Fox / Noosha Fox
CD RELEASES
BLUE HOTEL
Released by Cherry Red label (CDMRED272), Blue Hotel contains the original tracks plus one bonus track. The tracks are S S S Single Bed, Livin' Out My Fantasies, Dejenina, Blue Hotel, Almond Eyes, Magic Machine, My Old Man's Away, Moustaches On The Moon, Under Your Own Umbrella, Friendship Rose, Make It Like It Used To Be, Pain And Pleasure (bonus)
PRE-ORDER BLUE HOTEL CD FROM AMAZON UK BY CLICKING HERE
OR
PRE-ORDER BLUE HOTEL CD FROM AMAZON US BY CLICKING HERE
TAILS OF ILLUSION
The Tails of Illusion album by the band Fox was released in November 2004 on the Cherry Red label (CDMRED 263). It contains the original tracks plus two bonus tracks. According to Kenny Young's liner notes, much of the original material on Tails of Illusion was inspired by a visit to the Indonesian island of Bali. The two bonus tracks were recorded in the early 1990's and feature Noosha. So these two tracks may be some of the most recent Noosha material available.
Yuli Yuli / Survival / Strange Ships / For Whatever It's Worth / Little Brown Box / Minor Therapy / Lily Sing / Kupu Kupu / Howja / Me Without You / Just One More Night (bonus) / 2 Rude 4 Words (bonus)
ORDER THE TAILS OF ILLUSION CD FROM AMAZON UK BY CLICKING HERE
OR
ORDER THE TAILS OF ILLUSION CD FROM AMAZON US BY CLICKING HERE
FOX
The Original Fox album by the band Fox has been released in October 2002 on the Cherry Red label (CDMRED 222). It contains the original tracks plus four bonus tracks.
Love Letters / Imagine Me, Imagine You / The Juggler / Patient Tigers / Only You Can / The More / Spirit / He's Got Magic / Pisces' Babies / Love Ship / Red Letter Day / Out Of My Body (bonus) / If I Point At The Moon (bonus) / Georgina Bailey (bonus) / Pretty Boy (bonus)
It is available from amazon.co.uk for £7.99
ORDER THE FOX CD FROM AMAZON UK BY CLICKING HERE
OR
ORDER THE FOX CD FROM AMAZON US BY CLICKING HERE
To my ears, the tracks on this album have an analogue warmth to them, that the equivalent tracks on the CD 'the very best of Fox' lacked.
I also noticed that the CD, THE VERY BEST OF FOX (mentioned in more detail below on this page) is sometimes available via amazon.co.uk from other 3rd party sellers
ORDER THE VERY BEST of FOX CD FROM AMAZON UK BY CLICKING HERE
At the time of first writing (10th October 1997) this, there was virtually no mention of the 1970s band, Fox, or of their uniquely voiced singer Noosha Fox, that I could find on the Internet. At that time they also seemed to have had no direct coverage by Record Collector magazine. They did however get a mention in Record Collector (No 188, April 1995, page 19) in an article titled 'Queen Collaborations'. It appears that Roger Taylor of 'Queen' added backing vocals to the track 'Survival' on Fox's 'Tails of Illusion' album. Queen were in the same studio recording 'Opera'.
Although they had at least a couple of hit singles 'Single Bed', 'Only You Can' and 'Imagine me, Imagine you', I didn't start buying their records until I saw the album 'Fox' at a reduced price in Woolworths in Swindon, circa 1977. My favourite track on this LP is 'Patient Tigers'. It wasn't until the 1980s that I discovered they had also released two other albums 'Tails of Illusion' and 'Blue Hotel'. I obtained both these albums, second hand, through the small ads of Record Collector. Blue Hotel became my favourite.
Tracks on "Tails of Illusion" are - Yulu, Yuli - Survival - Strange Ships - For Whatever it's worth - Minor Therapy - Lily Sing - Kupu Kupu - Howdja - Me Without You - Little Brown Box.
Tracks on "Blue Hotel" are - Blue Hotel - Dejenina - S-S-S-Single Bed - Moustaches on the Moon - Magic Machine - My Old Man's Away - Living out my Fantasies - Almond Eyes - Under Your Own Umbrella - Friendship Rose - Like it Like it Used to be.
Apart from Noosha's stunningly unique voice, I liked the imaginatively styled tunes and Vocoder type effects. Some of the backing vocals in 'SSSingle Bed' and the introduction passages into 'Only You Can' & 'Strange Ships', being great examples of Fox strangeness.
(thanks to a web surfing Fox fan for the Noosha scan)
I never saw the band, except on television. I had heard that Noosha had gone on to release a single 'Georgina Bailey'.
From about 1988 0n, I searched for their material on CD, but found nothing. Nothing that is until June 1997, when I discovered a budget price CD 'Only you can' in the HMV shop in Oxford Street, London, during my only visit to the UK in more than two years. It appears to have been issued in 1996 by 'Wise Buy' (WB 866702). Many of the tracks were new to me, but it was great to hear Noosha's voice again, without the pops and crackles with which my vinyl LPs are now afflicted. With 16 tracks the CD was great value for money at UK pounds 4.99.
The tracks are:-
If you don't want my peaches don't shake my tree
Georgina Bailey
Model in a Leotard
I want to be alone
Electro people
Dancing with an alien
Strange ships *
Red letter day *
Yuli Yuli *
He's got magic *
Imagine me, Imagine you *
Only you can *
Teyo
Temple of love
Torn between two worlds
Captain of your ship
Those tracks marked * appeared on one of the original LPs.
