REMEMBER the name Judie Tzuke? Remember that familiar voice? The hit single Stay with Me Till Dawn? Remember all that hair?

Well, the whole ensemble is still going strong and local folk will be able to see it in action when her latest tour includes Huntingdon Hall in Worcester next week.

For those who aren't among her legions of loyal fans and won't know, the woman whose voice was once called 'Britain's best kept secret' has continued in the same subtle vein. But quiet and out of the showbiz limelight she may be - out of the music business, she certainly ain't!

She has been quietly busy producing music ever since Stay With Me Till Dawn and her first album Welcome to the Cruise hit the big time back in 1978. At the moment, she's dashing round the country touring with her twelfth album, Queen Secret Keeper, released on her own label, Big Moon Records. She has never stopped writing and writes and sings for other people as well as bringing up two daughters, Tallula and Bailey, and enjoying family life at her Surrey home with her two dogs and cats.

Judie Tzuke was born Judie Myers in London to an English mother and Polish extract father. Her parents adopted the name Myers when they wanted to blend into the community in Yorkshire before she was born. Her father, Sefton, was a property developer who also managed artists and singers and was a popular impresario. Her mother, Jean Silverside, was an actress who appeared in The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin, the Marty Feldman Show and The Goodies, among other things.

Judie was playing songs, adapted from her own poems, at folk clubs from the age of 15 and interest from Island Records made her realise she wanted to pursue a career in music. She started writing with Mike Paxman in 1975, took her original family surname of Tzuke and a couple of years later released her first single For You and the Welcome to the Cruise album with Elton John's Record Label, Rocket. Her debut got into the top 40 but the subsequent Stay With Me Till Dawn really made her name. It was in the charts for 16 weeks, she made three appearances on Top of the Pops and it's still regularly played and featured on compilation albums.

She toured with Elton John, headlined Glastonbury and has played to sell-out venues nationwide ever since, as well as providing guest vocals on tracks by Nick Kamen, Rush and Gary Moore among others. Record label problems and politics, however, dogged her career time and again and she eventually decided to fund her own career, launching Big Moon Records, which now handles sales of her albums via the internet or mail order. Elton John kindly gave her the rights to her first three albums from Rocket so she could have control of her full catalogue.

Now she enjoys playing to smaller venues, like Worcester - although she said she's a little nervous. "Something always seems to go wrong whenever we come to Worcester," she laughed. "Last time, we left all my clothes in Birmingham!"

The tour is promoting the Queen Secret Keeper album and fans can expect traditional Judie Tzuke heartfelt lyrics and distinctive voice but, she said, mixed with contemporary influences.

"I like listening to all music," she said. "I'm not attached to any particular period.

"I like lots of things around at the moment - R&B, some of the metal stuff, and anything from Alanis Morissette to Travis to Missy - I'm a bit of a music anorak really!"

With the upsurge in female singers in recent years, Judie has found herself compared to a number of them, notably recent Brit winner Dido, all of which she finds rather amusing. She said: "It means that the kind of style of music that I do is more acceptable now, maybe, but I've never been one for trying to be acceptable or fashionable. I do it primarily for myself."

She has a style it's difficult for you - or her - to put your finger on, often put in the rather dodgy pigeonhole of 'adult orientated rock'. " It's not really rock, folk, soul or jazz. I just sing what I sing. It's a little bit of all those things," she said.

The name Queen Secret Keeper comes from the fact that Judie is often a listener to friends - and it was one of them who called her the queen secret keeper, a title which stuck in her mind.

In Worcester next week, fans can expect more of a guitar-based show than usual and there is also the possibility of a special treat in the form of Judie's 14-year-old daughter, Bailey, who, deciding whether to follow the family tradition on to the stage, has joined the tour to make occasional appearances as backing singer. Catch Judie Tzuke at the Huntingdon Hall in Worcester on Wednesday March 6.

To learn more about her and her music and to order it, as much is not distributed in the shops, log on to www.tzuke.com or call Big Moon records on 01932 859472.