Judie Tzuke

Her father's family had come to Britain from Poland in the 1920's and had originally settled in Yorkshire. They had changed their name from their original Polish name "Tzuke" to Myers because it was one of the more common names in Yorkshire at that time and they wanted to blend into the community where they had come to live. 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 original family's surname "Tzuke". A single was released: "These are The Laws" which was recorded and produced by Tony Visconti and came out under the name of "Tzuke and Paxo". Whilst at Good Earth, Judie and Mike met Bob Noble and Paul Muggleton who were also on the label with their band "Omaha Sheriff".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 or so 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. Judie's first album 'Welcome To The Cruise' 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 she made three live appearances on Top of the Pops. The song became a firm favourite 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 top fifty 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. Joining them were their friends from 'Omaha Sheriff': Paul Muggleton on guitar and backing vocals and Bob Noble on keyboards, along with bass player John Edwards and drummer Jeff Rich. Judie and her band toured for the next 18 months and made her second album 'Sportscar' at Virgin's Manor studios, in Oxfordshire. In 1980, Judie and her band toured America for three months as support to Elton John. The tour was well-received, but during the tour, Elton John decided to change the US distribution for his Rocket label from MCA to the new Geffen label. MCA consequently decided to stop all tour support and promotion for the acts on the Rocket label, which meant that Judie was playing to huge audiences, including 450,000 people in New York's Central Park, but no-one knew who she was and her records were not available in the shops. She received rave reviews for the tour and Elton himself said that he had never had a support act that went down so well, but the experience of such a long tour without any rec