This quiz spotlights the heyday of punk rock in the late seventies, when a handful of young bands blew open the sterile cartel that was strangling rock and roll. It started with Johnny snarling, ‘I am an anti-Christ’, and finished with the Jam and Blondie dominating the charts. Politically, these were grievous days of rancour and hardship – but musically, they were some of the best of times. Quiz-wise, it’s the same old, same old: 30 straight questions, all two-parters.
Answers: here
1 ‘Boredom’ became a punk anthem after it appeared on which collectible EP released by Buzzcocks in 1977? Who was the band’s singer at the time, though he left before their debut album saw the light of day?
2 Viv Albertine was the Australian guitarist in which all-female punk band? What very clean stage name did their Spanish-born drummer Paloma Romero adopt?
3 Pauline Murray was the lead singer of Penetration. What’s the title of their classic debut single? And which band provided the backing for Murray after Penetration broke up?
4 Which band sang ‘Top of the Pops’ on Top of the Pops? Which Sweet song did they cover as a live showstopper?
5 Which two singles, the titles of which both contain the then-inflammatory F word, did the Dead Kennedys release in 1981 between their first two albums?
6 Fulham Fallout was the first album by which punk band, who are still active today? An anarchic reworking of which Phil Spector sixties classic featured on the album and became a live favourite?
7 Which Sex Pistol produced Bananarama’s debut album Deep Sea Skiving? And which Pistol joined the Damned for 1995’s Not of this Earth?
8 Which still-active band fronted by Chris Bailey were the premier act on the Australian punk rock scene? What was their only single to make the UK charts?
9 Which anarchist band ran into problems when their record pressing plant refused to press ‘Asylum’, the opening track on their debut album, and left a two-minute gap in its place? What’s the title of their third album, on which Eve Libertine and Joy de Vivre replaced Steve Ignorant on vocals?
10 Which band advised us to ‘clean your teeth ten times a day, scrub away, scrub away, scrub away the SR way’? At whom was the advice aimed, according to the title of both the song and the album from which it was taken?
11 Fronted by the ill-fated Malcolm Owen, who died of a heroin overdose aged 26, which band first made the charts with ‘Babylon’s Burning’? What was their biggest hit, a comment on the skinhead following of the emerging ska bands?
12 ‘Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard. But I think . . .’ What did she think? And who was she?
13 Teenage Warning is the title of both the debut album and a UK Top 30 single by which political punk band from the North East? Which Durham figure, who died controversially in police custody in 1976, was the subject of their first single?
14 Which Ramones album contained the dopey punk anthems ‘Cretin Hop’ and ‘Teenage Lobotomy’? And which Searchers song did they cover on their next album, Road to Ruin?
15 Which song from Machine Gun Etiquette gave the Damned their first UK Top 20 hit? And which Barry Ryan song gave them their only Top 10 entry in 1986?
16 In 1977, who became the first punk or new wave band to appear on Top of the Pops when they performed ‘Lookin’ After Number One’ on the show? What became their first UK number one hit the following year?
17 What was the Sex Pistols’ first single? And what was the title of their only studio album?
18 Whose first 1977 album was so good they named it three times? What’s the opening track, also so good they named it thrice?
19 Which controversial single hit the charts on 3 June 1977? Which artist, hugely popular throughout the seventies, kept it off the UK number one spot amid allegations that the chart was being rigged?
20 Who were the ‘Hersham Boys’? And what was their first UK Top 10 single, a foot-stomping sing-a-long?
21 Who had a hit in 1979 with a punk version of the theme tune to The Banana Splits? Which Christmas carol had they butchered for a seasonal single the previous year?
22 Penetration took their name from a song by which band, hugely influential on the punk scene? What’s the title of their second album, a follow-up to the brilliant Moving Targets?
23 What were the Clash bored with on their first album? And where did they get lost on London Calling?
24 Who sang vocals on the Sex Pistols’ hit ‘No One Is Innocent’, released after Johnny Rotten had left the group? And which Eddie Cochran song was their next hit, credited to Sid Vicious backed by the Pistols?
25 Jake Burns sounded like he had been gargling broken glass – with which Irish punk band was he the singer? What’s the title of their politically charged debut album?
26 Who was the original bass player with the Damned, still playing with the group today as their guitarist? What is his signature headgear?
27 Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife were the dual vocalists of which comic book Scottish punk band? What was their tempestuous debut single, released in 1977?
28 Damaged is the 1981 debut by which American hardcore band? Which much-covered song did they release as a single the same year?
29 Who released the self-deprecating single ‘One Chord Wonders’ in 1977? What’s the title of their signature song, a paradigm for the entire punk movement?
30 What are the titles of the two UK Top 20 albums released by Buzzcocks in 1978?