Chig’s Quite Hard Pop Quiz of 2004(ish)

22.25 UPDATE: One more correct answer (number 12). Seven more to go...

16.45 UPDATE: An excellent start AND a visit from a bona fide pop star! (Popjustice have to manage with comments from Rachel Stevens.) Thank you Natasha for finding the time to stop by, especially with your busy schedule writing that 'difficult' second album while helping your brother out with his physiotherapy. It can't be easy. The rest of you…[adopts 'young Mr Grace' voice]…you've all done VERY well… Thank you for restraining yourselves too, as I suspect that some of you are chomping at the bit to answer more of them. So now….it's a free-for-all. Answer as many as you like! All of the answers given (5,6,7 and 9) are correct, so I'll add them under the questions.


As Mike reveals his fave tracks of last year (with a countdown that could last until Easter at this rate!), let's look back on the last 12 months of popdom and chart trivia with Chig's dirty dozen questions. Please put your answers in the comments box. Please only answer one question at a time, even if you know more, to give everyone a chance. If questions remain unanswered, I will announce a free-for-all at some later stage. (Please bear in mind I can’t access this blog myself until late afternoon each day this week!) Be sure to quote the question number with your reply.

If you want to prove how much of a clever clogs you really are, you can e-mail me your answers (chig at cmdh dot freeserve dot co dot uk). There may even be a small prize. Then again, there may not.

Ready, steady, go!

1) Which artist contributed to three top ten hits in 2004, in three different guises, yet didn’t have a single hit under their usual hitmaking name?

2) ‘Bullshit’ and ‘showbiz’ were the alternative opening words of the two different ‘album’ and ‘radio’ versions of which chart-topper? (Artist and title.)

3) ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ aside, which same song has been a hit for one artist on the original Band Aid single and one artist on Band Aid 20?

4) What’s the connection between Delta Goodrem and the Electric Light Orchestra?

5) What did Natasha Bedingfield do in 2004 that both Adrian Gurvitz and Barry Manilow had done before?
They all sang songs about writing songs. (These Words; Classic; I Write The Songs). Even though at least one of them didn't actually write the song!
Correct, Mr Simon, or should I say Mr Bristolcream?

6) Just one person on the Band Aid 20 single had never made even the Top 30 with a single before. Who?
That'll be Skye from Morcheeba (who have never got higher than 34 in the singles chart) Correct, Mr Diamond Geezer! I hope she appreciates just how lucky she is.

7) “Call the police, there’s a mad girl in town.” (a) Which hit single included that line in 2004? (Artist and title) (b) Which hit song included that lyric before – with just one word different? (c) Which two acts had a hit with the answer to (b)?
(a) Kelis, Trick Me
(b) West End Girls
(c) Pet Shop Boys and, er, was it East 17?
Correct on all five counts, Mr David! Or, I suspect, Mr David!

8) (a) What did Status Quo and Paul Weller do together at the end of 1984? (b) What did they both do at the end of 2004? (NB. It’s NOTHING to do with NOT doing the thing they did in 1984!)

9) Donny Osmond in 1973, Mike Oldfield in 1978 and Daniel Bedingfield in 2004. What’s the connection?
Their sisters (Marie, Sally & Natasha) all had hit singles in these years. (I was going to say that they all had singles in the charts at the same time as their sisters, then in the same year as their sisters, but Mike Oldfield didn't have any hits in 1978.) Correct, Mr Mike! Specifically, their sisters all had their first hits in those years, in each case after their brothers. Sadly, Sally Oldfield was never to trouble the chart compilers again, but if you're only going to have one hit, you might as well make it as fabulous as 'Mirrors' was. I downloaded it overnight and it's a pure joy to hear it again after all these years, and yet it sounds less poppy, more folksy and more Christmassy than I remembered it. All together now, "we are, we are, we are, we are perfect..."

10) Who featured on three UK number one singles in 2004, in three different guises, with vocals on two of them and a writing credit on the third?

11) A member of which pop act told Chig last year that one of the other group members can’t sing but is just there for their dancing abilities? (Don’t waste your time searching World Of Chig – I’ve never mentioned it, so you’ll have to guess!)

12) Kylie did it in the early 90s, Atomic Kitten did it in 2003 and Blue are doing it this week. What, exactly? (The answer isn’t ‘cocaine’.)
Covering Kool & The Gang, I suspect. All shite covers as well, even Kylie. Correct, Mr Waitrose David! Having hit singles with Kool & The Gang cover versions. Kylie's doesn't feature K&TG themselves, but the other two do. Have the group no pride?

BONUS QUESTION (for Natasha Bedingfield only): What exactly is a ‘hyperbowl’ and how would you hide behind one?
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