Eurock Trivia Quiz

The song is "Belfast Child" (1989). Belfast is in Northern Ireland.

In an interview with Q magazine in 1989, Jim Kerr, frontman for the Scottish band Simple Minds, advised that a number of events brought this song together. The first was the planting and detonation of a bomb by the IRA on Remembrance Day in the town of Enniskillen in 1987. It took the lives of eleven people, and it was estimated to have injured at least 63 others. In putting together the lyrics, Kerr endeavoured to come to grips with the emotions that must have been felt by those that had lost loved ones in the incident.

The second was his (Kerr's) hearing of the traditional Irish folk song "She Moved Through the Fair". Appropriately, the lyrics here speak of lovers separated by death with the narrator returning as a ghost to remind her lover that they will meet again in the afterlife. However, it was not the lyrics that spoke to Kerr, who'd heard the song for the first time a few days after hearing of the bombing, it was the melody that struck a chord, and it became the foundation for the music in this song.

Athens is the capital city of Greece. Nana Mouskouri's "The White Rose of Athens" (1961) is her signature tune and the one that launched her internationally.

The song was written as part of a German documentary about Greece, in which Nana would sing five numbers. "The White Rose of Athens", which tells of two lovers separating, but returning to each other when the rose blooms again in spring, was one of those songs. The song would enter the Greek music charts in August of that year and it remained there for 38 weeks. Translated into several languages, sales then exploded across the globe and the song became Nana's first recording to sell a million copies. "The White Rose of Athens" became her signature tune and a staple at live shows. It is of little wonder then that her web site declares that Nana has a rose fetish.

The song by George Ezra is called "Budapest" (2013), and the city is the capital of Hungary.

George Ezra explained in an interview with American Songwriter magazine that the lyrics in the song are centred around a list of things that he'd give up for the love of a special somebody. So, how does the city of Budapest feature as the song's title and as its inspiration? Before releasing his debut album "Wanted on Voyage" (2014 - yes the single preceded the album), Ezra had spent a few months backpacking his way through Europe and Budapest was on his list of places to see. However, he got sidetracked by the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, an event that he'd enjoyed with the company of a couple of young ladies that he'd met, got drunk with and then missed his train to Budapest the next morning... the things we give up for somebody.

"Never Been to Spain" (1971) was written, and originally released, by Hoyt Axton. Three Dog Night, who'd virtually owned the US Singles' charts between 1969 and 1975, would release their version some four months later. Hot on the heels of their number four hit (on Billboards' Hot 100 chart) "An Old Fashioned Love Song", "Never Been to Spain" would enjoy similar success, peaking at number five on the same chart.

Three Dog Night's version of the song starts as a slow burn with a deep drum groove that rises to a stirring finish, producing a grand air that Axton's version didn't, with his original folk style ramble. Axton's lyrics speak of a desire to travel and displays his great affection for music ("I've never been to England, but I kinda like the Beatles"). The name Hoyt Axton may not be familiar to most readers here, but I would guarantee that his music certainly is... Hoyt would wind up writing the Three Dog Night's biggest hit "Joy to the Word (Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog)" (1971).

"Stockholm Syndrome" (2003) was the first single to be released by Muse off their third studio album "Absolution" (also 2003). Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden.

This song arose during a period when Muse's main songwriter, Matt Bellamy, was fixated on two subjects - infidelities and the end of times. These are reflected by the song titles that appear on "Absolution", such as, "Butterflies and Hurricanes", "Time is Running Out", "Hysteria" and "Apocalypse Please".

"Stockholm Syndrome" is the condition where the victim sympathizes with their victimizer without regard for their own safety. A similar course is reflected with the single where the narrator finds themselves in a relationship that they know is not good for them, however, they are unable (or do not wish to) break away from it... "and this is the last time I'll forget you, I wish I could".

"Lost in France" (1976) was Bonnie Tyler's second single release and her first charting hit. Despite the film-clip, which shows Tyler walking through a chateau in France and then a café, the song runs a fine line between being a pop song and a country song, a style that was very much in vogue in the early to mid-1970s. It also features the silky-smooth voice of Tyler, one that provides glimpses of the promise still to come.

