Noosha Fox | |
---|---|
Birth name | Susan Traynor |
Born | Australia | 8 December 1944
Genres | Pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer |
Years active | Late 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".
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.[ citation needed]
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]
Year | Title | Format | Label | Catalogue ref | Chart position |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1977 | "Georgina Bailey" / "Pretty Boy" | 7" single | GTO | GT 106 | No. 91 AUS, [13] 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 |