Judie Tzuke

This review from The Times was written by
by David Sinclair February 10th 1999

Dot Commerce

Judie Tzuke
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London SE1

While the Internet is often talked up as a way for new acts to bypass traditional record company channels of distribution, it is also proving an invaluable marketing tool for older acts that have become marginalised by the mainstream media.

Judie Tzuke, who has had unsatisfactory experiences with six labels since her first hit 20 years ago, has found her needs best catered for by setting up her own Big Moon record company and selling her last three albums exclusively via her website (www.tzuke.com) and by mail order.

The strategy seems to be working. The singer was enthusiastically greeted by 1,000 or so devotees at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Rather like an English version of Stevie Nicks, Tzuke's commanding stage presence was both open-hearted and carefully self-contained. At 42 the long, honey-blonde curls remain untamed and the voice has lost none of its cool, plaintive appeal.

The somewhat restrained tone of the first set was established with a string of songs in a classic soft-rock mould. Tonight, Fuel Injection and Both Alone, all from her current album, Secret Agent, offered a familiar mix of romantically windswept melodies firmly but discreetly shored up by Tzuke's four-piece backing band.

After the interval the musicians were let off the leash, and the guitarist David P. Goodes forged some spectacularly forceful solos during Let Me Be the Pearl and Bring the Rain, while various guest backing singers, including Tzuke's 11-year-old daughter Bailey, contributed to a dauntingly intense encore of Bully.

Tzuke, meanwhile, sang with her customary poise and grace, her voice an instrument of icy allure, whether negotiating the siren-charm melody of Stay With Me Till Dawn, the stark, Gothic harmonies of Mother or the more lighthearted mood of One Day I Will Live in France.

By David Sinclair 1999