130 Fun Facts About Punk Rock

Which Bowery club, opened by Hilly Kristal in December 1973, became the cradle of New York punk?

CBGB stood for Country, Bluegrass and Blues, the music Kristal first meant to book; he called the bands that took over "street rock", but the word punk is the one that stuck.

By the end of 1974 the Ramones had played seventy-four shows, each lasting roughly how long?

17 minutes was a full Ramones set in 1974 because the songs were so fast and so short: most clocked in at under two minutes.

Which band formed from the audience of the Sex Pistols' June 1976 Lesser Free Trade Hall gig?

Joy Division began the next day, when Peter Hook borrowed £35 from his mother to buy a bass; he and Bernard Sumner played as Warsaw before taking the famous name.

The Damned's October 1976 single, regarded as the first UK punk rock single, was called what?

"New Rose", released by Stiff Records on 22 October 1976, beat the Pistols' debut single to the shops by over a month; the Vibrators followed with "We Vibrate" in November.

The Sex Pistols' notorious 1976 Bill Grundy interview happened because they filled a vacancy left by which band?

EMI labelmates Queen dropped out of Thames Television's Today programme on 1 December 1976, so the Pistols were sent instead; the swearing that followed put punk on the front pages.

Which Sex Pistols instrumentalist did most of the swearing at Bill Grundy on live television in 1976?

Steve Jones, the band's guitarist, let rip after Grundy told Siouxsie Sioux "we'll meet afterwards" and dared him to say something outrageous; Johnny Rotten had muttered only one swear word.

Where did the Sex Pistols play their first gig on November 6, 1975?

Saint Martin's School of Art was where bassist Glen Matlock studied, so he arranged the slot supporting Bazooka Joe, whose own bassist later found fame as Adam Ant.

The future Sex Pistols started out under which name, borrowed from a Roxy Music song?

The Strand, named after Roxy Music's "Do the Strand", began with three teenagers; by their singer's own account, he and the drummer played on instruments he had stolen.

Which fashion designer ran the King's Road boutique Sex with Malcolm McLaren, dressing the early Sex Pistols?

Vivienne Westwood taught in a primary school until 1971, when she and McLaren opened their shop at 430 King's Road; renamed Sex in 1974, it became the future Pistols' hangout.

Which Sex Pistols single reached number two on the UK chart in June 1977?

God Save the Queen came out on 27 May 1977 and stalled at number two in Jubilee week behind Rod Stewart, amid claims the chart had been fixed to keep it off the top.

Who was arrested at the 100 Club Punk Festival in 1976 after a thrown glass blinded a girl in one eye?

Sid Vicious, who had drummed for Siouxsie and the Banshees the night before, was held at Ashford Remand Centre; press coverage of the incident hardened punk's reputation as a social menace.

Which Australian band was the first punk group outside the US to release a record, "(I'm) Stranded" in 1976?

The Saints, from Brisbane, self-released "(I'm) Stranded" in September 1976; co-founder Ed Kuepper hated the first Ramones album because he knew his band would be labelled copyists despite playing that way for years.

Which Sydney band, named after a misheard Stooges lyric, built Australia's early punk scene around the Oxford Tavern?

Radio Birdman took over the running of the Oxford Tavern and renamed it the Oxford Funhouse; their own name twists a line from the Stooges' song "1970".

Which Ohio city's early-1970s scene produced Rocket from the Tombs, Electric Eels and later Pere Ubu?

Cleveland's scene billed its Rocket from the Tombs and Electric Eels shows as "Extermination Night"; Rocket guitarist Cheetah Chrome went on to the Dead Boys.

Devo spearheaded a movement named after which Ohio city?

Akron gave its name to the late-1970s "Akron sound" after Devo's success sent talent scouts combing the city; the Cramps also lived there before moving to New York in 1975.

The Stooges, fronted by Iggy Pop, came from which Michigan city?

Ann Arbor is where Iggy Pop had drummed in local bands as a teenager; the Stooges made their 1967 debut there at a Halloween party in their own shared house.

