The woman sitting opposite you ... was she a looker?

But not to the same extent as my GLW, who was sitting to my right.

It's always been the case that most people regard music as background and care very little about the details. Thank heavens The Word and the Massive exists for those of us for whom music matters.

I once won a pub quiz sitting at the bar on my own,though i credited my dog as part of the time.
A few weeks later the quiz compiler asked me to be part of his team in a quiz in a pub in Hove. The music round was all Gilbert and Sullivan,most of the other question were on the old(Bamber)University Challenge level. I knew about 4 answers all night. I never did get to hear who designed the lamposts in Brunswick Square.

then I'm a genius too.

I'd agree that's all pretty basic stuff, but I'm only 24 and sometimes in pub quizzes I know the answers to music questions about stuff released - shock, horror! - before I was born.

About three years ago, I was at a quiz that had an album covers round. The fact I was able to identify Hotel California and Rumours amongst others almost led to me being burned as a witch.

Whereas once we'd be discussing the relative merits of the 5 bass players and 18 drummers credited on the latest Steely Dan album, pop fans nowadays are more concerned about whether so and so has had a boob job, is still seeing whoever and what they wore last night to a film premiere. As the Dan sang in "My Old School": "The things that pass for knowledge I just can't understand."

A bunch of us used to go to a great pub quiz in Leeds years ago. Carl Puttnam from Cud used to be the quizmeister (nobody remembers Cud, E...nobody is impressed). Oh all right then, it was Vashti Bunyan - a great pop quizmeistress she was and all!

Anyway, I must admit that whenever someone got an answer right that I couldn't answer, I thought they were a genius too. A team-mate correctly identified the introduction to Peace Frog by the Doors, and I was in awe...

I do think it's very anorak-y these days, though. Not quite the common cultural currency it used to be.

In music quizzes, if someone doesn't know something that you do, they're pointless, ill-educated thickoes who should take more interest in The World around them. If someone knows something you don't, they're hopeless, friendless anoraks who really should try to get a life.

If you get something others consider relatively obscure - like who sang Strawberry Fields Forever - you're seen as this rather bizarre Asperger's case who's clearly spent far too much time in their bedroom.

You, like me and I suspect the majority of the Massive, are not a musical genius. We just have a (tragic?) inability to forget stuff, which comes in handy for pub quizzes. John Coltrane was a musical genius.

I used to be a regular attendee at a music quiz in Stoke Newington, and one night the rest of the team couldn't make it so I went down by myself and came second. The prize for me that night was 8 free pints on a night of my choosing. The following Friday was my birthday so I drank the prize.

Some of that quiz was tough even for people who knew their music mind you, but yeah, I've been seen as a bit of a weirdo for knowing what year Sgt Pepper came out, or what the names of the bass players of The Jam, Duran Duran and The Who were.

8.30pm every Tuesday at The Lion, Stoke Newington on Church Street.
Hosted by Mistress Mel, its been going for years at various venues round Stokie.

I do it when we can get a proper team together as me and my mate are good but not that good to beat teams of 10. So if anyone fancies it, apply below.......

And to prove it, last year I took part in BBC Radio 4's Counterpoint, their really hard music quiz. A good number of the questions are on classical music, but they do cover other subjects. The second round is a 'specialist subject' one, but you have to pick from a list given out at the end of the first round, with the contestant with the most points getting the first choice. The final round is a quick-fire buzzer one.

I won my heat fair and square. I came top in the opening round, and so had first dibs on the next. I plumped for one on Death Discs and somehow managed to get full marks. That left me still in the lead, and despite not being as quick on the buzzer as the others I held on.

The semi-final that followed didn't go as well, mainly due to having a really awful set of specialist subjects to chose from. I ended up going for one on the music of animated feature films, and only managed to answer about half of them. By then I was too far behind to have any hope of catching up.

All that and I still can't find a job!

Once won a pub quiz with mate with our ( not very complicated) pop answers .An older bloke near us commented he had no idea about the handful of pop questions - wheras we said they were Ok ( being fairly general easy stuff ).

He gave us 6 or 7 hard naval military battles answers in exchange for a couple of ours .

We won by 1 point - collected our meagre winnings -and sneaked out embarrassedly.

But I did find it amusing that many people posted on twitter stating that To Make You Feel My Love and Nothing Compares 2 U on the X Factor were not American Anthems although they had been written by Dylan and Prince respectively.

I once had to dispute the results of a pub quiz. I'd answered 'Farrokh Bulsara' to the question 'What was Freddie Mercury's real name?' and the bloke gave me half marks because he had the answer as 'Frederick Bulsara'.

Next time, just smile sweetly and say "Why thank you".

It's human to admire something in others that we can't do ourselves.

I get "Ooooooh you're Nigella!" all the time from friends, just because I enjoy making cakes. There's nothing terribly difficult about it.

