Interviews of the 70s with Noosha are below !
Our first gallery on FOX is also our Fox page with in-depth reviews, you can find it on the bottom of our page 21 links,
FOX 45 cover ' 75 *
FOX, led by incredible vocalist NOOSHA FOX, and guitarist KENNY YOUNG were thee best glam pop band for the 70s, not rock, but POP,............... their 3 lps predated BLONDIE's sound by over 2 years and they influenced a lot of people
see our revised reviews on page 35 which is accessible from the bottom of page 21, also our original reviews we posted in 2000 are on page 4 of the 70s invasion..............
'oh red letter day, red letter day, take me away on a red letter day' !
FOX 1st 45 '74 *
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. --Spanish Proverb
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. --Albert Einstein
I have deep faith that the principle of the universe will be beautiful and simple. --Albert Einstein
The ideals that have lighted my way and time after time have give me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth. --Albert Einstein
Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. --Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
FOX compilation cd, nice group shot
We decided to post these interviews with Noosha because they went offline when our friend Kevin's site 'Unsung Heroes' went offline, here they are for your enjoyment :)
Note; Noosha's neice did sign our old guestbook yrs ago take a look if your interested,
( seems like the beginning is missing )
" car. I hadnt done any television before. And when I arrived at the BBC studios I was quite amazed. I mean so many corridors, rooms, red lights, green lights, cameras. I got lost, but I always do!"
" It's all very enormous. I've suspected all along that there is no beginning and no end to the BBC TV studios! I must say though that everyone is very charming from producer Robin right down to the people who wield the cameras. And everyone is generally so cheerful, especially the make up girls."
Thats how Noosha recalled the very first time she appeared on Top of the Pops when the group had their first hit "Only You Can"
I asked her about how she felt about suddenly appearing before so many people and come to that being filmed by cameras galore.
" I don't think I've ever been nervous. I certainly like the studio atmosphere and find the audience really friendly. I suppose I don't get away from being aware of what is happening. I don't just stand there and sing, I am aware of everything. I can even look nito a camera! I'm still conscious though of people who might be watching. I suppose after a time, you forget the camera bit. TV is a great medium. As for me watching myself on television. In a way, I dont want to do that. I suppose if you see yourself and notice a raised eyebrow, you might take a note not to do that next time!"
Noosha is, ofcourse more than the lady fronting a group whose singles we've seen on Top of the Pops. She is heard to good effect on their first album "FOX". I asked her how she reacted toward different songs on the album.
"It's a question of mood. I like to feel a song and treat it in contect of its lyrics and tune. I do the songs the way I think fit, rather like acting out different characters in a play." So how does she view her present success with the group and the future?
"Things do change every day but in the forefront of my mind is NOW. Im very lucky really, for some people may spend years and work very hard to reach some kind of success. I have'nt really the futre in mind at all. I know I want some kind of privae life and I think it should really be private. I'm happy!
( from ' 76 Record Mirror )
'Noosha's Naughty Nights '!
Just listen to what naughty Noosha got up to when the lights went out!
"I was brought up in Sydney, Australia and had a pretty strict upbringing. So much so that I was sent to a convent for my schooling" Noosha told us.
"Thrown together with scores of other girls in a kind of boarding school, you get bored with the routine. So I used to try and think up as many different ways as possible to liven up the evenings after lights went out. One night we planned this real battle with pillows. It was a real riot. One half of the dorm against the other. we beat the living daylights out of each other!"
"Then there were the fellas at the nearby school. They were strictly out of bounds to our lot, but we would try and sneak out for the odd date! We used to leave a pillow under the bedclothes to pretend we were there, asleep. The worst night I had was when I planned this huge dormitory party. The girls had been smuggling in food all day and storing it in my bed, under the sheets. Everyone was ready for the feed when one of the nuns came in and told us all to get into bed. I tried to resist, but had to in the end. It was horrible! . There was jam between my toes and cream cake all up my legs and pyjamas - and I had to pretend nothing was wrong. Yucch!!
Interview with Noosha Fox ' 76, source unknown
Most girls who appear on stage like to develop their own personal "look". Usually though this can only be done at great expense.! One exception to this rule, though,is Noosha, the lovely lady singer with FOX. There's no doubt she's got a style of her own - but it's based on three dresses that cost her the grand total of 35p !
How did Noosha come across the bargains which started her off in such style ! She told me it happened about three years ago, when she was very poor indeed and living in Battersea, London. She was wandering around an old furniture shop and opened a wardrobe. Inside, there were three lovely silk 1920s dresses, which the man sold her for 35p.
"So it was a complete accident that fixed me up with those three lovely dresses," she said. "At the time, I wasn't making stage appearances, so I just wore them to parties. But since I've worn them on stage, other beautiful things just seem to come my way. People find things for me from their grannies' trunks or some relative's cast-offs. it's wonderful where they all come from. I mix and match them with old scarves and other accessories, so I hardly need to have anything new. Nearly everything I have is old thirties stuff. I wear jeans if I'm mowing the grass, but thats about all."
Noosha certainly seems to be one of those lucky people who automatically have a knack with clothes and just manage to put together the right things. Perhaps part of the explanation is that she's got such practical and definite ideas.
"I'm not critical of my looks in the sense that I hate my nose or think that my eyes are too close together - life's too short for worrying about things like that. But I am fussy about the way I look before I go onstage. I'd never just leap up there without doing something really different to myself. I never used to wear any make-up at all, but since I've been working on stage, and especially on television, I've realised how useful it can be. I didnt take lessons, but I watched people in the TV make-up departments carefully when they got me ready for a performance.
