Travel Europe With Just A Song Quiz

Answer: Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe

Although many remember his track from Mercury and Caballe, it is often forgotten that this was just the title track to a complete album the pair recorded together, also called "Barcelona" (1988).
Originally the album was just a hit in UK, but when it was re-released in 1992 to coincide with the Barcelona Olympics, it became a huge hit in Asia and Australia as well as Europe.

Answer: Berlin

Lou Reed's "Berlin" (1973) is quite rightly called a classic album, but it can be a tough listen, as it deals with a couple's abusive relationship and their drug addiction. The track, "Caroline Says I" contains lines such as, "Caroline says as she gets up off the floor, You can hit me all you want to, but I don't love you anymore" while "The Kids" deals with Caroline's children being taken away due to her neglecting them, and "The Bed" recounts Caroline's suicide.
All in all a very dark album, but one I recommend getting in to.

The River Spree, on which the city of Berlin starts its course in the Lusatian Hills on the border of Germany and Czech Republic and eventually flows through the centre of Berlin, past Berlin Cathedral and the Reichstag before joining the River Havel, which then merges with the Elbe River before discharging into the North Sea at Cuxhaven in Lower Saxony.

Answer: Ernest Crofts

Although all of the possible answers were born in Leeds, yes, even Julius Caesar, Crofts was the only one known for his military paintings, with John Roddam Spencer Stanhope being best known for his mythological and biblical subjects, Julius Caesar Ibbetson being known for landscapes and Sutherland Macdonald being a tattoo artist, possibly the first professional tattoo artist in UK.

Crofts is considered one of the foremost military historical painters of the late Victorian and Edwardian period and painted many pieces, including a series on the English Civil War as well as his Napoleonic series and other paintings depicting the War of the Spanish Succession and the Sikh War.
"On The Morning of the Battle of Waterloo" (1876) is housed at the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield, while many of his other military works are owned by military bodies such as the Cavalry and Guards Club and the Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum.

"Waterloo" by ABBA was the 1974 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest and the start of a remarkable path to stardom for the band, although surprisingly it was never a hit in their native Sweden. "Waterloo" was though, the first of their nine UK number one's and the first of their four top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in USA.

Answer: Marseille

Louis Barthou served briefly as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913, but is perhaps best remembered for his time as Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he held twice, firstly in 1917 and then again in 1934.
It was during his second tenure that he was shot while welcoming King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his state visit to Marseille, with a bullet fatally severing an artery in his arm.
Bulgarian assassin, Vlado Chernozemski, aka Velicko Kerin, was beaten to death by police and the crowds gathered to see Alexander, who was fatally shot by Chernozemski, but it was revealed in 1974, following ballistics tests, that Barthou was actually shot by a stray police bullet, not by the assassin.

The Angels formed in 1974 in Adelaide and have had many hits on the Australian charts, including "No Secrets" (1980), "Dogs Are Talking" (1990) and their cover version of the 60's classic, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" (1987). The 1988 live version of their debut hit, "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again" (1976) is a pub rock classic, that sadly seems to be almost unknown outside their native land.

Answer: Brighton Rock

Graham Greene's novel is an excellent read and one I thoroughly recommend.It tells the tale of 17 year old Pinkie who is determined to serve his idea of justice upon a newspaper reporter who betrayed the former head of the gang.
Once justice has been served, Ida Arnold takes up the cause of exposing Pinkie and his gang.
The novel has twice been made into a film, the first in 1947, starring Richard Attenborough as Pinkie and Hermione Baddeley as Ida, while the 2010 remake starred Sam Riley as Pinkie and Helen Mirren as Ida.

