Style Focus – Fabulous Noosha Fox

Her real  name was Susan Traynor. Certainly not as glam as Noosha Fox, which suited this most elegant, glamorous and enigmatic of singers far better. She was Australian, and was the lead singer of Fox, a group that’s star shone brightly but briefly for a short period in the mid 1970’s at the tail end of glam rock. Just three UK hits, as well as one solo hit in the later 70’s. Yet Noosha is a singer who is still widely admired, with a dedicated fan base who applaud her unique vocals and impeccable personal style.

Noosha was a glamorous presence on Top of the Pops in the mid 70’s. The image above, which I screenshot from last week’s episode of a 1975 TOTP shows why. It is hard to believe that George Lucas didn’t watch this episode and think ‘that’s what Princess Leia needs to look like.’ The ethereal white satin, the curly side bangs hairstyle, it’s all there.

Noosha was impeccably elegant and feminine, which contrasted nicely with the rest of her group, who were burly blokes with tank tops and chunky cardigans. Her style has been described as being inspired by the 1930’s styling of Marlene Dietrich and this could certainly be true, as she went for satins and silks, bias cut evening dresses, Chinese style prints and tassled shawls and scarves. She loved a flower or corsage way before Carrie Bradshaw made them famous. Her whole wardrobe looked like she had found a treasure trove in granny’s attic, and then supplemented it with a trip to Biba.

‘Only You Can’ was Fox’s biggest UK hit, in early 1975, but my personal favourite is the sensuous but slightly sleazy ‘Single Bed’ in 1976. It was a number one in Australia and top five hit in the UK, and was also used to brilliant effect in ‘The Dead Room‘, one of Mark Gattiss’s ghost stories for Christmas, this one from 2018. (You can read a great review of this here)

Noosha is not as well remembered as Debbie Harry, Stevie Nicks or Kate Bush, those other icons of the 1970’s, but she is every bit as unique, talented and stylish as these ladies, and deserves to be re-evaluated as a bright light of the bleak musical period that was post glam rock, pre punk.

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