The Daily Tonic: Su-Prize!

Dropping a celebrity’s name in order to blag a freebie doesn’t always work. Even if the celebrity name is your own.

The late Professor Stephen Hawking loved Depeche Mode so much that he wrote to their management to see if he could meet them backstage after a gig. No-one replied.

So he wrote again saying he was a massive fan and would be honoured to meet them. Again, no reply.

Eventually he asked his assistant to contact their record label, Mute, who then contacted Depeche Mode. Their reply came back that they “always get letters off this bloke trying to blag tickets, and who the fuck is he anyway?”

For nearly two months, these questions have revolved around celebrities. Which celebrity did this? Which celebrity did that? Which celebrity did who? Not today. Today we want to hear about you.

Today’s Question: What is your most impressive claim to fame?

Send your pitches to us – hello@popbitch.com. The more bizarrely tenuous, the better your chance of winning a digital goody bag.

C writes:
“When The Power Station was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live back in 1985, the Duran Duran boys were complete diva brats while lead singer Robert Palmer was a complete gentleman to every single person on the show, even thanking each of the security guards by name on his way out.

“While in an elevator with him, I told him that I loved his double-breasted sharkskin suit and he later found me and handed me a slip of paper with his tailor’s name and number on it, with a note “Friend of R. Palmer” written below.

“I was earning $4/hour at the time and would never be able to afford a holiday to London, much less a bespoke suit on Savile Row, but he saw me as an equal – the least rock star move of all.”

DS writes:
“I met Su Pollard in The Pitcher and Piano on Upper Street in the late 90s. Me and a friend told her how much we loved her so she proceeded to empty her handbag of various weird stuff and insisted on gifting us a broken plastic Minnie Mouse watch, sweets and some other bottom-of-the-bag tat.”

R writes:
“My ex-wife and I were staying at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town when we spotted Penny Lancaster and Rod Stewart by the pool one day. We saw them again at lunch (sat on the table next to us) and then again that evening as we returned back to the hotel after dinner and jumped into the same lift as them.

“I asked Rod to stop stalking my wife and me, to which he laughed. After exchanging a few pleasantries, Rod said he had just had the most amazing meal at a local Italian and we should use his name at the door – giving us the restaurant details along with the doorman’s name.

“The next night we thought we’d give it a go, so found the restaurant and told the doorman that Rod had sent us. The result: we were given the best table in the house and a free bottle of champagne.”

We’re changing things up a little today. Rather than just getting you to name ten songs and ten artists, each of these songs famously appeared on the soundtrack to a 90s movie.

So for thirty points today, you need to name the performers you hear, the song they’re performing and the name of the movie it features in.

[Ready to play?]

If you want to play more of our audio rounds, we’ve been keeping an archive of them all here
[Quiz yourself dry]

To celebrate Cher’s birthday, here’s her playing all the parts in West Side Story
[Delightfully mad]

Tomorrow’s Popbitch will be sent out to the weekly list, so if you’re only signed up for the dailies make sure you get yourself added
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