A Fox fan sent me the following additional information (December 29th 1997):-
[One record you may or may not know about is a rather nice disco-ish solo single from 1979 called 'The Heat is On' b/w 'Some Enchanted Evening' on Chrysalis CHS 12 2337 (12"). Unlike 'Georgina Bailey', It was produced by David Mackay, and Noosha wrote the B-side.]
In April 1998 I was made aware of another CD 'The very best of Fox'. This CD contains material taken from the albums 'Fox' and 'Blue Hotel', plus the single 'Georgina Bailey'. Last time I checked (Nov 2003) it was available from amazon.co.uk
Fox were:
Noosha ( Vocals )
Kenny Young ( Guitars, Percussion and Vocals ) *
Herbie Armstrong ( Guitars and Vocals )
Pete Solley ( Keyboards )
Jim Gannon ( Lead Guitar )
Gary Taylor ( Bass Guitar )
Jim Frank ( Drums and Percussion )
* Kenny Young also wrote and produced most of the songs
FOX Singles
"Only You Can"was b/w "Out of My Body"
"Imagine Me..." b/w "If I Point at the Moon"
"He's Got Magic" b/w "The Love Ship"
"Strange Ships" b/w "Little Brown Box"
"S-s-single Bed" b/w "Silk Milk"
"My Old Man's Away" b/w "Magic Machine"
"Georgina Bailey" b/w "Pretty Boy"
( the list above was kindly supplied by Shaun Butcher )
Fox Singles Chart Positions
René van Dam kindly supplied the following chart position information:-
Hereby the chart positions of Fox and Noosha Fox in the United Kingdom
(UK), West-Germany (BRD), Netherlands (NL), Belgium (B) and the United
States of America (USA).
15/02/1975 means 15th of February 1975 (date/month/year).
Only you can
UK: 15/02/1975 11 weeks 3 highest position (golden record)
BRD: 24/03/1975 26 weeks 2 highest position (18 weeks in top 10; #8
year’s end list)
NL: 29/03/1975 tip
USA: 23/08/1975 8 weeks 53 highest position
(no chart success in Belgium)
Imagine me, imagine you
UK: 10/05/1975 8 weeks 15 highest position
BRD: 23/06/1975 14 weeks 7 highest position (4 weeks in top 10)
(no chart success in Netherlands, Belgium or USA)
He’s got magic
BRD: 27/10/1975 3 weeks 48 highest position
(no chart success in United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium or USA)
S-s-s-single bed:
UK: 10/04/1976 10 weeks 4 highest position (golden record)
NL: 12/06/1976 7 weeks 10 highest position
B: 10/07/1976 1 week 19 highest position
(no chart success in Germany (BRD) and the United States)
Fox Albums Chart Positions
Fox
UK: 17/05/1975 8 weeks 7 highest position
(I can only say (because of no data for other countries): no chart
success in Netherlands)
Noosha Fox Singles Chart Positions
Georgina Bailey
UK: 12/11/1977 6 weeks 31 highest position
(no chart success in Belgium, Germany (BRD), Netherlands and the USA)
I would like to provide another charts appearance, which is missing on your list:
Germany : Fox (lp), entry 15.05.75, peak position 47, 4 weeks on charts (Top 50 lp charts)
cheers, Demski
'Only you can' in the Swiss
single charts:
First entry June 6, 1975
Highest position 1
Number of weeks in charts 13
regards, Juerg
A little more info you seem to be missing:-
Noosha also had a single "More Than Molecules" on Earlobe records (ELB-S-101) in 1981, b side "Odd Peculiar Strange" was written by Noosha.
Two bits of Chart info . In Ireland 6/3/75 Only You Can, number 3, 7 wks and 13/5/76 SSSSingle Bed, number 4, 5wks
Best wishes
Stewart Welsh
I started this page October 1997, because at that time I could find no other pages devoted to Fox on the internet. Since then I was pleased to see other Fox pages appearing, but then they started disappearing again, so I have had to remove the links.
Thanks to the many people who have written to me with information, I think I have now heard most of the material released by Fox & Noosha. Apart from what is available on the albums, three other tracks I really like are 'Skin Tight', 'Hot as Sun' and 'The Heat is On' (which was also released by Agnetha of Abba). I just love the way 'tropical', rolls off Noosha's tongue.
Thanks to Stephen Frize who has drawn my attention to a track which features both Noosha and Agnetha performing 'The Heat is On' - some research suggest that this was a put together as a fan mix by a person calling himself Carlybabes.
During the year 2002, I was in a pub (The Witches Tavern), in Bangkok, Thailand, and heard what I was sure was Noosha, singing on the pub's juke box. A question to the waitress revealed that it was actually Macy Gray singing 'I Try'.
Thanks to Marsh for the following comment on 15 December 2006 "I saw your page on Fox. I'm puzzled, as your listing for the B Side of 'My Old Man's Away' is 'Magic Machine'. I have my original copy which I bought at the time on original GTO, and the B Side is a song called 'Are You Sure' and is probably Fox's best record ever (second to 'Imagine Me') If they'd have released this as the A Side they'd have been back in the Charts with another massive hit on their hands! "
Noosha was originally Susan Traynor, who prior to Fox sung with the band Wooden Horse. The number one question that everyone who emails me asks is, "Where is Noosha now?". The Fox seems to have evaded the pack!
E-mail me at tonym@singnet.com.sg