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The ShortList Big British music quiz: The answers

So, how did you do?

The ShortList Big British music quiz: The answers
10 November 2010

You can name all Peter Blake’s album covers, you can recount the running order of Definitely Maybe in 15 seconds and The Clash’s back catalogue was the soundtrack to your troubled youth, right? But how did you fare in our Big British music quiz? All will be revealed...

1. On which streets were the iconic covers shot?'

a)(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis (Berwick Street, Soho)

b)Snap! by The Jam (St Katharine Dock, Tower Bridge)

c)The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust... by David Bowie (Heddon Street, Mayfair)

d)Original Pirate Material by The Streets (City Road, Islington)

2. Which albums open with these lyrics?

a) “Street’s like a jungle, so call the police.” (Parklife by Blur, track is Girls & Boys)

b) “Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields.” (Sticky Fingers by Rolling Stones, track is Brown Sugar)

c) “I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me.” (The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses, track is I Wanna Be Adored)

3. Which band, who released their debut album in 1980, were named after a type of amphetamine favoured on the Northern Soul scene and styled themselves on Robert De Niro in Mean Streets? (Dexy's Midnight Runners)

4. Pre-fame band names part one: which five British groups once went under these names?

a) Seymour (Blur)

b) Warsaw (Joy Division)

c) On A Friday (Radiohead)

d) London SS (The Clash)

e) Rain (Oasis)

5. What do the titles of all Pet Shop Boys albums have in common? (They're one word)

6. Which album’s cover image of an androgynous kissing couple was taken from the book Stolen Glances: Lesbians Take Photographs? (Suede by Suede)

7. Which album is named after a Tony Hancock phrase meaning a punch to the throat, and contains another Hancock line “lead pipes, they’re fortune made” in the opening track? (Up The Bracket by The Libertines)

8. Which now-deceased songstress added backing to both Ask by The Smiths and Hallelujah by Happy Mondays? (Kirsty MacColl)

9. Can you name these British bands from the origins of their name?

a) A villain in cult 1968 Jane Fonda sci-fi movie Barbarella (Duran Duran)

b) The number written on a railway shed near York train station (Shed Seven)

c) An 18th-century farmer who invented the precursor to the modern plough (Jethro Tull)

d) The forenames of Georgia bluesmen Mr Anderson and Mr Council (Pink Floyd)

10. Which iconic song went under the working title of Fred’s Thing? (Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen)

11. Which famous British men made uncredited appearances as backing vocalists on the following tracks?

a) Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing (Sting)

b) Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain (Mick Jagger)

c) 'Tina Turner’s We Don’t Need Another Hero (Lawrence Dallaglio)

12. Which Rolling Stones album was released the same year as The Beatles’ White Album and had a white cover with the title and ‘RSVP’ on the front, after the record company rejected the original cover art? (Beggars Banquet – it was later reissued with the original artwork, a graffiti-covered toilet wall)

13. Which member of synth-pop duo Eurythmics was born on Christmas Day: Annie Lennox or Dave Stewart? (Annie Lennox, in 1954)

14. Staffordshire vicar’s son Ian Kilmister formed a metal band called Bastard, but then changed its name to what? (Motorhead. Ian Kilmister is Lemmy)

15. A young blonde woman called Celina Nash appears on the sleeve of which band’s 1991 debut album, holding a placard bearing the album’s title? (Saint Etienne – on the Foxbase Alpha album)

16. Which punk band were named after a pseudonym Paul McCartney used when checking into hotel rooms? (The Ramones - Macca used the name Paul Ramone)

17. Name the album about a man attempting to recoup a sum of money, while meeting, moving in with and breaking up with a girl called Simone? (A Grand Don’t Come For Free by The Streets)

18. Which album’s title track, later a single, opens with the lines: “It’s in the trees! It’s coming!” taken from a seance scene in 1957 British horror film Night Of The Demon? (Hounds of Love by Kate Bush)

19. Which legendary guitarist conceived an album called Lifehouse that would convert a gig audience’s biorhythms into music — an album that never got made? (Pete Townshend of The Who)

20. Which album had the working title Britain Vs America but was instead named after some graffiti on London’s Bayswater Road? (Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur)

21. Which Seventies keyboard giant played on David Bowie’s Space Oddity? (Rick Wakeman)

22. Paul Weller added guitar and backing vocals to which Oasis song on (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (Champagne Supernova)