Same with music quizzes - I'm interested in music, I find it easy to remember intros and trivia. Doesn't make me a genius, but if someone wants to call me that, I'm not going to disagree!

No, not a pub quiz genius but when playing Trivial Pursuit most know not to allow me anywhere near the pink questions on Entertainment.

I seem to know most of them, which must be a fluke of huge proportions. Once I was in a 'he'll never get this one' situation. Victory was mine if I knew the answer to 'Which city did George Hamilton IV sing about?' Titters from all around me, thinking I was screwed. None of them having a notion who George Hamilton IV was.

'Abilene', I said.

'Bastard!', they said.

What I do find surprising is how little my immediate family know of modern music, ie that made in the past 40 years or so which they must have soaked up to some degree. I have a young nephew, Joe, who has taken a few guitar lessons recently. He's only 11 and isn't really fussed about music just yet and his interest in his guitar isn't strong. Still, he's learnt the basic root major chords so should he become keener in his teens he's ahead of the game.

Since he started playing I've tried to encourage him and talk about famous guitarists with him. Recently, when we meet, I've taken to greeting him by singing the intro riff to Hey Joe and the first line, 'Hey Joe! Where you goin' with that gun in yo' hand?' (in my role as his Most Embarrasing Uncle, you see)

This has been met with absolute bafflement by his parents, my sister in law and brother in law, both just a couple of years younger than me. So much so I had to explain to them both not only that 'Hey Joe' was Hendrix's breakthrough single but also who Hendrix was. Something I thought would be common knowledge to anyone my age.

But it isn't.

I am on the look out for a good pub quiz in central or south west London. Anyone know of any and does anyone need an extra member (ooh er)?

(Overheard pop quiz question)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brain-Men-Passion-Marcus-Berkmann/dp/0316847690/...

I'm sure many of the Massive will recognise themselves.

I reckon the in-depth musical knowledge has suffered as a result of the loss of the LP cover. We don't sit and pore over all the details whilst listening to a CD as we used to with vinyl. I find these days that people around 20 struggle to name all four Beatles!

Am i fuck.

Just good at remembering music trivia (50 years experience)

Won me the top prize in a pub quiz on my first visit to my university 'old man' local. Adding that they were from Egremont was a wholly unnecessary addition from me as it wasn't worth a thing.

After winning a pub music quiz the other month, we were accused by half the pub of cheating. We must have used our mobile's to have got those answers was the most common accusation.I know the people who ran the quiz, and they said that they'd aimed it at a general audience, nothing obscure maybe a few tricky name that year questions (which if you don't know you can always have a stab at). Are you not actually allowed to know stuff anymore?

I attend a pub quiz about once a month with a couple of mates. Unfortunately the music questions that generally come up require a knowledge of the singles charts from the mid 90s on. We've changed venues a couple of times, but are still looking for a 50+ friendly quiz.

in Majorca this year, the GLW and myself entered a pub that was having a quiz night. Anyroads we partook of the quiz and finished joint first with four guys from Doncaster. The tie break Q was "Which sportsman was known as The Louisville Lip?" Ahah, sealed answers please. Cassius Clay was mine, and Mohammed Ali was the Donie boys one. Guess what? I lost, despite explaining that Clay and Ali were one and the same..... The Quizmeister had never heard of Cassius Clay.
"It's not the answer I have on here". A similar incident took place in a SERIOUS quiz some years ago when the question was "Who was the last of the Mohicans? Our team got it right, the Quizzer got it wrong. Go on Massive. Whats your answer?

...it's Daniel Day Lewis.

What? Anyway Sir James, be a good chap and go on to Youtube a search for "countdown wankers". The 2003 version, not the later one and you will find Gino Corr... he was the quizmaster who got it wrong... go and put it up for me on thise page please. Please?

I hosted a pop quiz about 20 years ago for work and I tried to be a bit smart with a question that went:

"With which song did The Beatles celebrate their first number one?"

My answer was Please Please Me, because I had seen a drawing in a book of them celebrating in the studio, with a speech bubble from George Martin saying "Boys, Please Please Me is Number One!".
I think that is because there was more than one chart around at the time.

Anyway, bloke married to quiet lady in accounts decides to take issue with me on that one. He goes home, gets the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, comes back and points to the entry where it says No 2.

I stood firm though and have never felt so hated by another human being. His team lost by one point as well. Oh dear.

... did anyone see The X-Factor at the weekend? It was Elton John theme week (rather strange, bearing in mind that Reg has been very disparaging of XF in the publicity duties for "The Union" album, but whatever...), and one contestant did "Crocodile Rock", after which the fragrant Cheryl Cole declared quite happily that she'd never heard that song before, but really liked it...

Now notwithstanding that this song was a hit 11 years before she was born (feeling old yet?), and also that I'm not 100% sure how conversant I'd be with hits from 11 years before my birth (i.e. from 1952 in my case), I was still quite floored by this - am I wrong?