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Fox were a British-based pop band popular in the mid-1970s. Led by American songwriter and record producer Kenny Young, the band was perhaps best known for its charismatic Australian lead singer Noosha Fox. They had 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, and Noosha Fox had a solo hit in 1977 with "Georgina Bailey".
Fox | |
|---|---|
| Origin | United Kingdom |
| Genres | Pop, rock |
| Years active | 1974–1981 |
| Labels | GTO Records |
| Past members | Noosha Fox Kenny Young Herbie Armstrong Jim Gannon Peter Solley Gary Taylor Mike Lavender Jim Frank |
Band history
editThe band was founded by Young, who had composed the song "Under the Boardwalk" for the Drifters in 1964. Young had worked off and on with the Australian singer Susan Traynor on one of his solo albums, Last Stage For Silverworld, where she was listed as 'Amanda' after Young had written Reparata and the Delrons' "Captain of Your Ship", which had been a UK hit.
Young then discovered Northern Irish singer Clodagh Rodgers on a television show, who had recently released the single, "Play The Drama till The End". The partnership produced hit singles over a three-year period, beginning with "Come Back and Shake Me". With this, Rodgers became something of a showcase for the group, as she recorded demos of some of the songs which would eventually surface on the first Fox album in 1975, as well as earlier Young tunes. Rodgers' husband John Morris was the first manager of the group.[1]
Meanwhile, Traynor was in a folk group called Wooden Horse, which released two albums before breaking up. After his success with Rogers, Young founded Fox with Irish singer Herbie Armstrong, recruiting Traynor as lead singer.[2] She adopted the stage name 'Noosha', a scrambled version of her own name, and a glamorous image inspired by Marlene Dietrich, wearing elegant dresses to contrast with the scruffy look of the rest of the group.
The band's self-titled debut album was released on GTO Records in 1975 to critical acclaim.[2] The lead single, "Only You Can", was originally released in mid-1974 under the title "Only You" and failed to chart, but was reissued at the beginning of 1975 with a word added to its title and was a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart.[2] The follow-up "Imagine Me, Imagine You" later the same year also reached the Top 20[3] and "He's Got Magic" was a hit in some European countries such as Germany, where it reached #48.[4] The track "Love Ship" was played extensively on Radio Caroline, and was subsequently adopted as one of their theme tunes in the 1970s. Shortly after the release of their first album, Fox made a cameo appearance in the film Side by Side.
However, Noosha shared vocals with other members of the band in 1975 follow-up album, Tails of Illusion, with the songs sung by Noosha, Young, Frank, and Armstrong. The album enjoyed some cult critical acclaim but not the sales success of its predecessor; without Noosha's distinctive voice, casual listeners did not associate the songs with the band that had recorded "Only You Can".[citation needed] Roger Taylor of Queen added backing vocals to the song "Survival".
The band returned to the charts in April 1976 when "S-S-S-Single Bed" was a Top 5 UK hit,[2] and topped the Australian chart. (Bananarama did their own version of this song in 2009 on their album Viva.) Again, the band did not attempt to capitalise upon its previous success, and the accompanying album Blue Hotel (1977),[2] yielded only one further single, even though Noosha was the lead singer on all its tracks.
Noosha Fox left the band after Blue Hotel.[2] Armstrong and Young continued to work together in the band Yellow Dog.[2] Their second single for Virgin became the first hit single that Virgin Records released, "Just One More Night" making it to No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart. After a short period of success, Armstrong went on to work with Van Morrison, and Solley later joined Procol Harum.[2] Noosha launched a solo career, and her first single, "Georgina Bailey",[2] written and produced by Young, briefly entered the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart (reaching number 31) in 1977.[3]
In 1979, Noosha Fox tried to restart her solo career with a single, "The Heat Is On" (a song 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. Noosha recorded several singles in the early 1980s for the Earlobe label but none were successful, and she evidently retired from the music industry, although she did not return to Australia.
Fox reformed briefly in 1980, releasing the new wave-influenced "Electro People", written as the theme music for the Kenny Everett Show in 1981.[5] The band considered a reunion in the early 1990s, but the tracks recorded at this time were unreleased until 2004, when they appeared as bonus tracks on the Tails of Illusion CD.
