Ephemera Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Here's a little more detail on the bands in this quiz:

Space are from Liverpool and are fronted by Tommy Scott; they released their debut album 'Spiders' in 1996, which went platinum. 'Female of the Species', released the same year, was their breakthrough single. They split in 2002, but reformed with a new line-up in 2011 following the death of original drummer Andy Parle. Keyboardist Franny Griffiths and guitarist Jamie Murphy were the other returning members, though Murphy left in 2012, albeit briefly returning for the 'Spiders'/'Tin Planet' anniversary tour in 2023. Scott released a solo album, 'Marionette', in 2020.

Mansun were from Chester and released their debut album, 'Attack of the Grey Lantern', in 1997. The first single from it was 'Egg-Shaped Fred'. Its follow-up, 'Six', was extremely ambitious and featured Tom Baker on the track 'Witness to a Murder'. The band split up three years after releasing their third album, 'Little Kix', in 2000. (They would have been my first gig, but they moved their date forward as they were touring with the Manic Street Preachers, so Space it was.)

Ocean Colour Scene will be remembered by players of a certain age as the band who did 'The Riverboat Song', the introduction music for guests on 'TFI Friday'. From Birmingham, they were heavily influenced by Paul Weller and Northern soul, and went in at Number Two on the UK Album Chart with their 1996 album 'Moseley Shoals', following the success of the single 'The Day We Caught the Train'. Singer Simon Fowler was outed as gay by the 'Sun' in 1998. Footballer Dion Dublin joined the band onstage at a gig in 2011, playing his dube (a percussion instrument).

Originally from Southport, Gomez formed at Sheffield University. They had three singers, the most distinctive of which was the raspy-voiced Ben Ottewell. They won the Mercury Music Prize in 1998 with their debut album 'Bring It On', and covered the Beatles' 'Getting Better' for a Philips advert; the cover later appeared on 'Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline', a collection of B-sides and rarities, in 2000. Singles include '78 Stone Wobble', 'Whippin' Piccadilly' (a fan favourite in Manchester) and 'Shot Shot'.

Coldplay, led by Chris Martin, broke through with their 2000 single 'Yellow'; at the time I saw them supporting Gomez, they had released their second EP, 'The Blue Room'. They went on to tour with Muse, before hitting the big time with their second album, 'A Rush of Blood to the Head', in 2002. Coldplay collaborated on their fifth album, 'Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends', with Brian Eno in 2008. (In the '00s, I also saw them as the headliners at a gig, as a birthday present for my mum, who is a bigger fan than I am.)

The Lightning Seeds started out as the solo project of Ian Broudie, formerly of Big in Japan, but they became a proper band around the time of their third album 'Jollification'; when we saw them, they had released their fifth album 'Tilt'. Football fans may remember 'The Life of Riley', about Broudie's son (who later joined the band as a guitarist), soundtracking 'Goal of the Month' on 'Match of the Day' in the '90s. They collaborated with comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner on the Euro '96 England team anthem 'Three Lions'.

The first of the three Welsh bands in this quiz, the Manic Street Preachers - who released their debut album 'Generation Terrorists' in 1992 - started out as a quartet. However, guitarist and songwriter Richey Edwards went missing after the release of their (amazing) third album 'The Holy Bible', and the band continued as a trio. They released an album of previously unreleased songs by Edwards, 'Journal for Plague Lovers', in 2009, produced by the late Steve Albini.

Catatonia released their first album 'Way Beyond Blue' in 1996, but it was 1998's 'International Velvet' that made them famous, thanks to 'X-Files' cash-in single 'Mulder & Scully'. Cerys Matthews collaborated not only with Space on 'The Ballad of Tom Jones', but also with Jones the Voice himself on 'Baby It's Cold Outside'. After Catatonia split, she became a DJ on 6 Music and has released several solo albums in both Welsh and English.

The Deftones, the only non-British band in this quiz, are from Sacramento, California and released their debut album 'Adrenaline' in 1995. One song, '7 Words' - about police racism - had been written by Chino Moreno when he was just 16. At the time I saw them, they had released their self-titled fourth album. The band had their fair share of woes; Moreno struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, and bassist Chi Cheng was injured in a car accident from which he never recovered, and died in 2013. 'Saturday Night Wrist', released in 2008, was the last album to feature him.

Super Furry Animals released their debut album, 'Fuzzy Logic', in 1996. Their song 'The Man Don't Give a [Censored]', as you can probably guess, contains a certain swear word repeated a record number of times. Like Catatonia, they sang in both English and Welsh and released a Welsh language album, 'Mwng', in 2000. After their second hiatus, the band members, minus singer Gruff Rhys, performed as Das Koolies.