An earlier piece on this Blog (“Double A Sides at #1”) reflected on changes in how the UK charts are compiled. The Double A Sided single played a big part in chart history. In recent years, with the figures based mainly on digital downloads and streaming, Double A Sides have rarely featured in the Top… Continue reading 15 questions about Double A Sided #1s
Robert FitzRoy (1805-1865) was a naval officer, captain of HMS Beagle for Darwin’s voyage to the southern hemisphere, and later an MP. He was also Governor of New Zealand and, later still, the “founding director of the Meteorological Office – the world’s first full-time professional weather forecaster”. That quote comes from the fly-leaf of my… Continue reading Word of the week: FitzRoy
Here are 10 quiz questions based on the lyrics of UK #1 hits, in order of when they reached #1. If you know which afternoon was never ending in “Lady Madonna”, how old Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) was when he died, or what Craig David and his lady did on Sunday, you’ll… Continue reading 10 questions about UK #1s: the answers are in the lyrics
Along with at least 8 million other people I continue to follow Pop Master, the mid-morning quiz on BBC Radio 2. It has been the subject of many pieces on this Blog, most recently this piece from January. Currently I make a note of the following: my score, the bonus questions, any questions I have… Continue reading Pop Master Summary w/e Fri 8 April 2022
In December 2017 I wrote this piece listing 25 answers to quiz questions where it’s usually worth having a guess, offering the following advice: It’s worth having a guess as long as you’re not going to lose money or points or be eliminated from the game for being wrong. If a question begins with the… Continue reading You might as well have a guess, revisited: another 50 answers that are usually right
In December 2020 I posted this piece about the BBC “Sports Personality of the Year” (or SPOTY for short). Here are 20 questions about the award, 10 of which have multiple choice answers. The answers to all of them appear at the end of this Post. The Questions Before Emma Raducanu won it in 2021,… Continue reading 20 questions about “Sports Personality of the Year”
In the last two days I have transcribed, or reworked, quiz questions from BBC Radio 2’s Pop Master. This piece lists questions that cost me a maximum score of 39 at some point in the last year, and this one is about 80s bands that only had one hit. Here, for a change, are 10… Continue reading 10 Biblical Questions
Pop Master, BBC Radio 2’s mid-morning quiz, is the most listened-to slot on UK radio. I have mentioned that fact before on this Blog, many times, but always qualified it with the phrase “outside of breakfast shows”. The generally-quoted number of daily listeners up till now has been 7.5m but according to Scott Mills, when… Continue reading Pop Master: Let down by Question 10 (20 examples)
Here’s a question from Radio 2’s mid-morning quiz Pop Master from last week: In 1984 the song Feels Like Heaven became the only Top 40 hit for which group? The answer didn’t come to me in time, though I’m sure that there have been times when it would have, not least in 1984 itself. You… Continue reading A Confusion of 80s Bands
The posts on this Blog relating to ITV quiz show “Tenable” have received nearly one million views. Most of these posts contain the correct answers to the lists of 10 items that contestants name to build up, and then win, a jackpot. There have been repeats and the odd Celebrity Special over the last eight… Continue reading Trivia in 10s: “World” #1s and LAND-less countries
The Compartments 