King Kevin: Great Musicians Called Kevin Quiz

Answer: Come On Eileen

After becoming dissatisfied with punk band The Killjoys (despite having written punk rock classic "Johnny Won't Get To Heaven"), Kevin Rowland knocked together Dexy's Midnight Runners, and a 1980s pop legend was born. In retrospect, the whole thing with the tinker image, soul-cum-Irish-folk-cum-pop sound was really cheesy, but they pumped out some really catchy tunes, and since when was cheese incongruous with the 1980s?

After the demise of Dexy's in 1987, Kevin put out a solo album, "The Wanderer", which flopped. He then disappeared from the music scene until 1999 when he shocked everybody by dressing up in women's underwear and doing cover versions. The video for "Concrete And Clay" really has to be seen to believed, and the jury is still out as to whether Kevin was taking the mick, had lost his marbles, or was finally being just who he had always wanted to be. Whatever, it stands as one of the oddest pop videos ever aired, and to my mind that makes him a great Kevin.

The other choices were hits for Duran Duran ("Hungry Like The Wolf"), Musical Youth ("Pass the Dutchie"), and Fuzzbox ("Love Is The Slug"), all of whom are also acts from the West Midlands area, roughly the same era.

Answer: Killing Joke

Kevin Walker is a founding member of Killing Joke, who came together in 1979 in London, although he was born in the north east of England, hence the nickname Geordie. The band have been labeled punk, post-punk, industrial dance, punk metal and more, and have in fact meddled with many genres, but one thing that has been a constant is pounding rhythms, bewildered-sounding vocals and ominous, foreboding lyrics.

There have been several hiatuses over their lengthy career, but nowhere to be found in Killing Joke's history are the usual bland excuses (musical differences or personality clashes), but "we've moved to Iceland to escape the apocalypse", or "Jaz has become an ordained minister in New Zealand".

The Metallica cover (1987) introduced the band to a whole new set of fans, and their metal audience has remained faithful since.

All the wrong choices also formed in 1979.

Answer: Kevin Ayers

Kevin Ayers can do no wrong in my book, and by anybody's standards he's made very few faux pas artistically. Commercially it's a different kettle of fish as whenever he has seemed on the brink of widespread recognition, he has thrown a spanner (or possibly a banana) in the works, which of course endears him all the more to his fans.

Kevin is always up for a giggle, and Soft Machine began their mutation into a rather pretentious, abstruse jazz rock band when he left. Kevin's debut solo outing was "Joy Of A Toy" (1969), one of the most genuinely joyful albums of all time. The magic seems to have been born out of his natural silliness, guest Syd Barrett's naïve charm, the musicianship of Soft Machine (fellow guests), and a rare unaffected eclecticism all coming together just at the right time.

From then on Kevin's career has had its ups and downs, but his innate talent along with his love of naughtiness (and bananas) makes anything he does a joy to the ears.

Kevin Keegan is a former England international footballer/manager from South Yorkshire. Kevin Godley is from 10cc. Kevin Costner is in the movie business.

Answer: Guided By Voices

To my mind Guided by Voices are the antithesis of classic rock bands as members seem to come and go, work on other projects (not solo albums), eschew mainstream popularity (despite a couple of misguided attempts), and material just gets released sans pomp and bombast. The band pretty much revolves around Robert Pollard, although both our Kevins have left their mark.

They've released tons of lo-fi recordings, sometimes sounding like unfinished sketches, had brushes with big name producers (Ric Okasec) as well as the super-cool (Steve Albini), merged with other bands (Cobra Verde), split up, done low-key performances as well as shows noted for hi-jinx rock and roll bedlam, and it has all been top notch fun for the fans.

About the wrong choices: Camper Van Beethoven and Art Of Noise both formed in 1983, the same year as Guided By Voices. Kim Deal, who co-produced Guided By Voices' ninth album, formed The Breeders after the Pixies split up.

Answer: England / Heavy Metal

They've had their ups and downs, splits and reunions, and despite cult status have never really hit the big-time, but Angel Witch should have been huge. The usual trouble of ropey record deals and unstable line-ups means they are probably the biggest NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) bands that never made it.

Our Kevin started off in a band called Lucifer, who changed name to Angel Witch along with the first of many line-up changes. This line-up, which included another Kevin (Riddles, on bass), recorded the song that most people associate with the band as it pops up on virtually all NWOBHM compilation albums: "Baphomet". In fact, its inclusion on the classic NWOBHM compilation "Metal For Muthas" is undoubtedly how most punters ever heard of Angel Witch (and many other acts).

Then came the album, simply called "Angel Witch"(1980), which stands out from many other NWOBHM releases of the time as being so musically mature. However, our Kev sacked the drummer, Kevin Riddles left to join (highly-underrated) Tytan, and Angel Witch fell apart.

There have been many resurrections, and albums ("Screamin' 'n' Bleedin'"(1985), and the excellent "As Above, So Below" (2012) stand out) and one would hope that by the time you read this Angel Witch are being mentioned as often as Iron Maiden, but I fear Kevin Heybourne shall remain in the footnotes of music history.