Which former Velvet Underground member produced the Stooges' 1969 debut album?

John Cale, the Velvet Underground's viola player until 1968, produced The Stooges' debut in 1969 and later the Modern Lovers' demos that became their self-titled album.

What was the title of the MC5's influential February 1969 debut album?

Kick Out the Jams was recorded live at Detroit's Grande Ballroom; when Hudson's department store refused to stock it, the band's obscene newspaper ad against the store got them dropped by Elektra.

Which critic ironically called Iggy Pop "that Stooge punk" in the December 1970 issue of Creem?

Lester Bangs wrote it in a long Stooges essay that mocked more mainstream rock musicians; within months Creem writers were applying "punk rock" to mid-1960s garage acts.

Ed Sanders, quoted in the first known print use of "punk rock" in 1970, co-founded which New York band?

The Fugs were started in late 1964 by Sanders and fellow poet Tuli Kupferberg; his "punk rock" described his own solo album, a year before the critics usually credited with coining the phrase.

Whose liner notes for the 1972 anthology Nuggets applied "punk rock" to 1960s garage bands?

Lenny Kaye, who compiled the Nuggets double album for Elektra, used "punk rock" for the garage bands in his notes; he went on to play guitar in the Patti Smith Group for decades.

Which 1966 hit was Question Mark & the Mysterians' biggest song?

"96 Tears" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1966; Dave Marsh later described the band as giving a "landmark exposition of punk rock" in Creem in May 1971.

Which garage-rock standard, once investigated by the FBI over its slurred lyrics, is often called punk rock's "ur-text"?

Louie Louie, in the Kingsmen's 1963 recording, baffled the FBI, which gave up after failing to make out the words; the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" was among the songs it influenced.

When William Shakespeare used the word "punk" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, what did it mean?

Prostitute was the Elizabethan sense of the word; it later shifted to mean a young hustler, gangster or hoodlum before rock critics attached it to music in the early 1970s.

Which instruction ended the famous fanzine drawing of three guitar chords?

Now form a band was the punchline of a three-chord diagram printed in the fanzine Sideburns, though it is often wrongly credited to the better-known Sniffin' Glue.

Which Richard Hell song, played in Television's early sets, became the anthem of the New York scene?

Blank Generation was Hell's rewrite of a 1959 record, "The Beat Generation"; he took it with him when he left Television and made it the title track of his Voidoids' debut album.

Patti Smith's 1974 debut single, often called the first punk record, paired "Hey Joe" with which B-side?

Piss Factory is a spoken-word piece about the alienation Smith felt working on a factory assembly line and her dream of escaping to New York; the single came out on her own Mer label.

Which band did Richard Hell form after Television, with ex-Dolls Thunders and Nolan?

Hell formed The Heartbreakers in 1975 but left in early 1976 to found the Voidoids, described as one of punk's most harshly uncompromising groups.

"Chinese Rocks", co-written by Richard Hell and a Ramone, takes its title from a strong form of which drug?

Heroin is what the song's addict goes out to score; the Ramones refused to record it because of its drug theme and did not put out their own version for years.

Which label released the Ramones' debut album in April 1976?

Sire Records, run by Seymour Stein, issued Ramones on 23 April 1976; the band had needed only seven days and about $6,400 to record it.

Which Ramone shouted "1-2-3-4!" at the start of every song?

Dee Dee Ramone, the bassist, kept the rapid-fire count-in after handing lead vocals to Joey; he was also the band's most prolific songwriter and went on writing for them after quitting in 1989.

Which Ramones album, their third in nineteen months, opens with "Cretin Hop" and includes "Teenage Lobotomy"?

Rocket to Russia, released in November 1977, was the last album with the original four: drummer Tommy Ramone left the line-up the next year to concentrate on producing.

Which hardcore band's 1981 Saturday Night Live set turned the studio into a chaotic slam-dancing pit?

