Judie Myers was born in London of an English Mother and a Polish extract Father. Her father’s family were Polish immigrants who settled in Yorkshire in the 1920s. They had changed their name from their original Polish name, ‘Tzuke’, to Myers as they tried their hardest to fit into a totally English way of life.
Her father Sefton Myers, was a successful Park Lane based property developer, who also managed artists and singers. He co-managed and supported Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice while they wrote Jesus Christ Superstar, but unfortunately, he died a few weeks before the musical opened. He had also been Chief Barker of The Variety Club of Great Britain and was a very popular impresario.
Her mother Jean Silverside was an actress in films and popular TV series’ such as The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, The Marty Feldman show, The Goodies and various other TV plays.
After an education in the arts, music and drama, by the age of 15, Judie spent most of her time writing poems which she turned into songs and playing folk clubs, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar. In 1975 she met Mike Paxman, and together they started to write the songs that were to become her first releases. After making some demo tapes, they managed to get a record deal with David Bowie and T.Rex producer Tony Visconti’s label, Good Earth. Judie decided to change her name back to her ‘Tzuke’.
Her debut single, ‘These are The Laws’, was recorded and produced by Tony Visconti and came out under the name of “Tzuke and Paxo”. In 1977, Judie went to see managing director David Croker at Elton John’s label ‘Rocket Records’ as their motto was ‘a label for artists’. She played them a few songs, one of which was ‘Stay With Me ‘Till Dawn’, and was immediately signed to the new label.
Judie and Mike spent the next six months recording her first album, ‘Welcome To The Cruise’ at Air Studios in London, with producer John Punter. The first single was released in the summer of 1978, entitled ‘For You’ and was greeted with great critical acclaim and substantial airplay. The album was released in 1979, along with the single ‘Stay With Me ‘Till Dawn’. The song stayed in the UK charts for 16 weeks, and commanded three live appearances on Top of the Pops. The track became a classic, and is still played regularly on Radio in the U.K. It has appeared on dozens of compilation albums and regularly appears in lists of all-time most popular songs. As part of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II’s fifty-year reign in June 2002, BBC Radio Two conducted a poll to determine the Top50 British songs of the past fifty years. ‘Stay With Me Till Dawn’ was at No 39.
With the success of ‘Welcome To The Cruise’, Judie and Mike put together the first Judie Tzuke band, who toured for the next 18 months to high critical acclaim, supporting Elton John. One LA newspaper reported after four nights at the LA Forum: “Judie and her band played such a strong and confident set that the audience almost forget that they had come to see Elton John, her future success in the States is assured”.
Over the next 40 years, Judie Tzuke became one of the UK’s most prolific singer/songwriters; touring relentlessly to adoring audiences who flocked to see this charismatic prog/rock muse. Judie’s Top 100 charting albums include ‘Welcome To The Cruise’ which reached No 14 in the UK charts, ‘Sports Car’ a UK No7, ‘I Am Phoenix’, ‘Shoot The Moon’, ‘Roadnoise’ and ‘Ritmo’, to name a few.
In December 1999, Elton John offered to return the copyrights to Judie for her first three albums (originally released on Elton’s Rocket label), and re-mastered versions of “Welcome to the Cruise”, “Sportscar”, and “I am the Phoenix” were re-released on Big Moon in February 2000. Hugely successful live tours followed.
When not working on her own recordings Judie has continued to explore her unique ability to write beautiful songs, working with a large number of artists including Lucie Silvas, Morcheeba, Tom Baxter, David Saw, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Gareth Gates, Alex Parks, Ryan Dan, Hybrid, Fragma, Alesha and many others.
Her songs have been covered and recorded by a wide range of artists including Mylo, Mint Royale, Elaine Page, Peter Cox, The Swingle Singers, BT and Tiesto.
Judie continues to be one of the UK’s best and most unique singers and songwriters… as she said when interviewed for her 2010 retrospective album ‘Moon on a Mirrorball’: ‘I have to think it’s all possible or I might as well stop, and I don’t want to stop now – I don’t want to be thought of as an artist from any particular era, I feel I am just as much from the 70s as from this decade… I’m just doing what I do”
