Placebo Quiz with Brian Molko

In 2013 NME invited Brian to take part in a quiz series titled “Does Rock'n'Roll kill braincells?” in which the magazine “tested musicians memories after a life full of abuse”. Brian participated and was asked ten question concerning Placebo.
What do you think how many questions did he answer correctly? And what would your result be in this quiz?

Photo credit unknown

QUESTION 1
At which UK festival in 1997 did your monitors catch fire, prompting you to declare “I just rum those bitches too hard!”?
BRIAN: “T in the Park, it was an absolutely disastrous day, everything was going wrong from the start. There was a little incident backstage between myself and a stalker fan and I ended up pouring a beer over her head and the next day it was printed in The Scottish Sun that I had attacked her to the ground and thrown rocks at her head while celebrities watched, a complete fabrication. Then we went onstage and the monitors caught fire – it was one of those days, man!”.
CORRECT

QUESTION 2
Which 2005 film featured “Pure morning” on its soundtrack?
BRIAN: “Is it a Spanish film? I think it was directed by Bigas Luna.”
WRONG. It was “The Chumscrubber”.
BRIAN: “NO! We were in “The Chumscrubber”!? I've seen that film, I didn't even fucking realise! I'm holding the DVD in my hands right now. I'm gonna have to go back and watch that again. It's a film with Jamie Bell and Ralph Fiennes and Carrie-Ann Moss, an American indie film. You got me, you bastard!”

QUESTION 3
Name all the celibrity guest vocal appearances on your studio recordings in the order they appeared.
BRIAN: “Ok. David Bowie, Alison Mosshart and Michael Stipe.”
WRONG. David Bowie, Justin Warfield, Alison Mosshart and Michael Stipe.
BRIAN: “Is Justin a celebrity? He's a very good friend of mine and he's in She Wants Revenge. Ok, he's a celebrity, I'll give you that one. Ye bastard!”

QUESTION 4
Complete the lyric from “Black-eyed”: “Borderline bipolar...”
BRIAN: “... forever biting onyour nuts”. Just me acknowledging the fact that I'm an irritating little shit at times. Winding up people the wrong way just seems to be part of my nature, even if it isn't intentional. It's something that I do without trying. It's my cross to bear but I'm learning to live with it.”
CORRECT.

QUESTION 5
In how many countries was 2006's “Meds”album number one?
BRIAN: “Four.”
WRONG. Seven.
BRIAN: “Here I am forever underestimating myself! Shit, I'm doing really badly.”

QUESTION 6
Which venue were you prevented from playing twice – once because it was closed down following a drug raid before you arrived and once because it was hit by a cyclone?
BRIAN: “The Bikini in Toulouse, France.We did play there once with Six By Seven. That was the second time we showed up at the place, the first time it'd been closed down, and then we finally got to play and then the cyclone had taken in. They've since rebuilt it in a different place, where we've also played.”
CORRECT.

QUESTION 7
Which band's T-shirt were you wearing during your first Top of the Pops appearance for “Nancy Boy”?
BRIAN: “That was the AC Acoustic “Stunt girl” shirt. They were a very influential Scottish that never really broke through into any orm of indie success. They were very influential on the Glasgow sound.”
CORRECT.

QUESTION 8
What was the name of the fictional band you played in in “Velvet Goldmine”?
BRIAN: “The Flaming Creatures, which is actually a film and obviously a great influence on Todd Haynes. It's an early gay film in the style of Jean Ganet's silent films.”
CORRECT.

QUESTION 9
Which single had your cover of “Bigmouth strikes again” on the b-side?
BRIAN: “Hang on” … (long pause, sound of CDs being shuffled)
Are you cheating, Brian?
BRIAN: “I am cheating! It's “Nancy Boy”. Yay!”
CORRECT.

QUESTION 10
What unusual item are you playing on in the video for “The bitter end”?
BRIAN: “We're playing on Jodrell Bank, the big satellite dish the Americans used to spy on the British public by checking their emails and text messages. I don't know if you remember that scandal about ten years ago. It's also Cockney rhyming slang for masturbation.”
CORRECT.

TOTAL SCORE: 7/10
BRIAN: “I scored the same as Iggy [Pop], and I'm pretty happy about that. I just wanted to be up there with the Iggster. Actually I wanted to ace it, but the questions were too hard.”

(NME, “Does Rock'n'Roll kill braincells?”, June 2013)

Post by Silke