Great Scott! : Great Musicians Called Scott Quiz

Answer: Bon Scott

If you like rock n roll, it's fairly hard not to have a soft spot for AC/DC. Although they've slipped into self-parody in recent years, listening to their early slabs of high energy and infectious bouts of hard rock is a joyous experience.

One of the main attractions was of course Bon Scott, whose boyish, cheeky charisma gave the band that charm that made them a world class act. He was born Ronald Scott in 1946 in Scotland, but moved to Australia when he was six. He sang in several bands before joining AC/DC in 1974, some of whom verged on success, but nothing can have prepared him for what was to come.

The band's international debut was 1976's "High Voltage" (which was, incidentally, the first album I ever got), swiftly followed by "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". Bon Scott appeared on three more brilliant studio albums before disaster struck in February 1980 when Scott's dead body was found in a car in London. He'd been drinking heavily the night before, and, although conspiracy theories abound, the fact that his death was the result of his rock 'n roll lifestyle is irrefutable.

Answer: Scott Walker

Multi-talented Scott Walker was born in Ohio in 1943. By the early 1960s he was living in LA, where he joined the Walker Brothers. They must have been bewildered by the furor that shot them to (albeit brief) superstardom when their signature song, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", took the charts by storm. Scott even became a rather unwilling pin-up for teenage girls. The band veered towards bland ballads, whilst Scott took a left-hand turn and delved into the odder end of jazz and pop. The Walker Brothers split in 1967.

Scott released three solo albums ("Scott 1", "Scott 2" and, quite logically, "Scott 3") managing to marry a pop sensibility to covers of French songsmith Jacques Brel, and a murky, brooding dark side that hadn't been evident in the Walker Brothers. The albums were a hit, he got a TV show in the UK and all was going swimmingly until "Scott 4" came out and went down like a lead balloon.

He's continued his exploration of the more outlandish side of pop music, which is sometimes hard to grasp, but always worth the effort, even when one can't completely work out what he's after. He is without a doubt my number one Scott.

Answer: Thin Lizzy

Scott Gorham joined Thin Lizzy in 1974 and stayed until their demise in 1984; he was part of what is thought to be the classic line-up by many. When he joined, Thin Lizzy became a much more aggressive act, partly due to the twin guitar attack, the other half being Brian Robertson.

The first album he played on was "Nightlife" in 1974, followed by "Fighting" (1975), which is my personal favourite. It was 1976's "Jailbreak" that really cemented the band's reputation worldwide and had the numbers most people remember them for. "Live and Dangerous" set a new standard for live albums and captured the cocky, boastful story-laden style of the band best, and also showcased Gorham's brilliant guitar playing.

The band, including Gorham, were plagued by drug addiction, leading to the death of bandleader and cheekiness-incarnate rock icon Phil Lynott in 1986. Gorham got clean in 1985.

Gorham re-formed Thin Lizzy in 1996, partly as homage to Lynott, and I suppose partly as a way to make a living, and proving that rock legends never die.

Answer: Anthrax

Scott Ian was born Scott Ian Rosenfeld in New York in 1963. He can be called a true innovator, being one of the founding fathers of the thrash metal genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1980s.

He was also partly responsible for getting a lot of heavy metal fans into hardcore punk by namedropping band names in interviews, and wearing punk t-shirts on stage and at photo shoots, as did another thrash titans. He also tried to build bridges between extreme metal and hardcore rap at a time when both were shunned by the mainstream press.

Anthrax were fairly straight-forward, studs and leather heavy metal on their first releases, but soon carved a niche for themselves as Bermuda shorts-clad, comic-inspired moshers, which endeared them to mid-teenage boys, but it was an image and attitude that wore thin, so they had to reinvent themselves somewhat to gain any longevity. This they managed, and they are still going strong today.

Answer: The Stooges

The Stooges are a band you just either get or don't. Quite what it is that they express is hard to define and somehow paradoxical. It's all about youth but it doesn't fade with age, anger but not protest, boredom but lethargy, sleaze yet disgust, ignorance with a yearning for knowledge; in a word, it's punk.

Brothers Scott and Ron are amongst the scariest looking fellows I've ever seen on a record sleeve, but they aren't trying to look hard like heavy metallers with studs and chains, or rappers with weapons and garish clobber. They just look like blokes you wouldn't want to meet "down a dark alley", as my nan used to say.

The first three albums, "The Stooges" (1969), "Fun House" (1970) and "Raw Power" (1973) are about as fun as life can get. Pundits harp on about "Raw Power", but I'd say the other two hold their own more than adequately. "Fun House" in particular has an energy seldom found in studio albums, and arguably best represents the band's primal scream.

