Wednesday, May 09, 2001

No real drama at the quiz last night - no evacuations due to fires, no riots, no dead-heats, no tie-breakers. No Dave. And also no Jonathan in our team, as he was quiz-master. He had rechristened himself "DJ Jazzy Jonce" for the night, so we named our team "The Fresh Princesses" in his honour. The team was just me and Darren, with Ian in an advisory role. [Said advice consisting entirely of "there's been no George Martin yet." Twice.]

The theme of the quiz was "Hey Mr Producer".

We were told that questions one, two and three would comprise six songs, all produced by the same person. Before a note had even been played, I said to Darren, "I bet it's Trevor Horn, and the songs will be "Jacky" by Marc Almond, something by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and something by ABC." Dead right! Plus "Slave To The Rhythm", "Left To My Own Devices" and "Buffalo Gals". We didn't get the full name of the latter artist exactly right, so dropped half a point. [Answers on an email]

We dropped another couple of half-points on the next three songs. We knew it was James but didn't know or care that it was called "I Know What I'm Here For"; we thought Devo's "Jocko Homo" was called "Are We Not Men", but we knew that the Talking Heads song was called "Life During Wartime". We guessed correctly that all three were produced by Brian Eno.

Next was the 'crap pop' round, at which I failed dismally, but Darren sailed through, knowing Kylie Minogue's "Got To Be Certain", Bananarama's "Love, Truth and Honesty" and Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round", and crucially we even added the parenthetical (Like A Record). Even I knew that these were produced by Stock-Aitken-Waterman.

Question 11 consisted of three songs: "Fox On The Run" by the Sweet, "Love Is A Battlefield" by Pat Benatar, and Mud's "Tiger Feet". We knew the connection was Mike Chapman, but were only given half a point as Wendy insisted, incorrectly, that it was Chinn and Chapman. We wuz robbed.

Next up were three songs produced by Giorgio Moroder: Limahl's "Never Ending Story", Chicory Tip's "Son Of My Father" and "Could It Be Magic" by Donna Summer. For the latter, we had to name the classical composer ripped off. We guessed Vivaldi, but it was Chopin.

Then came Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" and the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight Tonight", and something by Nine Inch Nails which we failed to recognise. But we did guess that all three were produced by Flood.

I hope Jonce is ashamed of his next 'spot the connection' round. He played "Since Yesterday " by Strawberry Switchblade, "Missing" by Everything But The Girl, and "La Vie en Rose" by Petula Clark. We actually correctly guessed the tenuous connection. [Can you?]

We had no trouble with the three Phil Spector songs, but the final two questions stumped us: who produced New Edition's "Candy Girl", Ash's "A Life Less Ordinary" and, er, something else? And we didn't know who produced the Manic Street Preachers' "Everything Must Go", Travis' "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" and something else I've forgotten. I thought the Manics one was Dave Eringa, who did indeed produce bits of it, but the correct answer was Mike Hedges.

We ended the evening on 19 out of 25. The winners were a new team, who scored 20, so once again we lost by one point. Of course, if we'd had Jonce on our team, we'd have got full marks!

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