Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Last night - being Tuesday night - we visited the Retro Bar for our weekly dose of the Retroteasers Pop Quiz. There were three of us cramped into the lucky sofa - Ian, Jonathan and me. We didn't win, but didn't do too badly. See how you would have done - use the comments facility at the bottom of this entry to add any answers you come up with.

First up was the battle of the girls. Being paid-up members of the Queen's Brigade, we had no trouble telling our Kylie from our Posh from our Samantha Mumba. We got a bonus anorak point for knowing that Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head was written by Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis.

Next up was a dreadful mish-mash of samples, which we correctly identified [guessed] as Def Con One by Pop Will Eat Itself. We recognised the samples as being Right Now by the Creatures, Funky Town by Lipps Inc and Crazy Horses by the Osmonds, but we were several years out on the year the PWEI single was released.

Chronology caused us trouble again when we had to put four Cure songs into the order in which they were released. See if you can do any better with: Caterpillar, Inbetween Days, The Walk and Hanging Garden.

We had no idea what sixties song was the basis for the UK's current number one by DJ Otzi. But then nor did anyone else. Do you?

We did pretty well with the Mercury Music Prize nominees, recognising PJ Harvey, Goldfrapp, Zero7, Basement Jaxx and Radiohead, but failing once again to have the faintest idea who Elbow are.

We didn't do very well in naming the seven members of Bob The Builder's gang. We got Bob, Dizzy, Lofty and Wendy, but there are another three. Can you name them?

Next was our favourite round of the evening - spot the connection between a song called When You're Good To Mama from a musical; Do The Strand by Roxy Music; and Situation by Yazoo [or Yaz, if you're American].

Next came three questions based on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. We knew that Randy Crawford originally did One Day I'll Fly Away, though we didn't know the year; and we knew that the artist covering Diamond Dogs was Beck (and we even knew the year it was a hit for Bowie); and we knew who the two artists collaborating on a cover of Nature Boy were.

Finally, they played three songs from one year: Grace Jones with Nipple To The Bottle; something by Siouxsie And The Banshees which we failed to recognise as Slowdive; and something we thought might have been by Heaven 17 but which turned out to be Pleasure Boys by Visage. Somehow, miraculously, we got the year right. Any idea?

So... our final score was 15 out of a possible 21. The winners were Nadine and co with 16-and-a-half. Fortunately [for us, not them] the cash prize of 68 quid didn't go, so there should be 80-something on offer next week. Come along next Tuesday - 9pm at the Retro Bar, George Court, off The Strand, London.

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