British Music Trivia
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50 free British Music trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
British pop has a habit of turning the singles chart into a national event. Campaigns to block a talent-show winner, novelty acts outselling the biggest bands in the country, a football song that keeps coming back, and a chart rule rewritten because one artist filled the top 20 on his own. The stories behind the records are often better than the records. This quiz crosses eras and genres rather than dwelling on one band: the first UK singles chart and the firsts that followed, the Brit Awards at their most chaotic, the Mercury Prize and the albums it made, Two Tone, synth-pop and the Battle of Britpop, grime and UK garage, the labels and studios that shaped the sound, pirate radio and the BBC shows that broadcast it, and every kind of UK Eurovision night from triumph to nul points. It suits anyone who grew up with Top of the Pops or the Christmas number one race, pub quiz regulars looking for a music round, and anyone who wants to argue about whether the worst single ever made really deserved three weeks at number one.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which compilation series took its name from an old Danish bacon poster featuring a pig?
Now That's What I Call Music!
Now That's What I Call Music! got its name from a Danish Bacon poster Richard Branson found in a London shop and gave to Virgin's Simon Draper.
Q 02Which rap-metal band's 1992 single beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry to the 2009 Christmas number one?
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in the Name' got there through an online campaign, and the band thanked fans with a free London concert.
Q 03Whose 16 simultaneous top-20 entries in March 2017 pushed the UK chart to cap each artist at three songs?
Ed Sheeran
After Ed Sheeran's run, the July 2017 revamp that brought the cap also halved the streaming weight of older, fading songs, so they dropped out faster to make room for new releases.
Q 04Which Welsh singer is the only artist to have performed more than one official James Bond theme?
Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey also recorded 'Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' for Thunderball, but the producers wanted the film's title in the theme, so Tom Jones got the job.
Q 05Which pink, yellow-spotted Noel's House Party character had a UK Christmas number one in 1993?
Mr Blobby
Mr Blobby was knocked off the top after a week, then made a surprise return to number one on Christmas Day.
Q 06Whose 'Can We Fix It?' ended Westlife's run of seven straight number ones at Christmas 2000?
Bob the Builder
Bob the Builder's 'Can We Fix It?' sold over a million copies, yet NME later named it one of the worst songs of the 2000s.
Q 07Which YouTube couple's sausage-roll charity covers were Christmas number one five years running from 2018?
LadBaby
LadBaby gave the proceeds of their sausage-roll singles to the Trussell Trust, a charity that supports food banks.
Q 08Whose 'Spectre' theme, 'Writing's on the Wall', was the first James Bond song to reach UK number one?
Sam Smith
Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes wrote it in under half an hour, and the demo vocal was so good they kept it for the finished record.
Q 09Which Clydebank band spent 15 weeks at number one in 1994 with a cover from Four Weddings and a Funeral?
Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet covered the Troggs' 'Love Is All Around', and the royalties let writer Reg Presley fund his research into crop circles.
Q 10Which Britpop frontman invaded the stage during Michael Jackson's 'Earth Song' at the 1996 Brit Awards?
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker was detained by police after the stunt, and comedian Bob Mortimer, a qualified solicitor, spoke up for him.
Q 11Which deputy prime minister was drenched with iced water by Chumbawamba's singer at the 1998 Brit Awards?
John Prescott
John Prescott was soaked by Danbert Nobacon in protest at Labour's refusal to back striking Liverpool dockers, a cause the band had already name-checked from the stage that night.
Q 12Which Page 3 model co-hosted the notoriously shambolic 1989 Brit Awards alongside drummer Mick Fleetwood?
Samantha Fox
Samantha Fox blamed wrong cue cards and a broken Autocue, and the Brits were pre-recorded afterwards so that errors could be edited out.
Q 13Which album's cover shows the Beatles walking across a zebra crossing?
Abbey Road
Q 21Which Liverpool duo gave the UK its first Eurovision nul points, with 'Cry Baby' in 2003?
