QUIZ 82

RADIOHEAD

How do you categorise a band as unique, adventurous and sometimes even strange as Radiohead? They truly are musical Marmite. There are two parts to this quiz: the first is on the Oxford boys themselves, while the second spotlights a number of other modern acts who’ve pushed the musical envelope in similar ways.

Answers: here

1 Hail to the Thief is, so far, the band’s most overtly political album. Who was the ‘thief’ of the title? And which single used an Orwellian conceit of bad arithmetic as a political metaphor? (2)

2 Along with Thom Yorke, who are Radiohead’s two guitarists? (2)

3 What was the name of the band formed by Thom Yorke’s brother, Andy, who had a minor hit with their debut album Almost Here in 1998? (2)

4 What was the name of the supergroup formed by Thom Yorke to play songs from his solo album The Eraser? Which Red Hot Chili Pepper took part in the project? (2)

5 Which 2000 Radiohead album set a precedent for their new modus operandi when it was released with no singles and no advance publicity? What’s the name of the band’s 2016 album, announced only a week before its release? (2)

6 Which jazz musician’s band guested on ‘Life in a Glasshouse’ on Amnesiac? (1)

7 Which song did Radiohead release on Christmas Day in 2015? For what was it originally written? (2)

8 Which Talking Heads album features the song ‘Radio Head’ from which the band took their name? What were Radiohead previously called, an acknowledgment that they couldn’t rehearse more than once a week due to their educational commitments? (2)

9 Which Academy Award-winning 2007 film features a much-praised score by Jonny Greenwood? (1)

10 What was the first track released from A Moon Shaped Pool on 3 May 2016? Who directed the video to accompany ‘Daydreaming’, the second release? (2)

11 What’s the title of the 1999 documentary that followed Radiohead on tour? Which album were the band promoting on the tour that features in the film? (2)

12 Which single from In Rainbows was written around a decade before its release, and had been a staple of the band’s live shows for years? (1)

13 Up until 2016, which seven Radiohead singles have reached the British Top 10? (7)

14 Which two Radiohead albums, released in 2000 and 2001, were recorded in the same sessions and represented a major departure from OK Computer? (2)

15 What was the name of the war veteran, the last surviving combat soldier from World War I, about whom Radiohead wrote a song to raise funds for the British Legion? (1)

BONUS TRACKS

16 Narrow Stairs is the US chart-topping sixth album by which group? From which comic British band of the sixties did they get their name?

17 Love This Giant is a 2012 collaboration between which two artists?

18 Which act was asked to remix Jean Michel Jarre’s ‘Oxygene’ and instead came up with a very different piece called ‘Toxygene’? What’s the title of their 1991 debut, a groundbreaking collection of ambient techno?

19 Which female singer guested on Snow Patrol’s ‘Set the Fire to the Third Bar’, taken from their 2006 album Eyes Open? Which single from the same album gave the band their biggest worldwide hit, reaching number six in the UK and number five in the US?

20 As well as releasing albums under the name Panda Bear, Noah Lennox is also a member of which band? Who did Panda Bear meet on his 2015 album?

21 Which Manchester techno act got their name from a Roland drum machine? Which 1989 single gave them their first UK hit?

22 Which band made their debut in 1989 with an EP called Scar, issued more than two years before their debut album Spooky? Which Britpop hero added guest vocals to the track ‘Ciao!’ on Lovelife, their third album?

23 Which nineties band named a track on their 1993 album Chrome after influential guitarist Robert Fripp? Which American rock singer guested with the group two years later on their ‘Judy Staring at the Sun’?

24 Which Welsh band introduced a psychedelic edge to Britpop with their albums Fuzzy Logic and Radiator? They played live only once between 2009 and 2014 at a memorial concert – to whom?

25 Which act’s ten albums include Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty, Ignite the Seven Cannons and Forever Breathes the Lonely Word? Which cult hero founded the band?

26 Which singer-songwriter reached number three in the UK albums chart in 2012 with Standing at the Sky’s Edge? The streets and scenery of which English city colour much of his work?

27 Released in 2012 and 2014, World Music and Commune are the two albums by which post-prog band, which performs in masks and costumes? From which country do they hail?

28 In 2011, which band issued a monthly series of bizarre releases that included a flash drive embedded in a replica foetus and an EP containing a single track that lasts for 24 hours? The latter release came in a limited edition of 13, cost $5,000 and arrived packaged in what ghoulish wrapper?

29 What is the significance of the title of Kasabian’s album 48:13? What graphic stylisation did the band apply to the track listing on the album cover?

30 In 2007, Neon Bible represented a commercial leap forward for which Canadian rock band? Who directed the 30-minute film that accompanied their even more successful third album, The Suburbs?