Fairly Interesting Artist Facts Match Quiz

Answer: Amy Winehouse

Interestingly, the mould-breaking rebel Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) attended the BRIT School in Croydon as a teenager. Other alumni of the school who became famous include Adele, Katie Melua and Leona Lewis. Amy Winehouse won acclaim for her two jazz and soul-infused albums, "Frank" (2003) ("Stronger Than Me" and "In My Bed") and "Back to Black" (2006), ("Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good") and worked with artists including Tony Bennett ("Body and Soul"), Quincy Jones ("It's My Party") and Nas ("Cherry Wine", released posthumously).

She died of accidental alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27.

Answer: Tammi Terrell

Tammi Terrell (1945-1970) was a bright star for Motown, who worked with James Brown and recorded seven top 40 duets with Marvin Gaye, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "You're All I Need To Get By". She collapsed on stage while performing with Gaye in 1967, and was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Multiple operations and treatment failed to arrest her decline, and she died in 1970 at the age of 24. Gaye delivered the eulogy at her funeral and was said never to have got over her loss.

Answer: Feargal Sharkey

Feargal Sharkey (born 1958) was the lead singer with The Undertones, a new-wave band from Derry, Northern Ireland, from 1974 to 1983. They came to prominence due to the championing of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, who declared their "Teenage Kicks" to be his all-time favourite single. Other hits included "Here Comes the Summer" and "Wednesday Week". They split in 1983 - Sharkey cited "musical differences", and he went on to record "Never Never" (1983) as part of The Assembly with Vince Clarke, and subsequent solo singles including "A Good Heart" (1985) and "I've Got News for You" (1991). Surprisingly, in 1991 he quit as a performer to take up a role in A&R for Polydor Records, and moved through other roles in the business side of the industry, such as being a member of the regulatory Radio Authority, representing the industry to UK Parliamentary committees, and running the trade organisation UK Music. He didn't return to performing, even when The Undertones reformed in 1999. They recruited new vocalist Paul McLoone and appeared in that incarnation for more than twice as long as they existed with Sharkey.

On a personal note, I saw The Undertones play live in Cardiff in 1979 and they were the most down to earth and friendly people you could meet, when talking to fans after the gig. And Feargal Sharkey was the most magnetic performer I have ever seen.

Answer: Ninja

Watkin Tudor Jones, born in 1974 in Johannesburg, is best known as Ninja, from the hip-hop group Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for "The Answer"), along with Yolandi Visser (Anri du Toit) and GOD (Justin de Norbrega aka DJ Hi-Tek). Die Antwoord performed in Afrikaans and English, and projected the image of the South African underclass culture known as "zef". Their songs included "Evil Boy" (2010) - including a rap in Xhosa by guest artist Wanga, "Ugly Boy" (2014), "I Fink U Freeky" (2012), and "Baby's on Fire" (2012).

Ninja and Yolandi appeared in the 2015 science fiction movie "CHAPPiE". They had a daughter in 2006, who they called Sixteen.

Answer: Gram Parsons

Gram Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor III in Florida in 1946. His groups included The Byrds ("Sweetheart of the Rodeo", 1968) and The Flying Burrito Brothers ("The Gilded Palace of Sin", 1969). He is known for merging country and rock music, exemplified by the extraordinary albums he worked on with Emmylou Harris: "GP" (1970), featuring "That's All it Took" and "We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning", and "Grievous Angel" (recorded in 1973 and released posthumously in 1974), featuring "Hearts on Fire" and "Love Hurts".

Parsons had fallen in love with the Joshua Tree National Park in California and died there in 1973 at the age of 26, from an overdose of morphine and alcohol. When his body was taken to Los Angeles International Airport for transportation to Louisiana for burial, some of his friends stole his body because they believed he would have wanted to be cremated at Joshua Tree. They set fire to the coffin with five gallons of gasoline. The cremation was partly successful - the remains were buried in Louisiana and the friends were fined for stealing the coffin.

Answer: Norah Jones

Norah Jones was born Geetali Norah Shankar in 1979. Her mother was producer Sue Jones and her father was legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar (1920-2012). Her first album, the jazz and country tinged "Come Away With Me", released in 2002 was a huge critical and commercial success, and featured the single "Don't Know Why", which won her three Grammy Awards. Jones had become estranged from her father when her parents broke up in 1986, but renewed contact with him, spending time with him in India before recording "The Fall" in 2009.