The band split in 1974, but were resurrected in 2003 after the Ashetons had already been touring the material for a few years with an interesting line-up which included Minutemen hero Mike Watt, and J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr.

Iggy came back to the fold in 2003 and, despite brother Ron Asheton's passing away in 2009, they are still keeping the flame alive.

Answer: Pere Ubu

Out of the ashes of Rocket from the Tombs came punk rock titans The Dead Boys and one of the weirdest bands in pop music history, Pere Ubu. The name came from an 1896 play called "Ubu Roi" by Alfred Jarry that anticipated Surrealism and the Theatre of the Absurd. Pere Ubu do what it said on the tin, and deliver jarring, acute rhythms that shouldn't make any sense but somehow do. That they never hit the mainstream isn't utterly surprising.

The mainstay in the band is larger than life singer David Thomas, with other members quitting and rejoining like yo-yos. They've all been involved in other projects too, Krauss' being a pivotal member of the excellent act Home and Garden, who bear some resemblance to Pere Ubu.

Answer: The Who

Scot Halpin's escapade is a heart-warming anecdote in rock history, and I think many a budding drummer has fantasized "if only I'd been there that night", or perhaps, others who were there but less confident than Scot wish they'd had the guts to put their hand up when The Who's Pete Townsend asked "Can anybody play the drums?".

The reckless culprit was of course Keith Moon, whose lunacy is well documented, fondly remembered, but at root rather sad as he ran his body ragged on a diet of drink and drugs, ultimately leading to his death at the young age of 32.

The gig was in 1973 when The Who were touring "Quadrophenia", and Scot Halpin had just moved to San Francisco from Iowa. Keith passed out during "Won't Get Fooled Again", was revived by ruthless roadies, but during "Magic Bus" he dropped off again, and the show wouldn't have gone on had it not been for Halpin, eager to show off his drumming prowess.

Luckily, the whole sequence of events was filmed and can be easily be found on-line.

Halpin died, aged 54, in 2008 of a brain tumour.

Answer: Cat Scratch Fever

Legendary proto-punk band, The Dictators, formed in New York in 1973, and rhythm guitarist Scott "Top Ten" Kempner was a founding member. Although their brand of irreverent humour and in-your-face rock 'n roll has proved highly influential, they have never sold many records and are often inexplicably left out of potted histories of punk rock. They are, however, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio.

The Dictators debut album, "Go Girl Crazy!" came out in 1975, but hardly anybody noticed. This disappointment led to the band breaking up, but soon they were back with the brilliant "Manifest Destiny" in 1977, and then "Bloodbrothers" a year later. The record buying public still didn't get it, so they called it a day.

Some ex members found fame elsewhere (Manowar, Twisted Sister), whilst Scott Kempner gained kudos, but not spondulics in The Del Lords.

The Dictators reformed in 1991, most of the members also keeping up other projects.

Ted Nugent's album "Cat Scratch Fever" was released in 1977.

Answer: Saint Vitus

Our Scott wasn't actually a founding member of the band Saint Vitus and hasn't been a particularly loyal member either, but he's still quite a hit with the fans.

Saint Vitus took their name from the Black Sabbath song "St Vitus Dance", and nourished their sound with hefty helpings of The Sab Four. Saint Vitus, alongside other similar acts such as fellow Yanks Pentagram, were fundamental in the development of heavy, sludgy metal. This sound, alongside rather apocalyptic, pseudo-religious lyrics, led to doom metal. The genre never really flourished until many years later, by which time the Saint Vitus' material was hard to come by, adding a bit of cult status to them.

Scott "Wino" Weinrich joined in 1986, replacing another Scott, Scott Reagers. Weinrich left in 1991 to work on the equally brilliant Obsessed and was replaced by Chritus Linderson, who was himself replaced by the return of Scott Reagers in 1995. Then it all went quiet until Scott Weinrich came back in 2008.

Answer: Scott Joplin

Although these days Scott Joplin is the name that springs to mind when one mentions ragtime, it's development was actually down to Ernest Hogan who also coined the name. Scott Joplin made his name, and his living for the rest of his life, from the publication of "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899.

Ragtime's popularity has had peaks and troughs, and for periods of time Scott disappeared from the public's consciousness. We have the film "The Sting" to thank for refreshing our memories, and he now probably has his place in immortality.

The film was a roaring success, and it won a heap of awards.

Scott Jamieson is an Australian football player. Robert Falcon Scott, aka Scott of the Antarctic, was a British explorer. Scott Jones is a Puerto Rican footballer.