Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour is actually two, recurring every Sunday afternoon. Guy has lots of features, and often has a theme for the show, around which he weaves his musical choices and personal reflections.
There is a running feature through the show (with a playlist to match on the 6 Music website) called A Song for Guy, in which listeners submit songs they think he would like, could sing or might help in some other, more mysterious way. The artists in this quiz reflect that playlist. We’ve finished off with a handful of questions about the man himself.
Answers: here
1 Which Tom Waits’ song was used as the theme tune for the HBO drama series The Wire? Which singer, who also acted in the show, supplied the version of the song used for the fifth and final season?
2 Rabbit Fur Coat (2006) was Jenny Lewis’s debut solo album: with which band did she previously record? Who is her boyfriend, with whom she recorded a 2010 album. Jenny & Johnny?
3 Which band, fronted by Andy Fairweather-Low’s lilting falsetto, had a UK number one with ‘(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice’ in 1969? Which famous golf course has a tricky three-hole stretch with the same name?
4 Under what name does Sam Beam usually record? Who collaborated with him on 2016 album Love Letter for Fire, a series of intimate duets released under his own name?
5 Which 1973 song in a retro rock and roll style from Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player gave Elton John his first US number one? Who wrote the lyrics, as he did for all Elton’s hits of that era?
6 Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, two studio techs, formed which chill-out band? Which Australian singer provided vocals on their two most successful albums, When It Falls (2004) and The Garden (2006)?
7 Which song, with a pseudo-classical title, gave ELO their first hit single? Which song from a movie soundtrack gave them their only UK number one, in conjunction with Olivia Newton-John?
8 Who was Don Van Vliet and what did he call his entourage?
9 Which American star won the Brit award for best international solo artist from 1998-000? Which 1997 album launched him onto the A-list?
10 Who, according to the Kinks in 1970, ‘walked like a woman and talked like a man’? What was the follow-up single from the same album, their final UK Top 10 hit?
11 Which band is fronted by sharply dressed New Yorker Hamilton Leithauser? What is their live show-stopper, a 2004 single from their album Bows + Arrows?
12 ‘Chestnut Mare’ was written for a planned musical, but was instead released as a 1970 single by which country-rock band? Who provided the distinctive vocals?
13 Emotional Mugger (2016) was the eighth album release in eight years by which prolific American indie musician? What is the harder-edged side-project he began in 2013 with guitarist Charles Moothart?
14 Which new waver released Almost Blue, a collection of country covers, in 1981? Which Jerry Chesnut song gave him a UK Top 10 hit?
15 Win Butler and Regine Chassagne are the husband-and-wife team in which band? Their 2004 debut album, Funeral, was the first album to hit the charts off which independent label?
16 Who was the Jesus of Cool, according to his 1978 debut album? Which band did he form in the late seventies with Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams?
17 ‘I Can Help’ (1974) was the only mainstream hit for which country singer, even reaching number one in America? Which Elvis’ song did he cover as a follow-up the next year
18 Who declared they were from ‘a land own under’ as they went to number one in the US, the UK and their native Australia? What was their debut album, which was also a worldwide number one?
19 Who was the vocalist and a guitarist in the nineties indie band Red House Painters? What is the main band name under which he has recorded this century?
20 Which band, now based in Brooklyn, has the Dessner brothers playing guitars and keyboards and the Devendorf brothers as the rhythm sections? Who adds the broody vocals?
21 Which mellow pop band’s second album, in 2003, was Ether Song? Which single off this album gave them their first UK Top 10 hit?
22 What is the stage name of American singer Chan Marshall? Which 2006 album was her commercial breakthrough?
23 Alun Woodward, Emma Pollock, Stewart Henderson and Paul Savage made up this critically acclaimed band who put out The Great Eastern in 2000. Who were they, and which country were they from?
24 What was the New Zealand band formed by Tim Finn and Phil Judd in 1972? And in which band, formed in Melbourne in 1985, did Tim Finn joing his brother Neil in 1990?
25 Which Canadian singer-songwriter scored a breakthrough with her third album, The Reminder, in 2007? With which band, that included her friend Bernard Canning, did she tour in the early 2000s?
Our last 5 questions are more A Song About Guy – about Guy Garvey and his band
26 Which town near Manchester was the birthplace of Guy Garvey?
27 What prestigious songwriting award did Elbow’s ‘One Day Like This’ win in 2009? Which major sporting event made use of the song in 2012?
28 What is the surname of the brothers, Craig and Mark, in Elbow? What role in the band was played by Richard Jupp, who departed in 2016?
29 The title of the Elbow album The Seldom Seen Kid was a line in which single off the album? And which single off Leaders of the Free World has the line ‘St Peter in satin, he’s like Buddha with mace?’
30 What was Elbow’s 2001debut album? And what riff on this title did they use for their 2012 collection of B-sides?