FIVE words guaranteed to put the fear of God into any parent: "Mum, I'm off to Faliraki."

But little did singer/songwriter Judie Tzuke, who will be performing at the Guildford Civic on September 12 (7-30 pm), know of the Greek island's reputation when her 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, booked a week's holiday there earlier this year.

So when Bailey returned from this modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah safe and sound last week, just when our national media was full of young Brits' drunken antics there, she was understandably relieved.

"She was really good and I knew she would be, but I was so worried. I asked a few people about Faliraki and no-one had ever heard of it. I've spent the most horrific week panicking and every day in the papers they've been saying: 'No self-respecting parent would let their daughter go to Faliraki'.

And it's just as well because Bailey will appear on stage with her mum to sing backing vocals and possibly perform some of her own material.

"She's written some great songs," said Judie, speaking from her Weybridge home. "I've always encouraged her to write."

Guildford for her is a local gig. "I like playing there and I shop there. All my friends and family come, and I get more nervous because of that."

Judie, perhaps best known for the hit Stay With Me Til Dawn, has recorded 13 studio albums and released more live and compilation albums. Many consider her a folk singer but she says her style defies categorisation.

"I started playing at the Troubadour in Earls Court Road, which is where all the folk artistes played, but I don't really think of myself as folk. My early songs were a bit like James Taylor."

She says she has always had musical leanings. "I used to write little poems that developed into songs and I never considered anything else as a career. When I sang people liked it which made me want to do it more. It also allowed me to get out my feelings and made me feel better."

Judie admits that for her music has been and still is a form of therapy.

"I didn't have a very happy childhood. My parents divorced when I was 11. My father got cancer when I was 12 and died over the next two years. Music was the absolute thing I hung on to from that age.

"I write about real life and I hope other people hear it and think 'I've been through that too'."

But Judie reveals that she still suffers from depression and is struggling to come to terms with her age. She does tell me her age but then asks that I write that she is "in her forties".

"I always thought that once I got to my age I'd feel grown up but I don't. I felt 28 for years and then when my mum died five years ago I grew up a lot. I feel I'm in my early 30s."

Judie is very close to Bailey, which probably accounts for a good deal of her youthful outlook. She and her daughter listen to music together (Eminem, The Neptunes, various R & B) and Judie is full of admiration for her songwriting talents, but mourns what she thinks is a dying art.

"I know so many people who write songs for people like S Club Seven and you're not allowed to do anything individual in songs like that because if you do nobody's interested in them. The internet is the only way you can find a lot of new music." (Judie sells her records purely on the net).

"Record companies didn't want to sign someone like me any more, they just wanted me to do other people's songs, chosen by them, and be a grown-up and I don't want to be a grown-up."

Her Guildford date is part of a tour to promote her new album, Beauty of Hindsight, featuring her versions of 14 songs by the likes of Elton John and The Beatles (Hey Jude, naturally).

After more than 20 years in the business, how much longer does Judie think she will be recording?

"I will always do it but if people don't want to come and see me I won't go out and play."