I got it into my head last weekend that I was going to assemble a crack team of music nerds and conquer Phantom FM's table quiz in the Sugar Club on Wednesday night. I had heard an ad for it on the radio, you see. I don't actually have a radio, so when I do get to hear it I get a little overexcited. Team-mates turned out to be a little hard to come by, which baffled me. It had all the elements of a great night; music, booze and nerdage. With the faint glimmer of glory and prizes beyond my wildest imagination. Oh, and it was for charity. Win-Win, as they say.
I finally badgered a few mates into it with a promise to feed them beforehand. We had a few drinkies with dinner, just to be sociable, but as I didn't have the foresight to get any wine or beer in, the drinkies were perhaps a little spirit-heavy... We were in flying form by the time we headed off to the Sugar Club, though admittedly a little late and reeking of garlic. The ticket said doors open at 8(we'd bought it in advance, not very rock-n-roll). We barrelled in at 9, full of the joys... to find them finishing round 1, and happily occupying every seat in the house. Bastards. So we stood around like panicky and slightly drunk pricks for a few minutes til one of the nice lackeys sorted us out with answer sheets and gave us a hurried read through round 1's questions (in the middle of yer man calling them out for round 2, which was distracting). We rocked round 2 though, the "cheezy pop" one, as not many of the musos knew the Cheeky Girls' hit "Touch my Bum" or that Gary Barlow's debut was "Forever Love". Rock-n-roll indeed. Our smug sense of self satisfaction was added to when the bar staff presented us with a table and 5 stools they'd magicked up from nowhere. Special treatment all round! We celebrated by naming our team ("Sorry We're Late") and getting another round in.
Of course, once the real questions began we were rightly humbled. I love music, but... I've a head like a sieve when it comes to detail, I'm numerically dyslexic so can't remember release dates and I download all my music for free and never see any album artwork. I can sing along, but heaven forbid I'd have to name the tune. So I wasn't much good. We had a secret weapon however in Peadar an Gruaig* who seems to know everything about everything and is only slightly smug about it.
Our downfall was that we had a major handicap in Eimhear Rua** as she was acting as secretary, and seems to be dyslexic. Or at least on a very different tangent when it comes to spelling. I don't know if we were penalised for "Deaf Leopard" but we probably should have been. The one that made me laugh drink up my nose was when The Gruaig whispered "Black Dog!" (correctly identifying the intro in the audio round) and Eimhear transcribed it as "Black Doll". No, sez he, "woof woof"! Which she duly put down as the name of the band.
We came 8th, i think, out of 20 or so teams. So we didn't do too badly... considering.
*His real name
**Her real name
I finally badgered a few mates into it with a promise to feed them beforehand. We had a few drinkies with dinner, just to be sociable, but as I didn't have the foresight to get any wine or beer in, the drinkies were perhaps a little spirit-heavy... We were in flying form by the time we headed off to the Sugar Club, though admittedly a little late and reeking of garlic. The ticket said doors open at 8(we'd bought it in advance, not very rock-n-roll). We barrelled in at 9, full of the joys... to find them finishing round 1, and happily occupying every seat in the house. Bastards. So we stood around like panicky and slightly drunk pricks for a few minutes til one of the nice lackeys sorted us out with answer sheets and gave us a hurried read through round 1's questions (in the middle of yer man calling them out for round 2, which was distracting). We rocked round 2 though, the "cheezy pop" one, as not many of the musos knew the Cheeky Girls' hit "Touch my Bum" or that Gary Barlow's debut was "Forever Love". Rock-n-roll indeed. Our smug sense of self satisfaction was added to when the bar staff presented us with a table and 5 stools they'd magicked up from nowhere. Special treatment all round! We celebrated by naming our team ("Sorry We're Late") and getting another round in.
Of course, once the real questions began we were rightly humbled. I love music, but... I've a head like a sieve when it comes to detail, I'm numerically dyslexic so can't remember release dates and I download all my music for free and never see any album artwork. I can sing along, but heaven forbid I'd have to name the tune. So I wasn't much good. We had a secret weapon however in Peadar an Gruaig* who seems to know everything about everything and is only slightly smug about it.
Our downfall was that we had a major handicap in Eimhear Rua** as she was acting as secretary, and seems to be dyslexic. Or at least on a very different tangent when it comes to spelling. I don't know if we were penalised for "Deaf Leopard" but we probably should have been. The one that made me laugh drink up my nose was when The Gruaig whispered "Black Dog!" (correctly identifying the intro in the audio round) and Eimhear transcribed it as "Black Doll". No, sez he, "woof woof"! Which she duly put down as the name of the band.
We came 8th, i think, out of 20 or so teams. So we didn't do too badly... considering.
*His real name
**Her real name
