where's the best music quiz in london

16th March - Poptimism Pop Quiz

I think the Poptimism one will be good, yes.

(It went to a "beat the intro" tie-break, which I won by spotting Patti Smith: "Kimberly".)

Shortish excerpts played of three songs from one particular year in each decade, 1960s to 1990s.

Half a point for each title, half a point for each act, one point for each correct year. Much strictness on accuracy of answers, no quarter points allowed.

1960s:

1. All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix Experience.
(We dropped half a point by not including "Experience".)

2. Those Were The Days - Mary Hopkin.
("Hopkins" not allowed. Much anguish from other teams, smugness from ours.)

3. Help Yourself - Tom Jones.
("Just Help Yourself" disallowed)

4. The year: 1968.

The 1970s:

5. Love Will Keep Us Together - (The) Captain & Tenille.
(Unexpected leniency on "the", which was deemed optional.)

6. Sky High - Jigsaw.

7. Reach Out, I'll Be There - Gloria Gaynor.
(All use of brackets disallowed. The Four Tops may have had brackets, but GG didn't. Much dispute, resulting in the compere fetching her copy of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, to prove the point. This cost us our next half point.)

8. The year: 1975.

The 1980s:

9. William, It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths.
(Leniency on comma, deemed optional.)

10. Self Control - Laura Branigan.

11. These First Impressions - The Associates.
(Answer originally given as "These First Impressions Of You", leading to much protest, another Guinness Book check, and subsequent revision. We knew the act but not the song, so lost another half point.)

12. The year: 1984.

The 1990s:

13. Paranoid Android - Radiohead.
(They played one of the slow sections. A surprising number of teams failed to guess the song.)

14. All Mine - Portishead.

15. Avenging Angels - Space.
(We dropped a full point, mishearing the vocals as female and guessing the Sneaker Pimps. Added embarrassment, as I actually own a copy of the CD single. How soon we forget.)

16. The year: 1997.

The 2000s:

17. Run For Cover - Sugababes.
18. Utopia - Goldfrapp.
19. A nice easy one to finish: Can't Get You Out Of My Head - Kylie Minogue.
20. The year: 2001.

Total score from our team of four (The Careless Spliffers): 17.5 out of 20, placing us in joint first position.

Tie-break involves one representative of each team stepping forward, and playing "Beat The Intro" with a mystery track. Artist only, no need for song title. First correct answer wins it.

I correctly identify Patti Smith (singing "Kimberly"), thus bringing it home for The Careless Spliffers.

Prize selected by choosing one of five mystery envelopes. £98 cash prize, or 2 bottles of champagne, or some beer, or 4 copies of the house DJ's mix CD, or the booby prize: 4 copies of "Chico Time".

I pick the £98 envelope. Much whooping ensues.

Recommended.

Maybe I just found "("Hopkins" not allowed)" upsetting.

Except on the Hopkins thing obviously.

The other thing that gives me pause is that this quiz is very SHORT compared to ours. Ulp. May have to edit.

Stevem: But the pedantry is the best bit! Let's just say that it engenders lively discussions.

Naturally we will have a copy of the Good Book on hand for such 'discussions'.

OK you've convinced me.

:-(

i got The Associates and Captn and Tennille all too late.

caps optional obv

Mind you, so were we...

WHAT FULES. this is what i get for not FAPPing so much :-)

Other ILXers in the room... wow...