Noosha Fox
Birth nameSusan Traynor
Born (1944-12-08) 8 December 1944
Australia
GenresPop
Occupation(s)Singer
Years activeLate 1960s–current

Noosha Fox (born Susan Traynor, 8 December 1944) is an Australian singer. She is known as the lead singer of the band Fox, who had three UK chart hits in 1975 and 1976. She also had a number 31 hit as a solo performer with "Georgina Bailey".

Career

Susan Traynor was born in Australia in 1944.[1] She began her music career as a singer in Sydney-based folk rock band Wooden Horse, who moved to England in 1970 and released two LPs.[2] After the band split up, she provided background vocals on American singer and songwriter Kenny Young's 1973 solo album, Last Stage For Silverworld.[3]

She then joined Fox, the band formed by Young and Northern Irish singer-songwriter Herbie Armstrong. She adopted the stage name Noosha, a corruption of an anagram of her first name (nussa),[4][5] and in performances wore dresses and accessories in 1920s and 1930s style.[6] With Fox, Noosha achieved three top 20 hits on the UK Singles Chart: "Only You Can" and "Imagine Me, Imagine You" in 1975 and "S-S-S-Single Bed" in 1976. She left after their third album, Blue Hotel, to launch a solo career. Her first single, "Georgina Bailey", written and produced by Young, briefly entered the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart, reaching number 31 in 1977.[7]

In 1979, Noosha Fox tried to restart her solo career with a single, "The Heat Is On", written by Florrie Palmer and Tony Ashton, on Chrysalis Records. A later version of the song, by ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog, was a European hit four years later.[7] In 1980, Fox provided guest vocals for the songs "Perfect Strangers" and "Havana Moon" on Tim Renwick's self-titled debut album.[8]

Fox recorded several singles in the early 1980s for the Earlobe label but none were successful, and she withdrew from the music industry.[1] Although she did not write her own songs, her performance style has been credited with influencing Kate Bush and Alison Goldfrapp.[5] It was reported in 2007 on BBC Radio 4's The Music Group that Fox was recording a solo album of electropop[9] but it was not released.

On 1 August 2022 renowned music producer Shel Talmy released a 5-track downloadable EP of original songs by Noosha which had been recorded in 1978.

Personal life

Fox has been married since 1973 to physician and academic Michael Goldacre,[10] with whom she has four children, one of whom is Ben Goldacre, a physician and academic best known for his "Bad Science" weekly column.[11] Ben Goldacre announced that Fox was his mother after seeing her perform "S-S-S-Single Bed" on a BBC4 repeat of Top of the Pops, and stated that she was working on new material.[12]

Discography

Year Title Format Label Catalogue ref Chart position
1977"Georgina Bailey" / "Pretty Boy"7" singleGTOGT 106No. 91 AUS,[13] No. 31 UK
1979"The Heat Is On" / "Some Enchanted Evening"7" singleCHRYSALISCHS 2337
1979"Skin Tight" / "Miss You"7" singleCHRYSALISCHS 2383
1981"More Than Molecules" / "Odd Peculiar Strange"7" singleEARLOBEELB S 101
1981"Hot As Sun" / "The Cheapest Night"7" singleEARLOBEELB S 105
Source:[7]

References

  1. 1 2 Jörg Amtage und Matthias Müller präsentieren Alle Hits aus Deutschlands Charts 1954-2003. Pro Business. 2003. p. 223.
  2. "Wooden Horse II". Forced Exposure. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  3. "Last Stage For Silverworld". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  4. Wilson, Dave. Rock Formations: Categorical Answers to how Band Names Were Formed. Cidermill Books. p. 147.
  5. 1 2 "Before Goldfrapp, before Kate Bush, there was Noosha Fox". Dangerousminds.net. 4 May 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  6. John Connors, "Fantastic Noosha Fox", This Way Up, 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2020
  7. 1 2 3 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 211. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  8. "Tim Renwick - Tim Renwick | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  9. "Series 1, Episode 5". The Music Group. 10 October 2007. BBC Radio 4.
  10. Ian Fairlie (2009). "Book Reviews: Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre". Medicine, Conflict and Survival. 25 (3): 255–257. doi:10.1080/13623690902943552. S2CID 220378364.
  11. Goldacre, Ben (24 February 2015). "What eight years of writing the Bad Science column have taught me". The Guardian.
  12. Petridis, Alexis (29 May 2011). "Alexis Petridis on pop's worst year". The Guardian. London.
  13. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 117. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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