"Brighton Rock" by Queen was a track on their 1974 album, "Sheer Heart Attack", and although the tracks "Killer Queen" and "Now I'm Here" were chosen over "Brighton Rock" as single releases from the album, "Brighton Rock" featured at most Queen concerts and the guitar solo from the track was played by Brian May as a part of the closing ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Answer: Budapest

25 year old Lulu, a Southern White Rhino failed to show any interest in her proposed mate, Easyboy, so a team of veterinary surgeons from Germany, Austria and Hungary decided that artificial insemination was the only way forward. After a pregnancy lasting 16 months and 15 days, calf Layla was born on January 23rd 2007. Unfortunately, Lulu then showed no interest in nursing Layla, so she had to be bottle fed by zoo officials, but showed a real zest for life, leading to her first being displayed to the public when she was just over two months old.


"Budapest" from George Ezra was a top ten hit in many European countries and also reached number one in New Zealand and top 30 in Canada. Amusingly, Ezra has said that the song isn't about the city in Hungary as he has never been there. He actually wrote the song after missing a train to Budapest due to having a hangover.

Answer: Paris

Marie Curie gave us the term radioactivity, which is used to describe the phenomenon of radiation caused by atomic decay and in Pierre's laboratory in Paris she studied the mineral pitchblende, the primary element of which is uranium. From these studies, she reported the probable existence of one or more other radioactive elements in the mineral and in 1898, working with Pierre, she discovered radium and polonium, named after Marie's native Poland.Following on from this, Marie worked to chemically isolate radium from pitchblende, which unlike uranium and polonium, does not occur freely in nature. Marie and her assistant Andre Debierne had to refine several tons of pitchblende in order to isolate one-tenth gram of pure radium chloride in 1902 and in 1903, she shared the Nobel Prize in physics with her husband and Becquerel, becoming the first woman to do so.

"Free Man In Paris" was a single taken from Joni Mitchell's 1974 album, "Court And Spark" and became her fourth top twenty hit in her native Canada when it reached number 16 on the charts. The recording session for "Free Man In Paris" was a star studded affair as Graham Nash and David Crosby perform backing vocals while one of the guitarist's was José Feliciano, best known for his seasonal hit from 1970, "Feliz Navidad".

Answer: Leith

Hibernian are quite correctly known as an Edinburgh team, but importantly, they are based in Leith, the port area of the city on the coast of the Firth of Forth. Hibs' fierce rivals are Hearts (Heart of Midlothian), who are based in the Gorgie area in the west the city.

"Sunshine On Leith" is, in the opinion of Proclaimer's Craig Reid, "the best song he's ever written" and as lifelong Hibs fans, Craig and his brother Charlie must feel very proud when this track is played before Hibernian home games.
The track is taken from the Proclaimers' second album, also called "Sunshine On Leith" (1988) and although it didn't perform quite as well as their previous single, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" (1988), it still performed quite well on UK charts, reaching number 41.

Answer: Vienna

The most famous luxury travel service in the world, the original Orient Express ran from Paris through Munich and Vienna to Giurgiu in Romania, where passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse, Bulgaria. From here they boarded another train to Varna, Bulgaria, before travelling to Constantinople by ferry.
The route changed several times over the years due not only to low cost airlines but also more and more countries installing high speed trains, alongside which the sedate Orient Express was unable to run. The final journey for this famed train service took place on 12th December 2009 between Strasbourg in France and Vienna, Austria.

Ultravox had had two minor UK hits prior to "Vienna" (1981) which catapulted them to stardom throughout the world, reaching number one in Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland. In UK though it was kept out of the number one spot by novelty record "Shaddup You Face" (1981) by Joe Dolce. Words fail me.

Answer: Rotterdam

Famed son of Rotterdam, Erasmus was a humanist, philosopher and theologian who as well as being the first editor of the New Testament, also wrote works such as "The Praise of Folly" (1511), "The Handbook of a Christian Knight" (1503) and "The Education of a Christian Prince" (1516).

"Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)" (1996) was the fourth UK top five hit for The Beautiful South who are one of the most successful bands from Hull. The track was also a top 20 hit in Iceland, but oddly, given the title, failed to chart in Netherlands.