Now TV performances and tours are happening thick and fast, especially since the huge success of "SSS Single Bed". When I talked to her, the band had just returned from Germany and Holland. "Tours don't bother me a bit, though - I love travelling" she told me. "My real home is in Oxford now, but sometimes, I dont know where "home" is; I'm always on the move! But if I miss anywhere, it's London. I always lived there before and though it's a bit of a monster, it's one you can learn to love. There's nowhere like it!"
In fact, London isn't Noosha's real home either. She's actually Australian and she only came to live in London a few years ago. She's got three older sisterswho are all married and setled in Australia. "They seem to live very calm and relaxed lives!" Noosha said. "I guess I'm the wild one of the family; the one who decided to go in the other direction." She doesn't actually remember how she got her "wild streak" though. "I dont think I ever had a burning ambition to be a singer" she told me, "it just sort of happened - when I came to London I just started singing and accompanying myself on the guitar whenever I ahd a chance, because I enjoyed it!"
It was Noosha's good luck that she was spotted enjoying herself by hit song writer Kenny Young, who launched her and FOX. But she'd be the first to tell you that being on the road with a successful band is no bed of roses. She mucks in with everybody else up to a point, but she draws the line at sharing a dressing room!
"Apart from not being that liberated, I've got to look after my clothes! " she laughed. "I have so many dress changes during a show, I just have to have things hanged up and organised. The silk clothes I wear are terribly impractical to tour with as they crush very easily, so I have to iron them before every performance and hang then up properly as soon as I can" Although she's had a pretty fair share of success already, Noosha feels that things are still very much in the early stages for her.
"I do feel as if I'm ony just at the beginning. I'd like to try to do all sorts of different things in music, although I do think you've always got to remember what you're good at and what you're not good at! That's why I'm happy that Kenny wrtes the songs which suit me so well"
Kenny's songs, together with her own fabulous style, certainly suit Noosha - and we're sure she'll continue to suit all her fans as she climbs the ladder of success
Interview with Noosha from Record Mirror (1977)
Are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl who lived in a convent run by strict nuns in Australia. But they beat her, so one night when the moon was high, she packed her bags, shinned down a drainpipe and fled.
She ran and ran until she reached the coast, where she booked a one way ticket to England and came to London to see if the streets were paved with gold. She sang with joy, something the strict nuns had always forbidden. Then one day a handsome songwriter invited her to sing one of his tunes. She joined a group and wore beautiful clothes on stage. Men's hearts stirred for her, 'cause she was a little cracker.
And so it was that Noosha came to join Fox. After a string of hits, they've been out of action for quite a while. So, what's been happening to the band? "I've been home to Australia doing some promotion work" said the lady. "Fox havent toured for a long time because we haven't had an album out. But we're certainly going to be getting out by the Autumn. I do miss live work."
"We've just put out an album called "Blue Hotel", the title seemed to fit well with the mysterious nature of some of the tracks. There's one cut called "Magic Machine" about a motor cyclist meeting a beautiful girl. They ride off into the distance and disappear. But we've got a lot of fun tracks on the album as well. It's more straightforward than our previous efforts. We were recording it in a little 16 track studio in the country and I think the relaxed countryside made ideas flow easier. Actually, recording the album could have cost me my life. I was driving up to the studio and got caught in a blizzad. There was nothing I could do but leave the car and stagger through the freezing snow. They were going to send out search parties, but eventually I made it. Then we had a power cut so we didnt start recording until three in the morning.
Noosha's dressed in a flowing white cotton dress and grey coat tastefully topped off by a small hat. It's a blazing afternoon, but she looks as cool as a heroine from a thirties movie. She says she's fallen in love with the period.
"People say Ive got a thirties film star face, so maybe that has something to do with it. But, it's also a very mysterious period and I do love mysteries. When you've been educated in a convent and the people are so austere and unworldly, you can believe in mysterious spirits coming into your life. I've also been typecast into a thirties role. I just happened to be wearing thirties clothing when I first appeared on 'Top of the Pops', and the press hit on the idea. I buy a lot of my clothes from junk shops, but I also design a lot of my stage gear"
Don't you try and look provocative on stage?
"Oh no, I hope I'm not titilating people. I never consciously go out of my way to look sexy. I hope I look sensuous and sing in a sensuous way. I believe in giving a complete performance. I could never go on stage and just open my mouth and sing. I believe in giving the audioence something lavish; that's why I have so many costume changes when I am performing." So what about your unusual voice? "It never started out like that. I used to sing in a vocal harmony group when I came to London. I met Kenny young and he'd written this song which I thought needed a seductive treatment. I didn't want to do it at first and then when I got into the studio, my voice changed to this style. I suppose before the Fox days, I sounded a bit like Julie Andrews."
OK Noosha, what about the bad times before you joined Fox and you were a down and out singer in London.
"I've been poor, but I've always managed to live well", she says. "I've also been extremely lucky, so I've never been in rock bottom situations. Maybe fate has guided my life. I wish I could tell you some scandalous stories, bt there's not much to tell. Besides, I like to keep my private life very private. I live somewhere in Oxfordshire and I like watching horses. The rest is a secret."
MARK CARROLL supplied these interviews
see the Wayback Machine's saved site of Unsung Heroes of FOX at this link here ~
http://web.archive.org/web/20031205042819/freespace.virgin.net/kevin.orford/page3.html