Fear got the Halloween 1981 slot because John Belushi lobbied for them, and he joined the slam dancers along with future scene figures Ian MacKaye, Harley Flanagan and John Brannon.

Bad Brains launched the Washington D.C. hardcore scene in 1980 with which rapid-fire single?

"Pay to Cum", the band's 1980 debut single, clocked in at about ninety seconds; Bad Brains, an all-black band, later relocated to New York and joined its growing hardcore scene.

Minor Threat, SS Decontrol and 7 Seconds built which movement based on abstinence from drink and drugs?

Straight edge took its name from Minor Threat's 1981 song "Straight Edge"; the movement rejected the self-destructive lifestyles of hardcore peers in favour of positivity.

Discharge, founded in 1977, established which punk subgenre in the early 1980s?

D-beat is named for the Discharge drumbeat that the band's early-1980s records, such as Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (1982), spread worldwide; Amebix and Antisect developed crust around the same time.

Napalm Death, Carcass and Extreme Noise Terror defined which extreme genre in the mid-1980s?

Grindcore got its name, by Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris's account, because "grind" was the only word he had for an early Swans record.

Which band's terrace-chant singles "If the Kids Are United" and "Hurry Up Harry" both reached the UK top ten in 1978?

Sham 69 formed in Hersham, Surrey, and their football-style singalongs showed the way for the Oi! bands, a second wave that wanted punk to keep a working-class, street-level following.

Which band's pre-song shout, used instead of a count-in, helped give a punk subgenre its name?

Cockney Rejects singer Stinky Turner bellowed "Oi!" before songs instead of the usual "1, 2, 3, 4!"; journalist Garry Bushell drew on the shout in 1980 to label the whole street-punk movement.

Which anarcho-punk band grew out of the commune at Dial House, a 16th-century cottage in Essex?

Crass formed at Dial House when its founder Penny Rimbaud began jamming with house guest Steve Ignorant; their own Crass Records then released other anarcho-punk bands.

What was the late-1970s British ska revival around the Specials, Madness and the Selecter known as?

Two Tone took its name from 2 Tone Records, the Coventry label Jerry Dammers of the Specials founded in 1979; punk had primed the ground, as the Clash, the Slits and the Ruts all absorbed reggae rhythms.

Which Green Day album, their 1994 major-label debut, features "Basket Case" and "Longview"?

Dookie is named for the "liquid dookie" the band suffered after eating spoiled food on tour; the planned title Liquid Dookie was shortened before release.

Epitaph Records, home of NOFX and the Offspring in 1994, was founded by the guitarist of which band?

Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz started Epitaph to release his own band's records, naming it after a King Crimson song; in 1994 it put out Smash, Punk in Drublic and Let's Go in a single year.

Which Offspring single from 1998's Americana opens with a mock-German count-in sampled from Def Leppard?

Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) mocks wannabe gangstas who take up hip-hop style because it is trendy; its gibberish intro was first said by Def Leppard's producer in place of "one, two, three, four".

Which 1999 Blink-182 album, their first with drummer Travis Barker, includes "All the Small Things"?

Enema of the State followed Barker's arrival from the Aquabats: he first stood in on tour for the band's absent drummer, learning the 20-song set in about 45 minutes before the show.

Which Sum 41 single from All Killer No Filler topped the US Alternative chart in 2001?

Fat Lip was the last song finished for the album and was never meant to be a single; the band bumped "In Too Deep" from that slot once everyone fell for its jokey rap verses.

A 1993 advertising campaign claimed which car was "like punk rock"?

The Subaru Impreza was sold in a 1993 US campaign as "like punk rock"; by then punk trappings were routinely used to market highly commercial acts as "rebels".

Roughly how much did Nirvana spend recording Bleach, their 1989 debut album?

$600 is about right: the studio bill was $606.17, paid by guitarist Jason Everman, who is credited and pictured on the sleeve even though he did not play on the album.

Which city, home of K Records, hosted the 1991 riot grrrl night billed "Love Rock Revolution Girl Style Now"?