Answer: Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson was born in 1936 in Brownsville, Texas. During his time as a Rhodes Scholar, at Merton College, Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing, represented his college at Rugby Union, and started songwriting, recording unsuccessfully under the name Kris Carson.

After a spell in the military, he moved to Nashville in 1965 to pursue a musical career. His debut album in 1970, "Kristofferson" included "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", "Help Me Make It Through the Night", "For the Good Times" and "Me and Bobby McGee", all of which became country classics and have been covered multiple times.

Kristofferson had further success with "Why Me?" from "Jesus Was a Capricorn" (1972) and went on to a successful movie acting career in movies like "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) and "A Star is Born" (1976).

Answer: Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer was born John Graham Mellor in Ankara in 1952, the son of a nurse and a British diplomat. After living in Newport, Wales, where he participated in various bands, and worked as a gravedigger, he moved to London in 1974. He formed the 101ers, and adopted the name Joe Strummer. He moved on to form The Clash in 1976 with Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and, after two other members left, Topper Headon.

The Clash became one of the most popular, influential and politically engaged new wave bands, with albums including "The Clash" (1977, featuring "White Riot"), "London Calling" (1979, "Rudie Can't Fail") and "Sandanista!" (1980, "The Magnificent Seven"). The group split in 1986.

Strummer went on to work in movies, including "Walker" (1987), for which he acted and wrote music, and did musical solo work and collaborations with artists including The Pogues and Johnny Cash. He led The Mescaleros from 1999 until his death in 2002, from a congenital heart defect.

Answer: Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron was born in 1949 in Chicago. His mother, Bobbie Scott, was an opera singer, and his father, Gil Heron, was a football (soccer) player from Jamaica. His parents had already split up when Celtic Football Club were touring the USA, and spotted his father, signing him up in 1951. Gil Heron became the first black professional footballer to play in Scotland, although not the first prominent black player - Andrew Watson won the Scottish Cup in the 1880s with Queens Park.

Gil Scott-Heron's first album, "Small Talk at 125th and Lenox" (1970) mixed poetry and music and included his standout piece "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", as well as "Whitey on the Moon". Subsequent albums including "Pieces of a Man" (1971, featuring "Home is Where the Hatred Is"), "Winter in America" (1974, "The Bottle"), "From South Africa to South Carolina" (1975,"Johannesburg"), and "Bridges" (1977, "We Almost Lost Detroit") were produced with long-time collaborator Brian Jackson. Hugely influential, Gil Scott-Heron was often called the "Godfather of rap", but he preferred the term "bluesologist". He was described by Will Layman as "Stokely Carmichael if he'd had the groove of Ray Charles...Richard Wright as sung by a husky-voiced Marvin Gaye...a kind of CNN for black neighborhoods, prefiguring hip-hop by several years." He died in 2011 aged 62. The cause of death was not given, although he was known to be HIV-positive and had previously been hospitalised with pneumonia. Kanye West performed at his memorial service - they had each sampled the other's work. He was awarded a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award Grammy in 2012.

Answer: Al Green

Albert Leornes Greene was born in Forrest City, Arkansas in 1946, the sixth of ten children. His father was a sharecropper. As a teenager, Al was kicked out of his home for listening to Jackie Wilson - against the wishes of his god-fearing father. He had his first hit in 1967 with "Back Up Train". Producer Willie Mitchell encouraged him to stop imitating Jackie Wilson, and find his own voice, also to drop the final "e" from Greene. "Al Green Gets Next to You" (1971) was a moderate breakthrough, including "Tired of Being Alone". With his next album, "Let's Stay Together" (1972), Green hit the big time, the first of six successive number ones in the soul album charts. As well as the title track, it featured an amazing cover of the Bee Gees song "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart".

Tragedy struck in 1974, when a married girlfriend, Mary Woodson White, assaulted him by burning him with a pan of boiling grits, and committed suicide with his gun. Green turned to religion, becoming an ordained pastor in 1976. He went through a period of only recording gospel music between 1980 and 1988, when he dueted on "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" with Annie Lennox.

Green continued to record, with songs like "Keep On Pushing Love", released as a single in 1994, sounding as good as ever.