Excuse the Interruption Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bobbie Nelson

In his 2015 memoir, "My Life: It's a Long Story", Willie Nelson declared "Bobbie anchored me, in memories and faith, in a way no-one else could". It is little wonder then that Willie worked like a Trojan to entice her into his band. The impact was immediate. She joined Willie and Tex-Mex musician Doug Sahm in New York in February of 1973 to help record Willie's 20th studio album "The Troublemaker". It was completed within two days.

Willie and Bobbie made a great team. Whereas Willie's style was intuitive, Bobbie countered by being the improvisational one. From that point on Bobbie became an integral member of Willie's Family Band and she would also release four albums comprising of duets with her brother.

She passed away in March 2022 at the age of 91.

Answer: Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson

The Mighty Diamonds were a harmonious trio that formed in Trenchtown (Kingston, Jamaica) in 1969. The three members, "Bunny Simpson", "Tabby" Shaw and "Judge" Ferguson, were all school friends. Though Rastafarian influenced they managed to achieve a cross-over sound, melding their roots reggae with the sounds of Motown.

During their time they would release over forty albums, but they are, still, best recognized for their ground-breaking debut album "Right Time", which was released in 1976. Several of their socially conscious songs from this LP would become hits in their home-town, and they also developed a strong following in London's underground music scene. "Rolling Stone" magazine described the album as one of the finest reggae albums ever released and Pop Matters listed it as one of the "Five Reggae Albums You Cannot Live Without".

In 2021 the group would be honoured with Jamaica's Order of Distinction award. Sadly, "Bunny" Simpson would pass away on the 1st of April 2022, just three days after his good friend "Tabby" Shaw was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Answer: Jordan

Along with the likes of Johnny Rotten, Soo Catwoman and Siouxsie Sioux, Jordan was seen as one of the main progenitors of London's punk rock look. At 14 she adopted the single name Jordan. Four years later she would walk into Vivienne Westwood's "SEX" boutique in Kings Road London looking for a job. She had her hair up in a bouffant, was wearing gold stilettos and a see through miniskirt made of netting.

She became noticeable when she appeared at most of the Sex Pistols' gigs. It wasn't difficult to spot her... she was the one with the spiked platinum blonde hair and raccoon style make-up around her eyes. She scored the job of managing Adam and the Ants for a brief period in the late 1970s, played the part of Amyl Nitrate in Derek Jarman's cult punk rock film "Jubilee" (1978) and published her autobiography "Defying Gravity: Jordan's Story" in 2019.

She developed cancer of the bile ducts and passed away in April 2022, aged 66.

Answer: Taylor Hawkins

In 1997 Taylor Hawkins replaced William Goldsmith on the skins for the Foo Fighters. Whilst he would remain in the chair for the next twenty five years, his impact on the band was immediate. His versatility was a boon, his energy was infectious. Front-man Dave Grohl proclaimed him his "best friend and partner in crime".

Prior to joining the Fighters Taylor was the touring drummer for both Sass Jordan and Alanis Morissette. He would, later, conduct his own side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, and was the force behind the formation of the supergroup NHC, which also included Jane's Addiction members Chris Chaney and Dave Navarro.

He passed away in a hotel in Bogota in March 2022, after complaining of chest pains. No cause of death was announced.

Answer: Timmy Thomas

Born in 1944, keyboardist Timmy Thomas cut his teeth in the game working alongside the likes of Cannonball Adderley and Donald Byrd before becoming a session musician. He scored his biggest break as a solo artist in 1972 when he released his anti-Vietnam war song "Why Can't We Live Together". The song topped Billboards' R&B charts and made it as high as number three on its Hot 100 chart. It would sell in excess of two million copies for him and it received a further boost when Canadian rapper Drake sampled the track for his 2015 song "Hotline Bling".

Thomas would continue to release albums through to the 1990s and achieve moderate success. Cancer would take his life on March 11, 2022.

Answer: Joe Messina

Born in Detroit in 1928, Messina first picked up a guitar at the age of thirteen and decided that he was to become a professional musician. After spending his early days in jazz clubs, he scored a job with the ABC TV's studio ensemble. This saw him playing alongside the likes of Charlie Parker, Jack Teagarden, Pepper Adams and Dizzy Gillespie.

He caught the attention of Berry Gordy who, in 1958, enticed him to become a part of his Hitsville inhouse team. From here the Funk Brothers were born and, for the next 15 years, they would lay down the instrumental tracks for hundreds of Motown's biggest hits. Among these were Martha & the Vandellas hit "Dancing in the Street" (1964), "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" by the Four Tops (1965), and Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell's "Your Precious Love" (1967).