Olympia, Washington staged it as the opening night of the six-day International Pop Underground Convention; a teenage Corin Tucker, later of Sleater-Kinney, played her first show on the bill.

Which art punk group did Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna form in 1998?

Le Tigre began because Hanna wanted to play her solo Julie Ruin songs live but not alone, so she recruited Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning, who had helped make a Julie Ruin video.

Which member of Rage Against the Machine declared in 2016 that "Rage is a punk band"?

Bassist Tim Commerford argued in a 2016 interview that the band's ethics were punk because it never did anything anyone wanted it to do.

Which band's 1977 debut single "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" never charted but became a punk essential?

X-Ray Spex began after Poly Styrene saw the Sex Pistols play to an empty hall on Hastings Pier and advertised for "young punx who want to stick it together".

The Clash's debut album included a cover of which recent Jamaican reggae hit?

Police and Thieves was Junior Murvin's 1976 hit, produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry; Bob Marley answered the Clash's cover with "Punky Reggae Party", which name-checks the band.

Which December 1979 Clash album mixed punk with reggae, ska, R&B and rockabilly to wide acclaim?

London Calling shows Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage in New York on its cover, with lettering copied from Elvis Presley's debut album in tribute to rock and roll's past.

The Clash were widely accused of "selling out" in 1977 for signing with which record company?

The Clash signed to CBS in January 1977 for a reported 100,000 pounds, prompting fanzine editor Mark Perry to write that punk died that day; the same accusation followed Green Day onto major labels in the 1990s.

Which Covent Garden club, run by Andrew Czezowski, was London's first dedicated punk venue?

The Roxy, on Neal Street, opened as a punk club in December 1976; the Clash headlined on 1 January 1977, and Don Letts' reggae DJ sets there spread the music among punks.

Who co-wrote The Boy Looked at Johnny, an early book on punk, with Julie Burchill?

Tony Parsons, then an NME writer like Burchill, co-wrote The Boy Looked at Johnny, subtitled "The Obituary of Rock and Roll", which declared punk dead almost as soon as it had started.

Which self-released Buzzcocks EP became a benchmark for the DIY ethic in British punk?

Spiral Scratch, released on the band's own New Hormones label in January 1977, set the DIY benchmark; the Manchester band had formed after seeing the Pistols in February 1976.

Which designer's "anarchy flag" poster and other Sex Pistols work helped establish punk's visual aesthetic?

Jamie Reid, a friend of McLaren from art school, designed the torn-flag poster for "Anarchy in the U.K.", released on 26 November 1976; his ransom-note lettering defined the Pistols' look.

The Cramps and South London's the Meteors were innovators in which fusion style?

Psychobilly takes its name from the "psychobilly Cadillac" in Johnny Cash's 1976 hit "One Piece at a Time"; the Cramps borrowed the word for their gig flyers, and the Meteors built a scene on it.

Milwaukee's Violent Femmes jumpstarted which American fusion scene, as the Pogues did across the Atlantic?

Folk punk had a storybook start: the Pretenders' guitarist found the Violent Femmes busking outside a Milwaukee theatre in 1981, and the band was invited to play at that night's show.

Which 1980 Dead Kennedys single takes aim at privileged college students who don't know how good they have it?

Holiday in Cambodia packs its smug student off to Pol Pot's Cambodia; singer Jello Biafra says his later refusal to license it for a Levi's advert is what led his bandmates to sue him.

Which future hip-hop stars debuted in 1981 as a New York hardcore band?

Beastie Boys cut the hardcore EP Polly Wog Stew in 1982; their turn to rap began as a joke with "Cooky Puss", a 1983 single built around a prank call to an ice-cream shop.

In LA around 1979, older "Hollywood punks" had rivals in younger suburban hardcore fans known as what kind of punks?

Beach punks got the name because hardcore took off in the shoreline communities of the South Bay and Orange County, while Hollywood had been the heart of LA's original punk scene.