After the band
editIn 2007, it was reported, on BBC Radio 4's The Music Group, that Noosha Fox was working on new material. An unreleased track from that time called "Judy Blue" is available via YouTube Music.[6] In April 2011, her son Ben Goldacre confirmed that she is actively making music[7][8] but no more new material has been released.
Herbie Armstrong recently tried to find solo success, appearing on the 2011 series of Britain's Got Talent. He made it through to the live semi-finals but did not make it through to the final. In his semi-final, he appeared singing a version of Barry Manilow's hit, "Mandy".
Members
edit- Noosha Fox – vocals
- Kenny Young – guitar, vocals
- Herbie Armstrong – guitar, vocals
- Jim Gannon – lead guitar, vocals
- Pete Solley – keyboards, vocals
- Mike Lavender – accordion, electric piano
- Gary Taylor – bass, vocals
- Jim Frank – drums, percussion, vocals
Discography
editAlbums
edit| Year | Title | Format | Label | Catalogue ref | Chart position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Fox | 12-inch LP | GTO | GTLP 001 | No. 7 UK |
| 1975 | Tails of Illusion | 12-inch LP | GTO | GTLP 006 | |
| 1975 | Pop Power – The Fantastic Fox | 12-inch LP | POLYDOR | 2459 302 | compilation |
| 1976 | S-S-S-Single Bed (European version) | 12-inch LP | GTO | GTLP 011 | compilation |
| 1976 | S-S-S-Single Bed (Australian version) | 12-inch LP | GTO | 2321 111 | No. 22 AUS[9] |
| 1977 | Blue Hotel | 12-inch LP | GTO | GTLP 020 | |
| 1996 | Only You Can | CD | WISE BUY | WB 866 702 | compilation, including unreleased material |
| 1997 | The Very Best of Fox | CD | THE HIT LABEL | AHLCD 51 | compilation |
| 2002 | Fox (plus four bonus tracks) | CD | CHERRY RED | CDMRED 222 | |
| 2004 | Tails of Illusion (plus two bonus tracks) | CD | CHERRY RED | CDMRED 263 | |
| 2006 | Blue Hotel (plus one bonus track) | CD | CHERRY RED | CDMRED 272 | |
| 2014 | Images '74-'84 - Deluxe Edition | 2×CD | CHERRY RED | CDBRED 605 | 35 tracks including all 7 singles A and B sides |
| 2017 | The Fox Box | 4CD | CHERRY RED | CRCDMBOX 28 | Fox (+4) + Tails of Illusion (+2) + Blue Hotel (+1) + Images - A Collection (from "Images '74-'84") |
Singles
edit| Year | Single | Format | Label | Catalogue ref | Chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | AUS[9] | US | DE | NL | |||||
| 1974 | "Only You" / "Out of My Body" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 5 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1975 | "Only You Can" / "Out of My Body" (Reissue) | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 8 | 3 | 68 | 53 | 2 | - |
| "Imagine Me, Imagine You" / "If I Point at the Moon" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 21 | 15 | 16 | 53 | 7 | - | |
| "He's Got Magic" / "Love Ship" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 37 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "He's Got Magic" / "The Juggler" | 7-inch single | GTO | PSC 418 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Strange Ships" / "Little Brown Box" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 41 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "He's Got Magic" / "Strange Ships" | 7-inch single | GTO | 2099 151 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1976 | "S-S-S-Single Bed" / "Silk Milk" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 57 | 4 | 1 | - | - | 10 |
| Love Letters: "Love Letters" ~ "The Juggler" / "Only You Can" ~ "Spirit" | 7-inch EP | GTO | 2206 101 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1977 | "My Old Man's Away" / "Are You Sure?" | 7-inch single | GTO | GT 94 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1981 | "Electro People" / "If You Don't Want My Peaches" | 7-inch single | BBC | RESL 115 | - | - | - | - | - |
References
edit- ^ Wilde, Diana: The Glam Rock Files. Independent September 2017. ISBN 978-1549647253. Pages 62-63
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 905. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.
- ^ a b c d Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 211. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ "Offizielle Deutsche Charts - Offizielle Deutsche Charts".
- ^ "Fox - Electro People". Discogs.
- ^ "YouTube Music".
- ^ "Twitter / bengoldacre: @alexispetridis haha no i mean". Twitter.com. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
- ^ Petridis, Alexis (29 May 2011). "Alexis Petridis on pop's worst year". The Guardian. London.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ "Fox | Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 May 2014.