Yes, you read that correctly "silky-smooth" voice... most will better remember her later hits, "It's a Heartache" (1977) or "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (1983), which were sung in a husky, almost, gravelly tone. Soon after the release of "Lost in France", Tyler underwent surgery to remove some nodules that were found on her vocal chords. Eager to get back to work to follow up on the success of her single, she did not sit out the six weeks she was ordered to rest... and that resulted in a permanent change to her voice.

Amsterdam is the capital city of The Netherlands. "Tulips From Amsterdam" (1958) is the song that Max Bygraves would release as part of a double A-side single with his self-penned number "You Need Hands". However, the creation of the song ("Tulips...") has an interesting history.

The first version of it, "Tulpen aus Amsterdam" (1953), was written by Klaus Gunter Neumann, a German entertainer, who was smitten by the tulip fields in Keukenhof while performing in the country. Problem for Klaus was that his music publisher did not like it. Another songwriter, Ernst Bader, stumbled across the lyrics in 1956 and rewrote the words. He called upon a friend, Ralf Arnie, to compose a fresher tune for the lyric. This new version was then recorded by the Belgian singer, Jean Walter, in the same year. The following year it was picked by Belgian born British record producer and lyricist Marcel Stellman, who wrote the English translation for it, and presented it to Max Bygraves, who took it to number three on the UK Singles charts, turned it into one of his biggest selling hits and made it as his signature song.

"Vienna" is the capital city of Austria, and it represents the title of Ultravox's fourth studio album (1980) and their most successful single, released in 1981.

Ultravox had existed as a band in a number of guises since 1974 and the creative force was their frontman John Foxx. When he split from the band after their third studio album, in 1979, it appeared that the band would fold. Midge Ure joined and revitalized the outfit.

"Vienna", the song, is a piece of self-possessed grandeur... and I say that in the nicest possible way. A drum beat, almost like a human heart beat, begins the number creating a sparse landscape from which a voice emerges... whispers would be closer to home, creating a mood of reflection, a feeling of despair coupled with a longing that is out of reach until the voice explodes in an operatic scream that declares the relationship in question "means nothing to me". The stylized grandeur was deliberately created to match the mood and lyrics of the song, which Midge Ure, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, stated were nothing more than his musings on a holiday fling.

Waterloo is the site in Belgium where, history records, Napoleon Bonaparte suffered a major defeat. However, the song "Waterloo" (1974) resulted in a significant victory for the Swedish pop band ABBA at the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Brighton (England) that year. It would be the song that placed the band on the road to superstardom.

The 1815 battle is used, by the band, as a metaphor for a lover's fall in a relationship... "I was defeated, you won the war, Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore". It should be pointed out that some poetic license is definitely in use here. The song reveals that, like Napoleon, a total surrender by the lover took place. Though, to be accurate, Napoleon only ceded the battlefield (which was two kilometres away from Waterloo) and his troops retreated in disarray. It was when he returned to Paris that he abdicated (totally surrendered). In highlighting one of France's inglorious defeats, one would have expected that there may have been some antipathy from the French toward the song, however, they fell in love with it. The song reached number three on the French charts and remained on their list for twelve weeks.

London is the capital city of England and "London Calling" (1979) was a massive hit for The Clash.

Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, the songwriters of this number, were extremely clever in the way they'd constructed it. They drew a range of events that were at the forefront of people's thoughts at the time and turned them into a conspiracy that would herald the end of times ("the ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in") and tied the package up with a bow that reeked of our helplessness to stop it ("we ain't got swing", "we ain't got no high"). Then there were the little strokes of genius, that may have gone unnoticed by many, but they served to add a touch mysticism and genius to the song. Among these were the use of BBC's call sign during World War II, "This is London calling..." as the glue to hold the song together and then the final fade out... a staccato of Morse code that continues to spell out the message... "S.O.S".