Answer: In The Flat Field

Kevin Haskins joined Bauhaus in 1978 when they were still called Bauhaus 1919, homage to the German Bauhaus college of art and design.

The first release by the band was the groundbreaking single "Bela Lugosi Is Dead", which clocked in at over nine minutes. It got great reviews from those who mattered at the time including John Peel, who invited the band to record one of the much-coveted Peel Sessions.

The debut album wasn't received well by the media, but the kids loved the dreary, dread-laden post-punk nihilism that the band evoked, and it still stands as one of the most influential albums of its day.

The band broke up in 1983 and our Kevin went on to join ex band mate Daniel Ash in Tones On Tail, then Love And Rockets. The latter were moderately successful, and even had a hit single in the US with "So Alive" (memorable for Kevin's drumming), but it didn't come close to Bauhaus in terms of artistic brilliance, so when there was the chance of reuniting, it was jumped at.

Kevin Haskins has also composed music for computer games and film scores.

All the choices came out about the same time (1979/1980); "The Wall" is by Pink Floyd, "Back In Black" is AC/DC's comeback after the death of Bon Scott, and "Regatta de Blanc" is by The Police.

Answer: Anti-Pasti

Like many great punk bands Anti-Pasti didn't record much in their heyday, but what they did is more precious than gold. The "Four Sore Points" ep was such a huge success that they ended up on a tour with much bigger names The Exploited and Discharge, and shared a cash-in ep release with tour-mates The Exploited. All this meant that when the album "The Last Call" came out, they were the hottest punk band around and ended up on the front cover of "Sounds" music paper, and in the indie album charts.

It wasn't just hot air though, the album still standing as one of the best of its genre. One explanation for the band's longevity compared to many bands of their ilk might be the scope of their musical influence, and their eagerness to let it seep through into the sound. As bassist Will Hoon says on the (rereleased) album's liner notes "we were listening to dub, northern soul, disco, punk, rockabilly, even classic rock stuff like the Stooges, the Doors, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who and we weren't afraid to acknowledge that we were interested in stuff that went beyond the little box we were meant to exist within."

This eclecticism was also their downfall as the second album, "Caution To The Wind", was too far from the formula for most punks and it flopped.

Answer: Gaye Bykers On Acid

Gaye Bykers On Acid fell together in 1984 and released a couple of brilliantly scuzzy 7"s, "Everything's Groovy Baby" and "Nosedive Karma", on an indie label before their classic grebo album "Drill Your Own Hole" came out on Virgin. They got up to all style of madcap nonsense like dressing up in women's clothes, forming spoof bands (and filling in the support slot), and generally entertaining themselves, a quality that is always a great crowd-puller.

After the second album, "Stewed To The Gills", the record label dropped them (grebo was a short-lived, and very British, phenomenon), and it all went Pete Tong.

They all went to all kinds of other projects at home and abroad, our Kevin forming a band called G.R.O.W.T.H..

Answer: A Canadian horror film

The 1981 George Mihalka film is a fun (if you like that sort of thing), if unoriginal horror romp notorious for the extensive cuts at the hands of the overzealous censors. As with many low-budget horror flicks, rumours of gore left on the cutting room floor is a surefire way to get the punters interested.

The band My Bloody Valentine's rise to international fame and fortune wasn't exactly easy, and it took them years to get any attention, by which time they'd left their native Dublin for the Netherlands, then Berlin, and finally setting up camp in London.

They released stuff on various labels between 1983 and 1988, but it was invariably panned by the press and didn't sell well either. Then Creation records took an interest and My Bloody Valentine recorded the "You Made Me Realise" ep that at long last saw a positive buzz around the band.

After a couple of other well-received releases, the band were seen as leading the so-called shoegazing movement in music, a pejorative journalistic term coined in reference to how lacklustre live performances by bands of My Bloody Valentine's ilk were, the musicians seemingly spending the gig staring at their own shoes.

Then in 1991, they struck gold (well, critically anyway) with the sublime brilliance of "Loveless", an album that sent the record label mad (leading to the band being dropped), cost an arm and a leg, but was worth all the hassle as it stands high above everything else that was around at the time. They have never quite managed to live up to the high standard they set themselves.

Answer: Quiet Riot

It took ages for Quiet Riot to get any attention, and even then it was pretty short-lived. Randy Rhodes' rise to fame as guitarist with Ozzy Osbourne in the early 1980s is what drew most people to check out the first two Quiet Riot albums he'd been on, but at that point they were nigh on impossible to track down as they'd only been released in Japan.

When Rhodes was snaffled by Ozzy, Quiet Riot's bassist Rudy Sarzo went too and the pair took lots of Quiet Riot material with them. However, our Kevin persevered, revamped and even renamed the band, modestly choosing DuBrow as the new moniker. When Rhodes died in a plane crash, Sarzo came back, they went back to the name Quiet Riot, covered the Slade classic "Cum On Feel the Noize", and became superstars, albeit briefly. The album "Metal Health" was also a roaring success.

The band never really hit those dizzy heights again, and they went through the usual line-up changes, fallings-out, reunions, and were chugging along until disaster struck in 2007 when Kevin DuBrow was found dead in his home.