Last weekend, on his BBC Radio 2 show “Sounds of the 70s”, Johnnie Walker played a record to commemorate the 80th birthday of Jet Black, the original drummer in punk-era band The Stranglers. For many people they would be classified as a punk band, but I appreciate that this is a matter of opinion rather… Continue reading An 80-year-old punk
Just over a year ago, in this piece, I wrote about Pop Master, the mid-morning quiz on the Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2. That earlier piece explains the format of the quiz, and notes that this is the most listened-to slot on UK radio, outside of Breakfast Shows. Every Monday to Friday, at… Continue reading 600 Rounds of Pop Master
Which Beatles album covers can you visualize right now? A few of them can be classed as Universal Knowledge for people over a certain age, and they are an occasional source of quiz questions. Here’s an example from a recent edition of “The 100k Drop”: “Which member of the Beatles wears a blue military coat… Continue reading Beatles Album Covers, seeing and observing
As I noted in this piece on the Projects Menu (“A UK #1 for every year”) I can sing and play at least one UK chart-topping song from every year between 1954 and 2013. This repertoire developed from over 20 years’ worth of learning the odd song here and there and finding that many of… Continue reading More than Once at One (39 songs)
Harlesdon is a mis-spelling of Harlesden, an area of North West London a few miles from where we live. The correct spelling ends in “den”, like its neighbour Willesden. Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire, and Wimbledon in South West London, on the other hand, end in “don”. If you approach the junction known as Savoy Circus from… Continue reading Word of the week: Harlesdon
Last night, for the fourth year in a row, we watched a large chunk of the Eurovision Song Contest as a family, the four of us all in the same room for the first 18 performances. My children’s experience of the contest is similar to my own at their ages. Aged 8 or 9 you… Continue reading Eurovision 2018
What is the current UK #1? In my experience this is a good question for any quiz night, especially a school quiz night. Most of us who are parents of school-age children have gone through times when we had no idea what was top of the charts. We might get to a stage where our… Continue reading UK #1 hit singles that include numbers
I noted in this earlier piece that the word “spy” had been in the news a lot recently, and that the story still had some way to run. The same is true of the word “Windrush”. The Windrush was a ship that arrived in the UK (in Tilbury Essex, specifically) in June 1948 with the… Continue reading Word of the week: Windrush
Here’s a theory for you, if you’re a fan of modern music, and if you’re the kind of person who has favourite bands or artists. It works for me, see if it works for you. When you have a favourite artist or band (examples for me include Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan) it… Continue reading Favourite songs and favourite artists, a theory
Here’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. Try it, if you’re into such things. What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? We’re dealing here, respectively, with Roxy Music’s debut hit, which reached #4… Continue reading More pop trivia: What do “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” have in common?
The Compartments 