Foxx The Band

[Geneva Andreotti]

Foxwere 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".

The 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 Fltskog, 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.

In 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".

Dreams of making it big as a pop metal and glam rock band in the 1980s triggers laughter and colorful anecdotes about big hair, flamethrowers on stage, traveling from show to show in a rusty van, performing with Warrant's Jani Lane, Geraldo Rivera crashing a rock show with police during an undercover drug bust, and stealing beer from Blue yster Cult.

And it's why the founding members of Foxx will hold what they expect to be their final concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at Club Energy, 289 Darrow Road, Akron. Admission is $5 to cover expenses of the show, Jackson said.

Band members, both past and present, have lived in either the Akron or Canton area. Foxx used to play at Canton clubs so often that the band considered it their rock 'n' roll home field. Hangouts like J.R.'s and Buddie's Place.

"The whole night is going to be dedicated to people who are going to be sharing stories about him, and a lot of guys who played with him in the past other than us will get up and perform," said McKenzie, Foxx's bass player and a vocalist.

Jackson and McKenzie both worked in shipping and receiving. Soon they became friends through a shared passion for making music. Before long, they quit their factory jobs to pursue the rock and roll life full-time.

Shows were six nights a week in Northeast Ohio, and "you lived on ramen noodles and you lived on a $5-a-day food budget," said McKenzie, who lives in Bethlehem Township in Stark County. "But our goal was the record deal."

A few band members left along the way. Searching for a masterful guitarist who also could sing, Jackson, 58, who lives in the Canal Fulton area, and McKenzie found their man in Boyd. Sealing the deal was Boyd's amicable, entertaining nature.

Foxx was influenced by numerous bands, including Kiss, Queen, Dokken, Twisted Sister, Cinderella, Metallica, the Ramones and Misfits. Together it coalesced into a hard-driving, catchy sound ideal for the hair band scene of the '80s.

The song, "PTL," a thrash metal kiss-off to televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, gained national radio traction in the late 1980s when it was played on Z Rock, a syndicated heavy metal radio station.

Jackson, however, admits that was the commercial zenith. The big breakthrough never happened. No fancy dinners with record company executives. No MTV videos. No touring with Mtley Cre, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and other rock titans of the day.

"Foxx was almost overwhelmingly perfect," he wrote in an email. "They were the first band I knew to make a record and get some interest from labels out West; they made cool comic strip flyers featuring the band as superheroes; on stage they were tighter than two coats of paint."

"We came home (after the tour), and I was sitting in my bedroom," Jackson recalled. "I turned on the TV, and there was my face, just a big picture of my face. I thought I was having an acid flashback."

Jackson said Foxx was among the most popular and known metal bands in the region. A setlist filled with original music stood out among counterparts. Covers included tunes from Kiss, Guns N' Roses, Judas Priest, AC/DC and Van Halen.

But they certainly hadn't reached the status of Akron's Jani Lane, lead singer for Warrant, a Hollywood-based glam metal band known for the hit songs "Down Boys," "Heaven," "Cherry Pie" and "I Saw Red."

"I think our music set us aside from the other bands," Jackson said. "Foxx had more teeth. Our music was a little rougher and more aggressive. It was every bit as pop, but it was just more upfront guitars.

"Everyone knew Kenny, everyone loved Kenny," he said. "To play a gig without him is going to be weird and rough, but we'll get to hear a lot of cool stories about him and reminisce ... so I'm hoping that makes the whole thing fun."

"I can tell you it was a struggle," McKenzie said. "All four members would be crammed into a hotel room when we stayed on the road, driving a rusty van and old equipment truck. Yeah, it was rough, but we had a blast; we had a lot of fun."

Gary Lohmann was born in Kansas City but moved to Neosho when he was around five years old. His father built one of the largest duck call businesses at the time and it was called Lohmann Mfg., which became very well known for the very popular Lohmann Duck Calls.

Rick Hair was born in Chicago but moved to Joplin at age two and a half and his father also passed away when he was nine years old. His stepfather, Bob Pyle was a Sales Manager at Dan Stanley Ford, a large car dealership in the Joplin area. He has one older sister and a younger brother. Bob was a huge help to the band as we were able to lease an Econoline van, a Super van and lastly a two and a half ton Ford truck with a large box to haul our equipment in during our years of travel! Rick was an exceptionally good driver and always drove the equipment truck to our gigs. In California we probably had about ten Roadies that worked for us, usually two, three, or four at a time depending on their availability to work.

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