Los Saicos, a 1960s band retrospectively credited with pioneering punk, came from which country?

Peru's capital Lima, where Los Saicos formed in 1964, has a marble plaque claiming the global punk movement was born there; their 1965 hit "Demolición" urges listeners to smash up a train station.

Which band of American ex-G.I.s based in West Germany made a 1966 album now hailed as a forerunner of punk?

The Monks, five ex-servicemen who stayed on in Germany, shaved tonsures and wore ropes as neckties; Black Monk Time, their only album, fused beat music with raucous garage rock.

Which New York duo, formed in 1970, was one of the earliest acts to describe its own music as "punk"?

Suicide, the duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev, billed their gigs as "punk music" or a "punk mass" for a couple of years, well before the New York scene adopted the word.

What was the title of the Dead Boys' debut album, released in 1977?

Young, Loud and Snotty, produced by Genya Ravan, opens with "Sonic Reducer"; guitarist Cheetah Chrome had carried the song over from Rocket from the Tombs.

Sonic Youth grew out of which late-1970s New York scene, associated with Lydia Lunch and James Chance?

No wave, documented on Brian Eno's 1978 compilation No New York, rejected the rock conventions of the downtown clubs; Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo emerged from its circles in 1981.

Which band's 1995 album ...And Out Come the Wolves went gold within months as ska punk broke through in the US?

Rancid stayed on the independent Epitaph despite being courted by major labels, including Madonna's Maverick; ...And Out Come the Wolves, released in August 1995, went gold in January 1996.

Which short-lived Liverpool punk band's members went on to Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the KLF and the Lightning Seeds?

Big in Japan lasted from 1977 to 1978, but its farewell EP became the first release on Zoo Records, the label that went on to issue early work by Echo & the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes.

Stiff Little Fingers formed in which city, far from the London punk scene?

Stiff Little Fingers formed in Belfast in 1977, writing "Suspect Device" and "Alternative Ulster" about the Troubles; the Skids, from Dunfermline in Scotland, formed in the same second wave.

Which Anaheim band, with Boston's Mighty Mighty Bosstones, led the mid-1990s ska punk boom?

No Doubt formed in Anaheim in 1986; their 1995 breakthrough Tragic Kingdom drew on the break-up of singer Gwen Stefani and bassist Tony Kanal, which inspired its biggest hit, "Don't Speak".

Which Australian "punkabilly" band became major stars at home with its self-titled 1998 debut?

The Living End's self-titled 1998 debut topped the Australian chart on the back of "Prisoner of Society"; the trio's rockabilly-punk hybrid arrived at the height of the North American pop-punk boom.

Alongside the mall chain Hot Topic, which festival launched by Kevin Lyman in 1995 brought punk further into the US mainstream?

Warped Tour began as an eclectic alternative rock festival; after its first year the skate-shoe maker Vans became title sponsor and the bill narrowed towards punk.

Jon Savage outlined the concept of post-punk in the November 1977 "New Musick" issue of which magazine?

Sounds ran its "New Musick" special in late November 1977; Savage used it to survey the acts already pushing beyond punk's three-chord template.

In which London district, home to a large Asian community, was the Hambrough Tavern firebombed during a 1981 Oi! gig?

Southall's Hambrough Tavern burned in July 1981 after local Asian youths, who believed the show by the Business, the 4-Skins and the Last Resort was a white-power gathering, clashed with skinheads and police.

Which song by the Exploited gave the Scottish band's 1981 debut album its title?

Punks Not Dead opened the Exploited's 1981 debut as a retort to critics who had written the genre off; the album reached number 20 in the UK.

The Dr. Martens boot, later a punk staple, began with a German army doctor who injured himself doing what?

Skiing: Klaus Märtens built an air-cushioned sole in 1945 to ease the injury, and at first most pairs sold to women over 40; the British work boot of 1960 passed from postmen to skinheads and then punks.

Before settling on their famous name, Black Flag formed in California in 1976 under what name?

