Punk had blown itself out and been fully absorbed into the mainstream even by the end of the seventies, but the baton was soon passed on through a new generation of indie bands, even if they had a slightly different energy. Then, in the early nineties, a new wave of disaffected youth seemed ready to throw themselves around at gigs by guitar bands playing at a million miles an hour. Punk had been reborn – except it had never really gone away. This quiz comes in two sections – one about the new wave of punk-style bands and one about the eighties post-punk scene, when established bands started to reinvent their sound and a new wave of noise hit the stores.
Answers: here
1 Which Tunbridge Wells duo were nominated for the BBC Sound of 2015 award after a livewire appearance on Later . . . with Jools Holland? What’s the title of their official debut album, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize?
2 Which East Midlands modern punk band features Jason Williamson shouting aggressively agit vocals over Andrew Fearn’s minimalist backing? What’s the title of their 2014 album, a critical and commercial breakthrough?
3 Which band did John Lydon form after the break-up of the Sex Pistols? With which punk group did the band’s guitarist Keith Levene briefly play before they recorded their first album?
4 The Unravelling was the 2001 independent label debut by which Chicago hardcore band? Released five years later, what’s the title of their breakthrough album, which made the American Top 10?
5 Which new British band is fronted by Justin Hayward-Young? What’s the name of their debut album, which won them a host of new-act awards in 2012?
6 ‘Council Flat Blues’ was the first self-released single by which Leeds punk band? Their second album, released in 2016, showed the band refusing to compromise their hard-edged sound – but what’s it called?
7 Who were Your New Favourite Band in 2001? And what, on the same record, did they hate?
8 Along with Pete Doherty, who is the other main songwriter in the Libertines? Which punk legend produced their first two albums?
9 Which power pop band’s first, third and sixth records are all eponymously titled and are referred to as the Blue, Green and Red albums? What colour did they give to their tenth album, released in 2016 and also eponymous?
10 Which label, whose roster eventually included Arcade Fire, Caribou and Camera Obscura, was started by two members of North Carolina punk band Superchunk to release their own material? What’s the title of Superchunk’s own 1989 debut single, a cornerstone release in the new wave of slacker punk?
11 Wattie Buchan has been the lead singer of which Scottish punk band since 1979? Responding to the Crass song ‘Punk Is Dead’, what did they call their first album in 1981?
12 After starting out as a punk outfit, which band softened their sound and achieved commercial success with a stream of pop punk singles, including the 1998 British number one ‘Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)’? Released in 1994, which album was their commercial breakthrough, hitting the Top 10 in the US and selling more than 11 million copies around the world?
13 JN, JW, MB, MJ and SS are the five initial (geddit?) members of which post-punk band from West Yorkshire? What’s the title of their third album, the first not simply to be named after the band?
14 Which foul-smelling punk revivalist band released their eponymous debut in 1993 and their eighth, . . . Honor Is All We Know, in 2014? Who was briefly a member of the band in 1993, co-writing the song ‘Radio’ and playing a couple of gigs with the group?
15 Who were Generation Terrorists in 1992? What’s the title of their collectible debut single, released nearly four years before their debut album came out?
16 Who found themselves in ‘A Forest’ for their first single of the eighties? From which album was the single taken, a much longer record than its name suggests?
17 Formed by Ana Da Silva and Gina Birch, which post-punk band released their eponymous debut album in 1979? What’s the title of their second album, either a mess or a classic according to taste?
18 The band’s last release for the independent Lookout label, Green Day’s second album was named after whih children’s game? What’s the name of the band’s drummer, who joined in 1990 and still plays with the group?
19 Released on three 45rpm 12inch records in deluxe packaging, what was Public Image Ltd’s second album? Who provided the band’s distinctive dub reggae-style basslines?
20 What was Ian Dury & the Blockheads’ only British number one? And what was the sad significance of Dury’s 1998 album, Mr Love Pants?
21 Released in 2016, Nocturnal Koreans is the 15th studio album by which post-punk band? With which album did they make their debut in 1977?
22 A UK Top 20 hit three times over, which Joy Division song has come to define the dark sound of post-punk? What was the double A-side of its original release?
23 Who was the Clash’s visual chronicler? He later formed Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones from the band – which song, apparently inspired by the films of Nicolas Roeg, did they take into the British Top 20 in 1986?
24 Written by Joy Division before Ian Curtis’s death, which song was released as New Order’s first single in 1981? Closely associated with both bands, which producer worked on the single and also produced New Order’s first album?
25 Which Beatles song gave Siouxsie & the Banshees a UK No3 hit in 1983? What’s the name of their 1987 covers album?
26 Which band did Billy Idol sing with before starting his solo career? The band’s bassist, Tony James, went on to form which notorious eighties act?
27 What was the Clash’s fourth album, a triple LP that saw them shift heavily towards dub and reggae? Which single from the album, its title a nod to Motown, featured Mick Jones’s then-girlfriend Ellen Foley on vocals?
28 The Second Annual Report (1977) was actually the first album by which art punk band? What was the stage name adopted by bassist, violinist and vocalist Neil Megson?
29 Andy Gill and Jon King were the main men in which cult post-punk band, formed at the University of Leeds in the seventies? What’s the mildly sarcastic title of the band’s 1979 debut album?
30 Whose 1978 debut album Real Life was a leading influence on many later post-punk bands? Who was the band’s bass player, who later recorded with Visage and the Bad Seeds before embarking on a solo career?