{{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.<ref name="al">{{cite book|title=Jörg Amtage und Matthias Müller präsentieren Alle Hits aus Deutschlands Charts 1954-2003|page=223|publisher=Pro Business|year=2003}}</ref> 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.<ref name="forced">{{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}}</ref> After the band split up, she provided background vocals on American singer and songwriter Kenny Young's 1973 solo album, ''Last Stage For Silverworld''.<ref name="allmusic">{{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}}</ref>
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''),<ref name="rf">{{cite book|first=Dave|last=Wilson|title=Rock Formations: Categorical Answers to how Band Names Were Formed|page=147|publisher=Cidermill Books}}</ref><ref name="dm">{{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 }}</ref> and in performances wore dresses and accessories in 1920s and 1930s style.<ref>[http://thiswayupzine.blogspot.com/2019/02/fantastic-noosha-fox.html John Connors, "Fantastic Noosha Fox", ''This Way Up'', 2019]. Retrieved 21 May 2020</ref> 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.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums"/>
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.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums"/> In 1980, Fox provided guest vocals for the songs "Perfect Strangers" and "Havana Moon" on Tim Renwick's self-titled debut album.<ref name="allmusic2">{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/tim-renwick-mw0000843936/credits|title=Tim Renwick - Tim Renwick {{!}} Credits|publisher=AllMusic|accessdate=25 April 2020}}</ref>
Fox recorded several singles in the early 1980s for the Earlobe label but none were successful, and she withdrew from the music industry.<ref name="al"/> Although she did not write her own songs, her performance style has been credited with influencing Kate Bush and Alison Goldfrapp.<ref name="dm"/> It was reported in 2007 on BBC Radio 4's ''The Music Group'' that Fox was recording a solo album of electropop<ref name="mmg">{{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}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{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}}</ref> with whom she has four children, one of whom is Ben Goldacre, a physician and academic best known for his "Bad Science" weekly column.<ref name="badscience_end">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==Discography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Format ! Label ! Catalogue ref ! Chart position |- | 1977 || "Georgina Bailey" / "Pretty Boy" || 7" single || GTO || GT 106 || No. 91 AUS,<ref name=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}}</ref> 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 || |} :<small>Source:<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{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}}</ref></small>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Noosha}} Category:Australian women singers Category:Australian pop singers Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Living people Category:1944 births