Noosha Fox
{{Short description|Australian singer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Noosha Fox
| image =
| caption =
| image_size =
| background = solo_singer
| birth_name = Susan Traynor
| alias =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|12|8|df=y}}
| birth_place = Australia
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Singer
| instrument =
| genre = Pop
| years_active = Late 1960s–current
| associated_acts = Fox
| website =
}}
Noosha Fox (born Susan Traynor, 8 December 1944) is an Australian singer. She is known as the lead singer of the British-based pop 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.{{cite book|title=Jörg Amtage und Matthias Müller präsentieren Alle Hits aus Deutschlands Charts 1954-2003|page=223|publisher=Pro Business|year=2003}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/wooden-horse-wooden-horse-ii-cd/PT.8056CD.html |title=Wooden Horse II|accessdate=24 April 2020|website=Forced Exposure}} After the band split up, she provided background vocals on American singer and songwriter Kenny Young's 1973 solo album, Last Stage For Silverworld.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/last-stage-for-silverworld-mw0001879314/credits|title=Last Stage For Silverworld|accessdate=23 April 2020|website=AllMusic}}
She then formed Fox, the band that included Young and Northern Irish singer-songwriter Herbie Armstrong. She adopted the stage name Noosha, a corruption of an anagram of her first name (nussa),{{cite book|first=Dave|last=Wilson|title=Rock Formations: Categorical Answers to how Band Names Were Formed|page=147|publisher=Cidermill Books}}{{cite web|url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/before_goldfrapp_before_kate_bush_there_was_noosha_fox|title=Before Goldfrapp, before Kate Bush, there was Noosha Fox|accessdate=23 April 2020|website=Dangerousminds.net|date=4 May 2012 }} and in performances wore dresses and accessories in 1920s and 1930s style.[http://thiswayupzine.blogspot.com/2019/02/fantastic-noosha-fox.html John Connors, "Fantastic Noosha Fox", This Way Up, 2019]. Retrieved 21 May 2020 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.
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. In 1980, Fox provided guest vocals for the songs "Perfect Strangers" and "Havana Moon" on Tim Renwick's self-titled debut album.{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/tim-renwick-mw0000843936/credits|title=Tim Renwick - Tim Renwick {{!}} Credits|publisher=AllMusic|accessdate=25 April 2020}}
Fox recorded several singles in the early 1980s for the Earlobe label but none were successful, and she withdrew from the music industry. Although she did not write her own songs, her performance style has been credited with influencing Kate Bush and Alison Goldfrapp. It was reported in 2007 on BBC Radio 4's The Music Group that Fox was recording a solo album of electropop{{cite episode|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080wtb|title=Series 1, Episode 5|series=The Music Group|network=BBC Radio 4|airdate=10 October 2007}} 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.{{cn|date=June 2023}}
Personal life
Fox has been married since 1973 to physician and academic Michael Goldacre,{{Cite journal | title = Book Reviews: Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre| author = Ian Fairlie| journal = Medicine, Conflict and Survival | volume = 25 | issue = 3 | pages = 255–257| year = 2009 | doi = 10.1080/13623690902943552| s2cid = 220378364}} with whom she has four children, one of whom is Ben Goldacre, a physician and academic best known for his "Bad Science" weekly column.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/nov/04/bad-science-eight-years|author=Goldacre, Ben|title=What eight years of writing the Bad Science column have taught me|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 February 2015}} 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.{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/may/29/critics-notebook-alexis-petridis | location=London | newspaper=The Guardian | first=Alexis | last=Petridis | title=Alexis Petridis on pop's worst year | date=29 May 2011}}
Discography
| class="wikitable" | |||||
| Year
! Title ! Format ! Label ! Catalogue ref ! Chart position | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | "Georgina Bailey" / "Pretty Boy" | 7" single | GTO | GT 106 | No. 91 AUS,{{cite book|last=Kent|first=David|authorlink=David Kent (historian)|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|edition=illustrated|publisher=Australian Chart Book|location=St Ives, N.S.W.|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6|page=117}} No. 31 UK |
| 1979 | "The Heat Is On" / "Some Enchanted Evening" | 7" single | CHRYSALIS | CHS 2337 | |
| 1979 | "Skin Tight" / "Miss You" | 7" single | CHRYSALIS | CHS 2383 | |
| 1981 | "More Than Molecules" / "Odd Peculiar Strange" | 7" single | EARLOBE | ELB S 101 | |
| 1981 | "Hot As Sun" / "The Cheapest Night" | 7" single | EARLOBE | ELB S 105 |
:Source:{{cite book
| first= David
| last= Roberts
| year= 2006
| title= British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition= 19th
| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited
| location= London
| isbn= 1-904994-10-5
| page= 211}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Noosha}}
Category:Australian women singers
Category:Australian pop singers