Sunday 22 September 2019

Quiz: Pop Music of the 1960s

These questions are in roughly chronological order. They are based on the weekly British Top 30 hit parade, published in the "New Musical Express".

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1. What was Elvis Presley's first top hit after leaving the army?

2. Who sang "Let's Twist Again" in 1962?

3. Jet Harris and Tony Meeham had a series of instrumental hits together in the early 1960s. Of what famous group had they previously been members?

4. The great surf anthem, "Surf City", was written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, but who recorded it?

5. What was the Beatles' first Number One hit?

6. Which group had a big hit with "You'll Never Walk Alone"?

7. Insert the London West End street names into "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" by the Kinks:- "They seek him here, they seek him there; In --- and ---".

8. In what year did Jimi Hendrix have a hit with "Hey Joe"?

9.Who "Heard it Through the Grapevine" in 1969?

10. In what year did Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones die?


Friday 6 September 2019

Recent Reads: Mud and Stars; by Sara Wheeler

In this delightful book, Sara Wheeler follows in the footsteps of the great Russian authors from the “Golden Age” between the defeat of Napoleon and the end of the 19th century: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy and others less well known in the West. She discusses their lives and works and travels through Russia visiting the sites where they lived, including the north Caucasus and remote parts of Siberia; staying in the homes of local people and chatting to them, to build up a picture of life in Putin’s Russia today. This is interspersed with anecdotes about the difficulty of learning the Russian language, and instructions on the correct pronunciations of the writers’ names. I would unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject.