Thee Billy Childish Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dyslexia

Billy Childish spent his first few months after leaving school working as an apprentice stone mason in Chatham. During his tea breaks he would draw to pass the time. According to Wikipedia he produced around 600 drawings during those few months.

Answer: He was expelled

Billy didn't like the tutor's idea of unimaginative art and they didn't like his "toilet wall humour". He was expelled from the course and spent the next few years on the dole performing poetry and writing songs.

Answer: The Pop Rivets

The Pop Rivets were: Billy Childish, Bruce Brand, Russell Wilkins and Russell Lax. They got together in 1977 and recorded their first album "Greatest Hits" a year later which was funded with a loan from a friend. They split in 1980 after exhaustively touring Germany and Switzerland.

Answer: The Medway Poets

The Medway Poets were: Billy Childish, Sexton Ming, Charles Thomson, Bill Lewis, Rob Earl and Miriam Carney, they performed in pubs and literary festivals from 1979 onwards. An album "The Medway Poets" was released on Childish's own label "Hangman" in 1988.

Answer: Thee Milkshakes

Billy Childish was told that he released too many records, his response to this was to release four albums on four different labels in four different countries all on the same day in 1984!
The rest of the year was fairly quiet with only two other Milkshakes albums being released...

Answer: My Fault

"My Fault" documents the journey of a young boy whose childhood is blighted by mental and sexual abuse through to his difficult adolescence. Some book reviewers describe "My Fault" as semi-autobiographical, Childish himself, when giving rare interviews says the book is entirely fictitious.

Answer: Tracey Emin

Charles Thomson took the name from Billy Childish's "Poem for a Pissed off Wife" which detailed his relationship with artist Tracey Emin and her insult "Your paintings are stuck, you are stuck! - Stuck! stuck! stuck!". "The Stuckist Art Movement's" manifesto contained the statement "Artists who don't paint aren't artists".

This did not go down well with Emin who ended their fourteen year friendship.

Answer: Keep your man in mind

Childish has released over a hundred albums since his first with The Pop Rivets. In the Eighties he released albums as The Milkshakes, Thee Milkshakes, The Mighty Ceasars, The Del Monas, Wild Billy Childish, Billy Childish & Sexton Ming, Jack Ketch & the Crowmen, Wild Billy Childish & the Blackhands, Thee Headcoats and lastly as Wild Billy Childish & the Natural Born Lovers!

Answer: Billy Childish is dead

Graham Bendel spent three years filming Billy with a borrowed camcorder. The documentary contains archive footage of Billy performing his music and poetry, as well as at home talking about his troubled childhood, his family and his art.

Answer: This is This

Billy Childish was just as prolific in the Nineties as he was in the Eighties, releasing albums as Thee Headcoats, Billy Childish featuring The Singing Loins, Thee Headcoats featuring Thee Headcoatees, Thee Headcoats Sect, Billy Childish & his Famous Headcoats, Billy Childish & Sexton Ming and lastly as Billy Childish & Holly Golightly!