installment centered on gentler songs while the 2008 volume emphasized rock. Moon on a Mirrorball, released in 2010, supported a UK tour. After One Tree Less in 2012 she launched a website subscription offering one new song monthly; selections later appeared on Song Club in 2014 and Songclub Too in 2015. Peace Has Broken Out arrived in November 2017, followed by a UK tour the next year.