23. The release of which album was heralded by a full-page advert in a 1970 edition of Melody Maker that simply read “Thank you for making us the world’s No1 band”? (Led Zeppelin III)

24. Much of which album was recorded in Neneh Cherry’s baby’s nursery — which stank due to a dirty nappy that the band later found behind a radiator? (Blue Lines by Massive Attack)

25. Which classic album, often described as a “song cycle” as opposed to a concept album, opens with the lyric: “If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream”? (Astral Weeks by Van Morrison)

26. Part of the proceeds from which 1973 album were invested in the production of Monty Python & The Holy Grail? (Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd)

27. Which Glaswegian band recorded their award-winning 2004 debut album in Malmo, Sweden and designed its cover in the style of Russian constructivism art? (Franz Ferdinand)

28. Which band were formed in 1970 after the frontman lost his job as a ceramics teacher at a girl’s school in Holland Park, West London? (Roxy Music)

29. Which mega-selling album’s cover features a Thirties resonator guitar? (Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits)

30. David Bowie says his androgynous look on the cover of Hunky Dory was inspired by which film star? (Greta Garbo)

31. Guitarist John Squire’s painting on the cover of The Stone Roses’ self-titled debut album shares a name with one of the tracks. Which track? (Bye Bye Badman)

32. Apart from frontman Richard Ashcroft, name another member of The Verve? (You could've had Nick McCabe, Simon Jones, Peter Salisbury or Simon Tong)

33. Which album won the inaugural Mercury Music Prize in 1992? Among the nominees it beat were Simply Red’s Stars and U2’s Achtung Baby. (Primal Scream's Screamadelica)

34. Which iconic album sleeve was a photograph of two German girls that the band’s lead singer met on holiday in the Algarve, snapped in the garden at their villa lit by the headlights of a hire car? (Country Life by Roxy Music)

35. Artist Peter Blake has famously designed album covers for The Beatles, Paul Weller, Oasis, Ian Dury and The Who. But he also designed the cover for a huge hit single in 1984. Which single? (Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid)

36. Which album is the current holder of the Mercury Prize? (xx by The xx)

37. What film is showing on the TV on the sleeve of Definitely Maybe by Oasis? (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly)

38. Font fans: can you name these albums from a single letter of type on their cover? (The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses; Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks; The Clash - London Calling; Super Furry Animals - Fuzzy Logic)

39. Indie fans sometimes place personal ads that include the acronym OTMOV — meaning original copy of what on vinyl? (Belle & Sebastian's Tigermilk)

40. Which super-producer has the middle names Peter George St John Le Baptiste De La Salle? (Brian Eno)

41. A cinema usher from Bushey and his friend left a ska band called The Executive in 1981 to form which pop duo? (Wham!)

42. Which landmark Eighties album had a cover designed, according to the lead singer’s vision, to look like a cover of Vogue magazine? (Dare by The Human League)

43. Which 1968 album is a homage to British country life, partly inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood? (The Kinks' The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society)

44. These are the real names of which music stars:

a) John Simon Ritchie (Sid Vicious)

b) Declan McManus (Elvis Costello)

c) Derek Dick (Fish from Marillion)

d) Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong (Dido)

45. What is the best-selling album of Paul Weller’s career? (His solo album Stanley Road)

46. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons originally named their band after a US production duo famed for their work with The Beastie Boys and Beck. They changed it to The Chemical Brothers after the originals threatened legal action. What was that original name? (The Dust Brothers)

47. Which band got a deal in 1999 and made a pact to operate as a democracy, fire any member who took hard drugs and share profits equally after giving 10 per cent to charity? (Coldplay)

48. What does the man’s T-shirt say on the cover of Fatboy Slim’s 1998 big-beat classic You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby? (I'm #1 so why try harder)

49. Which Eighties album was named after its creator being refused entry to a Chicago restaurant due to his attire? (No Jacket Required by Phil Collins)

50. Identify these four classic albums by the record label, year and producer:

a) Parlophone, 1997, Nigel Godrich (OK Computer by Radiohead)

b) Domino, 2007, James Ford (Favourite Worst Nightmare by Arctic Monkeys)

c) Food, 1994, Stephen Street (Parklife by Blur)

d) Factory, 1979, Martin Hannett (Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division)

Answers to questions 51-100 are here