Panic became Black Flag in late 1978 to avoid confusion with another band of the same name; Raymond Pettibon, brother of guitarist Greg Ginn, suggested the new name and drew its four-bar logo.

The Ramones took their shared surname from a pseudonym once used by which member of the Beatles?

Paul McCartney billed himself as Paul Ramon when the Beatles were still the Silver Beetles. Every Ramone adopted the surname, though none of them were related.

The Clash's 1979 album cover showing Paul Simonon smashing his bass copies the lettering of whose debut LP?

Elvis Presley's first album had the same lettering down the side and along the bottom, which designer Ray Lowry borrowed as a homage. Photographer Pennie Smith thought her shot was too out of focus to use.

The letters in the name of New York punk club CBGB stood for country, bluegrass and which other genre?

Blues was the third genre in owner Hilly Kristal's original plan for the club. Punk and new wave bands such as Television and Talking Heads made it famous instead.

The Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go hit UK number one in 1991 after which brand's TV advert?

Levi's used the song in a jeans commercial, and the reissue became the Clash's only UK number-one single, almost a decade after its first release.

Which 1999 skateboarding game has a soundtrack credited with spreading punk rock to millennials?

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater set its urban skate parks to punk and ska punk tracks. It launched a long-running franchise and is often ranked among the greatest video games ever made.

Which boot, built on an air-cushioned sole from post-war Germany, became a punk and skinhead staple?

Dr. Martens began with Klaus Märtens, a German army doctor who redesigned his boots after injuring his ankle skiing in 1945. Britain's Griggs company later bought the rights to make them.

What is the only studio album the Sex Pistols released, a 1977 UK chart-topper banned by major retailers?

Never Mind the Bollocks entered the UK chart at number one despite the bans. A Nottingham shop manager was taken to court for displaying it and found not guilty on every charge.

The Ramones' eagle logo, designed by Arturo Vega, parodies which official American emblem?

The presidential seal became the Ramones' crest once Vega swapped the eagle's arrows for a baseball bat, a nod to Johnny Ramone's love of the game.

Which punk dance did Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious claim he invented at London gigs around 1976?

The pogo, in Vicious's telling, began as a way to mock outsiders who turned up at Sex Pistols shows. Dancers simply jump up and down on the spot.

Which Ramones debut single opens with a chant that became a rallying cry at sporting events worldwide?

Blitzkrieg Bop got its opening chant because drummer Tommy Ramone wanted something as catchy as the Bay City Rollers' hit Saturday Night.

After leaving the Sex Pistols in January 1978, singer John Lydon formed which post-punk band that summer?

Public Image Ltd took its name from a Muriel Spark novel, The Public Image. Its second album, Metal Box, is often counted among the most important records of the post-punk era.

Which 1994 Offspring album on Epitaph became one of the best-selling independent-label albums of all time?

Smash sold over eleven million copies worldwide and carried the band's first major hit, Come Out and Play. Its success sent major labels chasing other punk bands.

Which New Jersey band, founded by Glenn Danzig in 1977, uses the Crimson Ghost skull as its logo?

Misfits took the skull from a poster for the 1946 film serial The Crimson Ghost and first put it on the sleeve of their 1979 single Horror Business.

Which Offspring singer earned a PhD in molecular biology in 2017 with a thesis on the HIV genome?

Dexter Holland paused his doctorate when the Offspring broke through in 1994, then went back and finished it 23 years later. He also co-founded the label Nitro Records.

Which Clash frontman, born John Mellor in Turkey, later led a band called the Mescaleros?

Joe Strummer took his stage name in 1975 after years of going by Woody Mellor. He died in December 2002, less than three months before the Clash entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Which Dead Kennedys singer ran for mayor in 1979 on a platform that made businessmen wear clown suits?

Jello Biafra finished fourth in a field of ten, having borrowed a dessert advert's catchphrase as his campaign slogan. He wrote his platform on a napkin at a concert.