Jemini
Jemini blamed a technical fault for their off-key 'Cry Baby', saying they couldn't hear properly on stage.
Q 22Which singer lost Eurovision 1968 by a single point to Spain's 'La, la, la' with 'Congratulations'?
Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard's 'Congratulations' still went to number one in the UK and became a hit across Europe, despite the one-point defeat.
Q 23Which Specials single spent three weeks at number one in 1981 as riots broke out across English cities?
Ghost Town
Ghost Town grew from what Jerry Dammers saw touring a Britain he said was falling apart, with shops shuttered and industry closing down.
Abbey Road's cover followed a Paul McCartney sketch, and a policeman held up the traffic while Iain Macmillan shot it from a stepladder.
Q 14Which Wolverhampton glam band beat Wizzard to the 1973 Christmas number one?
Slade
Slade's 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is credited with starting the annual race for the Christmas number one, and since downloads began counting in 2007 it has re-entered the chart every December.
Q 15Which Sheffield band's 2006 debut became the fastest-selling debut album by a band in UK chart history?
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys built their following by giving away demo CDs at gigs, which fans then uploaded to sites like MySpace.
Q 16Which boy band's 1996 split announcement led the Samaritans to set up hotlines for distraught fans?
Take That
Take That's split came seven months after Robbie Williams quit, and his contract had barred him from releasing solo material until the group dissolved.
Q 17Which group assembled on ITV's Popstars: The Rivals went on to 20 consecutive top-ten singles?
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud's debut 'Sound of the Underground' beat the boy band from the same show, One True Voice, to the 2002 Christmas number one.
Q 18Which group's skirt-ripping routine won Eurovision 1981 for the UK with 'Making Your Mind Up'?
Bucks Fizz
Bucks Fizz were only formed in 1981, put together specifically to compete in that year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Q 19Which Cambridge band won Eurovision 1997 for the UK with 'Love Shine a Light'?
Katrina and the Waves
Katrina and the Waves were already famous for 1985's 'Walking on Sunshine', and their winning song had been shelved for years as 'a bit too Eurovisiony'.
Q 20Whose 'Space Man' took the UK to second place at Eurovision 2022 with 466 points?
Sam Ryder
Sam Ryder won the jury vote outright, just a year after the UK had finished last at Eurovision with nul points.
Q 24Which Camden Town ska band spent 214 weeks on the UK singles chart between 1980 and 1986?
Madness
Madness spent all those weeks on the chart yet scored just one number one, 'House of Fun', in 1982.
Q 25Who wrote and sang 'Are "Friends" Electric?', the 1979 synth-pop single that spent four weeks at number one?
Gary Numan
Gary Numan's 'Are "Friends" Electric?' later resurfaced in the Sugababes' 2002 number one 'Freak like Me', which sampled it.
Q 26Which label, co-founded by TV presenter Tony Wilson in 1978, released Joy Division and ran the Haçienda?
Factory Records
Factory Records' die-cut sleeve for New Order's 'Blue Monday' reportedly cost so much that early copies sold at a loss.
Q 27Which band's 1990 Spike Island gig in Widnes became a legendary moment of the Madchester era?
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses' Spike Island gig was dismissed at the time over sound problems and shambolic organisation, yet it became the stuff of legend.
Q 28Which MC won the 2003 Mercury Prize with his debut album 'Boy in da Corner'?
Dizzee Rascal
Dizzee Rascal was still a teenager when he won, and the album gave grime its first mainstream exposure.
Q 29Which Tottenham MC's 'Konnichiwa' won the 2016 Mercury Prize?
Skepta
Skepta's Konnichiwa came out on his own Boy Better Know label and beat albums by David Bowie and Radiohead to the prize.
Q 30Which Battersea garage collective topped the chart in August 2001 with '21 Seconds'?
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew named '21 Seconds' after the time each MC got for a verse, so the whole crew could fit on one single.