Pop Quiz Report
Pub: The Rosemary Branch, Shepperton Road, N1. It looks like this is the latest addition to the estate of the Remarkable Restaurant Company because it has the same style and the same beers as The Approach and The Swimmers. Still a good thing but too many of these and the formula will bore. It seemed like an extremely friendly kind of place, though.
Prize: beer vouchers worth ’20, ’10 and ‘5 for winners and runners-up of the main quiz. Rolling jackpot currently at a low ’25 having been won last week (at a handsome ’70) by the nice Go-Betweens enthusiasts we got talking to.
Quizmaster: really very good, didn’t take it too seriously or too un-seriously. Didn’t see it is his opportunity to perform. Friendly at all times but batted back requests for clues with a smile and a “well I’ll be telling you the answer in a minute anyway.” His brother’s doing the quiz for the next few weeks due to his music-related commitments, apparently (i.e. he’s off being a sound engineer on some tour). Bearing that in mind, could have done with a slightly better p.a.
Quiz: decent. Monday nights, except Bank Holidays. Picture round followed by one round of 20 questions and one music round (a straightforward ‘name the song and the artist’ round, no messing about). After that, a devilish 3-question jackpot round. ‘2.50 entry fee per team. Maximum team size seemed to be six but that wasn’t too clear.
Questions: the chasm between the easy questions you need to make it fun for all and the sheep-from-goats questions was a little wide sometimes (“From which song did “I’m never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm” come?” vs. ‘How many top ten hits has Dannii Minogue had?” or “Which future international star was sacked from a Saturday job in a BHS stockroom for not wearing a shirt and tie?”). But fun. We only had one point of issue with the questions, which is a miracle in itself, and even that wasn’t really an issue: “Meat Is Murder” was referred to as the second Smiths LP. Thing is, if he’d said it was the third we’d probably have told him it was the second… you have to let them know you’re watching them.
Will I go again? Of course. We have a ’20 beer voucher to spend.