Popmaster

I like to think of myself as the fount of all knowledge when it comes to popular music. I’ve been an avid listener since the mid 1960s and the first thing I do every day is listen to the radio. When I was young, I listened to Radio 1, as I got older it was Radio 2 and these days it’s BBC 6 Music. 6 gives me the perfect combination of new, old and different music and it has seriously broadened my musical horizons, but not, it seems, as much as I thought.

Today, my partner invited me to play ‘Popmaster’ with her, that wonderful pop quiz section of Ken Bruce’s excellent Radio 2 show. I like Ken. He’s a Rolls Royce of a broadcaster and although it may not always seem like it he plays a far diverse mix of music than you’d find anywhere on commercial radio. Popmaster is simple. Two members of the public answer questions on pop music and the one with the most points has the opportunity to win a prize by naming three hits by a particular artist in 10 seconds. Today I was well stumped.

I am not a regular listener so I haven’t played Popmaster for a while, but it seemed far more tricky today. Usually, there are plenty of relative oldie questions but today there were far more from the modern era and those from back in the day were more obscure. I scored dismally in each section, not helping myself by not naming the correct year Alice Cooper reached the top of the charts with School’s Out. “1973”, I foolishly cried, knowing I was one year out. It was 1972 and what’s worse is I knew it.

I have often thought of appearing on the show but today killed off that hope forever. It was very hard and that was before Ken reached “three in 10”.

Ken started off: “Name three hits by…(pause for effect)…Jason Derulo.” Immediately, I turned into my grandfather. “Who?” Three hits? I couldn’t name one of his songs never mind three. Neither, to be fair, could Ken’s contestant. Then, Ken revealed Derulo had enjoyed something like 30 hits and he reeled off a series of titles which rang no bells at all. I was showing my ignorance in my own home. Imagine doing so before the best part of eight million listeners? I am the sort of person to have carried the trauma to my grave.

Much as I love Ken Bruce, I’ll take a rain check before I visit his show again. Popmaster today felt like University Challenge, where I make a few wild guesses and get about two questions per show right. There’s only so much humiliation you can endure.

It was probably the right thing to do to make Popmaster more difficult to win because some of those who did were irritating and boorish by equal measure. But if I’m getting almost everything wrong, I’ll carry on listening to something else.