The difference in quality between David Bowie’s best music and his worst is spectacularly extreme. Bowie could be magnificent, a colossus showing the way forward with each shift of musical style, as he was in the seventies. He could be cheeky and challenging and innovative, experimenting with new sounds and techniques. He could be a pop diva, as he was in the eighties when he produced a string of pop hits that audiences lapped up. Or he could be a bit rubbish, as he was for most of the nineties. Yet he was never dull.
Answers: here
1 ‘V-2 Schneider’ was a David Bowie track dedicated to Florian Schneider, a big influence on Bowie’s work in the late seventies: who was Schneider? And on which Bowie album was ‘V-2 Schneider’ the opening track on the second side of vinyl?
2 In which 1986 fantasy movie did Bowie play Jareth the Goblin King? What part did he play in the 1988 Martin Scorsese film The Last Tempation of Christ?
3 Who took Bowie’s song ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ into the UK Top 10 in 1974? Who produced the version as well as playing guitar and singing backing vocals?
4 Why did Bowie change his stage name from David Jones, his birth name? And where did ‘Bowie’ come from?
5 ‘In Drive-In Saturday’ what did ‘Buddy’ do? What was his female friend’s non-verbal response?
6 In which city was Bowie living at the time of his death in 2016? Which US city did he once say should be burned to the ground after he had a hard time while living there?
7 Bowie wrote the track ‘Fame’ based on a guitar riff from his collaborator, Carlos Alomar, and ideas from which musical legend, with whom he had been jamming in the studio? Which soul crooner co-wrote ‘Fascination’ from the same album?
8 By what name was David and Angie Bowie’s son Duncan known in his early years? What was his first, highly successful, feature film as a director, released in 2009?
9 The Buzz, Doppelganger, the King Bees, Lower Third, Riot Squad, Skeleton Men. Which two of these were NOT bands in which Bowie played as a youngster?
10 Which female star sang ‘Under Pressure’ with Bowie at the 1992 memorial concert for Freddie Mercury? Who formed a more lasting partnership with Bowie when she married him four days later?
11 Which Bowie song was the result of an infatuation between Iggy Pop and a Vietnamese woman, Kuelan Ngoyen? On which album did Bowie’s version of the song (co-written with Iggy) appear?
12 In 1993 Bowie released a hastily written and produced soundtrack album to which TV series? Who wrote the source novel on which the series was based?
13 What was Bowie’s final album, released days before his death in early 2016? Which album pushed it off the number one slot in the UK album chart?
14 Which Bowie subject thought he’d blow our minds? And which one had a police bike and a turned-up nose?
15 Lodger was the final album in David Bowie’s late seventies Berlin trilogy. What were the first two?
16 Which collaborator did David Bowie once describe as a ‘little old orange on a stool’? What was the single, a number three hit at Christmas 1982?
17 Who was the Puerto Rican guitarist who worked with Bowie for nearly 30 years from Young Americans in 1975? And who provided the searing lead guitar on ‘Heroes’ and ‘Teenage Wildlife’?
18 Which modern TV cop show starring John Simm and Philip Glenister took its title from a David Bowie song? And what nickname did Glenister’s unreconstructed seventies cop give himself?
19 Which disco maestro produced the album Let’s Dance alongside Bowie? Which Texas blues guitarist took time out from his own band Double Trouble to play guitar?
20 What persona did Bowie adopt for his Station to Station period? Which song, originally sung by Johnny Mathis in a 1957 film of the same name, elicited an extraordinary, albeit occasionally out of tune, vocal performance from an allegedly coked-up Bowie?
21 David Bowie played on two albums in 1989 and 1991 as part of which hard rock band? Which John Lennon song did they cover?
22 The storyline of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ referenced which earlier Bowie hit? What costume did Bowie wear in the promotional video?
23 Pin-Ups (1973) was an album of cover versions. Which songs by the Who and Pink Floyd did Bowie cover?
24 Which Beach Boys song did Bowie cover on Tonight (1984)? And who duetted with him on the album’s title track?
25 ‘Jump They Say’ (1993) was Bowie’s last UK Top 10 single for 20 years. From which album was it taken? Which song from 2013 album The Next Day ended the hit drought?
26 What was the massive tour undertaken by Bowie in 1983 to support the release of Let’s Dance? What was his very poorly received following tour, in 1987?
27 Some of the music for Bowie’s album, Low, came from rejected material from the soundtrack to which 1976 film, in which Bowie starred? Who was the director?
28 Which 1999 Bowie album was the first full LP made available to download over the internet, prior to the release of the physical album? Why did the lead single off the album have far to go?
29 Which 1986 rock musical directed by Julien Temple starred Bowie and gave him a hit single with its title song? Which young model and star and (later) serial rock spouse had the film’s major role?
30 Which former member of Nirvana played guitar on ‘I’ve Been Waiting for You from Bowie’s 2003 album Heathen? On which song from the same album did Pete Townshend play guitar?