Wednesday, October 17, 2001

There's something about setting a quiz that brings out the sadist in people. Instead of entertaining the crowd with a few well-chosen puzzles, the amateur quizmaster chooses convoluted questions about obscure subjects that only he [and it always is a 'he'] can possibly know. And so it proved at last night's Retro Bar popteasers pop quiz. Normally the quiz is set by Wendy and DJ Lush, and they ensure they include music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and new releases. Last night's guest compiler Peter took great pleasure in torturing us with ridiculously difficult questions.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is sour grapes, but it's not - we won! We had our own devotee of the wilfully obscure. Although we always enter as a team, it's often a one-man event. Without Darren the rest of our team - me, Ian and Jonathan - would have struggled to reach double figures last night. As it was, we got 16 out of 20.

With a knowing nod to the other team of UKGayBloggers present - Scally, Iain and Davo - we called our team 'The A-list'.

For the first three questions, we were played bizarre cover versions of well-known songs, which sounded like Pinky and Perky. On helium. After a bit of deliberation, we recognised the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen, Rod Stewart's Do Ya Think I'm Sexy and a brilliantly perverse Save Your Kisses For Me.

Next up was a good example of the level of difficulty: we were played an original Chi-Lites song which was later sampled by Groove Armada, and had to name the product advertised by the later version. Confused? So were we. We couldn't decide if it was a mobile phone company or Bacardi Breezer. It was neither - it was Mercedes Benz.

Next were three early songs by acts which later went on to be [mildly] famous. We managed to spot Dead Pop Stars by Altered Images and Romford Girls by Billy Bragg, but the song which we guessed was by an early U2 was actually I'm Falling by an unrecognisable Dead Or Alive.

Next up were two 1993 remixes: We Are Family by Sister Sledge and Temptation by Heaven 17. After some deliberation, we correctly named the year each was originally released. We also sailed through the chronology round, putting these four Gary Numan songs into their correct order of release: I Die, You Die, Are Friends Electric?, Cars and We Are Glass.

More bizarre cover versions followed, with a Ukranian version of The Smith's What Difference Does It Make?, a Spanish version of McFadden and Whitehead's Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now and the Gypsy Kings wailing on their brilliant Spanish rendition of Hotel California.

Then came our worst round: 90s dance samples. The first track was Golden Girl by John Barry, but, although it was on the tips of our tongues, we didn't manage to name the song it was sampled on: 6 Underground by the Sneaker Pimps. The second song was much easier - Red Alert by Basement Jaxx. The third was naggingly familiar, but we couldn't name Ooh La La by the Wiseguys.

Finally, there was the 80s dance round, with D-Train's You're The One For Me, Sylvester's Do You Wanna Funk and Indeep's Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. No problems there, and we also managed to name the year they were all released.

Our score of 16 out of 20 was enough to win. However, we didn't win the 37 quid on offer, but instead got the booby prize: a bloody Steps single, much to Jonathan's delight. Honestly, I worry about that boy sometimes! Thankfully, next week's quiz will again be set by Wendy and DJ Lush.

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