Dead Kennedys' 1979 debut single California Über Alles is a satirical attack on which state governor?

Jerry Brown, a notably liberal governor, struck some in the Bay Area scene as an odd target. The band later recorded an updated version aimed at President Ronald Reagan.

Which Runaways guitarist produced (GI), the only studio album by Los Angeles punk band the Germs?

Joan Jett was a friend and heroine of the Germs, who asked her to produce their 1979 album. She later topped the US chart with her cover of I Love Rock 'n' Roll.

Which singer's band the Banshees debuted at the 1976 100 Club Punk Festival with Sid Vicious on drums?

Siouxsie Sioux had no songs to play, so the makeshift group improvised for 20 minutes around the Lord's Prayer. She had been one of the Bromley Contingent of early Sex Pistols fans.

The Clash wrote White Riot after two members were caught in 1976 riots in which London district?

Notting Hill Carnival erupted into riots in 1976 with the band's singer and bassist in the middle of them. The song became the group's first single the following March.

Which Green Day album follows an anti-hero called Jesus of Suburbia and inspired a Broadway musical?

American Idiot was billed by the band as a punk rock opera, and its single Boulevard of Broken Dreams won the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Which Canadian singer's 2002 debut Let Go, with the hit Sk8er Boi, earned her the title Pop-Punk Princess?

Avril Lavigne was 18 when Let Go reached number one in Britain in January 2003, making her the youngest female soloist to top the UK album chart up to that time.

Twins Joel and Benji Madden formed which Maryland band, known for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?

Good Charlotte took its name from a children's book about an orphanage. The 2002 album The Young and the Hopeless sold 3.5 million copies in the US.

Which band fronted by Gerard Way made The Black Parade, a 2006 concept album about a dying patient?

My Chemical Romance imagined death arriving as the dying man's fondest memory: his father taking him to see a marching band as a child.

Which Blink-182 drummer survived a 2008 plane crash that killed four other people on board?

Travis Barker was left in critical condition by the crash. After recovering he took up daily running and swimming, and he released his first solo album in 2011.

Dropkick Murphys' I'm Shipping Up to Boston reached a worldwide audience through which 2006 crime film?

The Departed made the Celtic punk song famous worldwide. Its words came from a scrap of paper in songwriter Woody Guthrie's archives, about a sailor who has lost his wooden leg.

Which Tennessee band fronted by Hayley Williams broke through in 2007 with the single Misery Business?

Paramore formed in Franklin after Williams, then 13, met the Farro brothers at a weekly programme for home-schooled students.

Which band with bassist-lyricist Pete Wentz broke through in 2005 with the album From Under the Cork Tree?

Fall Out Boy began in the Chicago suburbs as a pop-punk side project for musicians from the city's hardcore punk scene. The album produced the hits Sugar, We're Goin Down and Dance, Dance.

Which Florida pop-punk band, known for the 2003 hit Ocean Avenue, features a violinist in its lineup?

Yellowcard formed in Jacksonville in 1997, and Sean Mackin's violin set the band apart from everyone else in the genre.

After Blink-182 went on hiatus in 2005, singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge formed which new band?

Angels & Airwaves kept recording after Blink-182 reunited in 2009. DeLonge called the group a continuation of Box Car Racer, his darker side project from a few years earlier.

Which CBGB band fronted by Debbie Harry topped the US and UK charts with the disco-tinged Heart of Glass?

Blondie had six UK number-one singles in all, and the last of them, Maria, arrived exactly 20 years after the first.

Which British rock star mixed most of the Stooges' 1973 album Raw Power in a single day in Los Angeles?

David Bowie stepped in when the Stooges had broken up and Iggy Pop was in trouble. With only a day allowed for the mix, the album came out sounding notoriously rough.

Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious, was found dead in October 1978 at which New York hotel?

The Chelsea's Room 100 had been the couple's home since they moved to New York that summer. Vicious was charged with her murder but died before the case reached trial.