After Gordy moved his operation to Los Angeles, Messina hung up his guitar. He would return later to the jazz clubs of Detroit. The Funk Brothers would be awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and were the subject of the 2002 documentary "Standing in the Shadows of Motown". Messina passed away in March of 2022, having battled a kidney disease for the last 12 years of his life.

Answer: Gavin Martin

Northern Ireland has provided the music world with such performers as the Boomtown Rats, the Undertones and U2 but, one of its most important products was Gavin Martin. Martin was a writer with an acerbic wit and a forthrightness that would not deviate. The latter would get him into trouble more than once with music artists. The most prominent among these was Van Morrison, who once described Martin as "the monkey on my back".

His precocious talent was recognized with his own creation, the fanzine "Alternative Ulster" (which the Stiff Little Fingers would later use as the title to one of their biggest hits) and he soon found himself at the desk of "NME", a magazine that he'd been writing reviews for while he was still at school. After "NME" he would write for other music publications such as "Uncut", become the music critic for the "Daily Mirror", organized live events such as "Talking Musical Revolutions", which appeared at irregular intervals and completed a musical collaboration with Martin Bell called "Utopia" (2019).

Martin managed to interview a host of the world's greatest rock and roll acts and, to prove that he was one of a kind, he even interviewed Brian Jones, founding member of the Rolling Stones, 25 years after his passing... through a psychic. Martin passed away in Barbados in March 2022, he was 60 years old.

Answer: Fred Johnson

The Marcels, at the start, were nothing more than a bunch of school kids with amazing talent who sang cover songs. Co-founder Fred Johnson was the rarity among the group, providing a deep bass that was not prominent among other doo-wop groups of the era.

It was a producer at the Colpix label that heard one of their demos and, virtually, snuck them into the studio at the end of a session to make a recording of "Blue Moon" (1961) and such was the quality of the group that it was completed after only two takes. The recording landed on the lap of DJ Murray the K who, legend says, played the song at least two dozen times during one of his shows. Suddenly, the song that had Fred Johnson's intro of "bomp-baba-bomp-ba-bomp-ba-bomp-bomp... vedanga-dang-dang-vadinga-dong-ding...", was echoing across the globe. It would sell in excess of a million copies and would, eventually, enter the Hall of Fame as one of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

The Marcels would continue to perform well into the 1990s but, during that time, they had numerous personnel changes. Fred, who assumed leadership of the band in 1964, would remain the only constant. He would pass away in March 2022, he was 80 years old.

Answer: C. W. McCall

In the eyes of many C. W. McCall was a one hit wonder but the truth is that he'd previously charted with the songs "Wolf Creek Pass" (1974) and "Black Bear Road" (1975). He would also enjoy chart success with "Roses for Mama" in 1977. The problem was that "Convoy" (1975) was such a global phenomenon that it has eclipsed all his other works.

C. W. McCall was a creation of advertising executive William Dale Fries. He created the character to advertise Old Home Bread in a campaign that was so good it would go on to win the Clio Award. McCall would go on to release eight studio albums and a further four compilation sets. The song "Convoy" would inspire a movie with the same name (1978), which starred Kris Kristofferson.

After retiring McCall and his wife moved to Ouray, Colorado, where he was elected Mayor in 1986 and served three terms. He passed away in April 2022 from complications with cancer.

Answer: Bobby Rydell

Bobby Rydell started off by imitating other singers. This inspired his father to take him to Philadelphia clubs to see if he could get work. This bought him to the attention of Paul Whiteman who would recruit the, then, eight year old to appear on his TV programme "TV Teen Club", where he became a cast member for the next eight years.

In 1959 Rydell would have his first chart success with "Kissing Time" and, from that point on, his career took off. He would have a string of hits to chart on Billboards Hot 100 with the most notable of these being "Wild One", "Volare" and "Swingin' School" (all 1960). Though he continued to record well into the 1970s, the great run of successful singles would come to an end in 1963 with the song "Forget Him", which peaked at number 3 on Billboards Hot 100.

In the 1980s Rydell joined forces with Frankie Avalon and Fabian to form The Golden Boys and did numerous tours across the globe. Rydell would pass away from complications with pneumonia in April 2022, aged 79.

(Footnotes) Rydell High in the film "Grease" (1978) was named in his honour.