John Lydon caught the Sex Pistols' eye in a T-shirt of which band, defaced to show he hated them?

Pink Floyd's members also had their eyes scratched out on the shirt. Lydon then auditioned by singing along to an Alice Cooper record on the jukebox in Malcolm McLaren's shop.

The Sex Pistols split after a January 1978 show at the Winterland Ballroom in which American city?

San Francisco's Winterland hosted the last show on 14 January 1978. The same hall had staged the Band's farewell concert, filmed as The Last Waltz, a little over a year earlier.

Which 1975 Patti Smith debut album has a stark cover portrait shot by her friend Robert Mapplethorpe?

Horses got its cover at the Greenwich Village penthouse of Mapplethorpe's partner. Smith recalled that he took about twelve pictures and knew he had the shot by the eighth.

Which 1978 Undertones single did BBC DJ John Peel call his all-time favourite song?

Teenage Kicks made Peel cry the first time he heard it, and he asked for words from the song to be carved on his tombstone.

Which original Sex Pistols bassist left in early 1977 and was replaced by John Lydon's friend Sid Vicious?

Glen Matlock says he walked out of his own accord, but a bandmate claimed at the time that he was sacked because he liked the Beatles.

Which label signed the Sex Pistols outside Buckingham Palace in March 1977, then dropped them within days?

A&M broke the contract on 16 March after a drunken visit to its offices and a fight at a club. Virgin signed the band two months later.

Which British punk fanzine, started by Mark Perry in July 1976, took its name from a Ramones song?

Sniffin' Glue ran for only about a year, yet several of its writers, among them Danny Baker, went on to become well-known journalists.

Which actor lost so much weight to play Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy that he was hospitalised?

Gary Oldman lived on steamed fish and melon to look as gaunt as the bassist. Vicious's mother lent the production her son's own chain and padlock for him to wear.

Which veteran producer made the Ramones' 1980 album End of the Century, their highest-charting LP?

Phil Spector's slow, painstaking methods clashed with a band used to recording fast, and early in the sessions he reportedly held the Ramones hostage at gunpoint.

Which Clash single, with music by drummer Topper Headon, became the band's only US top-ten hit?

Rock the Casbah was largely recorded by Headon alone, who taped the drums, piano and bass before his bandmates arrived. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which singer fronted Black Flag from 1981 to 1986 before becoming a spoken word artist and actor?

Henry Rollins was born Henry Garfield and first sang with the short-lived hardcore band State of Alert. After Black Flag split he set up his own label to release his spoken word albums.

Which Pogues singer, an early regular on London's punk scene, co-wrote Fairytale of New York?

Shane MacGowan went by the alias Shane O'Hooligan in his punk days, then co-founded the Pogues in 1982 to fuse that energy with traditional Irish music.

Which Minor Threat frontman co-founded the D.C. label Dischord Records and later sang with Fugazi?

Ian MacKaye and bandmate Jeff Nelson founded Dischord in 1980 simply to release an EP by their earlier, short-lived band, the Teen Idles.

Which Minnesota trio, named after a 1950s board game, released the double album Zen Arcade in 1984?

Hüsker Dü formed in Saint Paul in 1979 and found the name while fumbling a cover song: forgetting its French lines, they shouted any foreign words they knew, the game's title among them.

Which artist made the poster, packed inside a Dead Kennedys album, that put the band's singer on trial?

H. R. Giger, who designed the creature in Alien, painted the picture tucked into the album Frankenchrist. The case ended without a conviction but nearly bankrupted the band's label, Alternative Tentacles.

Which all-ages Berkeley club, opened at the end of 1986, was an early home of Green Day and Operation Ivy?

924 Gilman Street is a non-profit, collectively organised club, and it is widely regarded as the springboard for the 1990s punk revival.

Which label did Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn build from a company he started at age 12 to sell electronics?

SST grew out of the mail-order business Ginn ran as a boy, selling modified war-surplus radio equipment. As a label it released key albums by Minutemen, Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth.