Team
Directors and Owners.
You may not know that Colin proposed the idea, Phil created it, and Ken presented it, years later Vanessa developed it. But the most important role is that of you; the Listeners.
We looked at how we began, and we have tweaked it a little but by keeping true to what the listener wants from the quiz, we provide the fun facts in the workplace, in the car, at the gym, ye, Popmaster is played by everyone. Its just a bit of fun and a light challenge on the memory to recall where you were, what you were doing as the music takes you back to a place in time.
A few months later Popmaster TV was added to the cluster. Fun on the box! Pull up a chair, test your knowledge against the clock. And don’t forget …One Year Out!
Ken Bruce
Presenter
Ken joined the BBC in 1977 as a BBC Radio Scotland staff presenter.
His first regular slot on Radio 2 was the Saturday Late Show in 1984 and the following year he fronted the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, taking over from Terry Wogan.
He moved to mid mornings in 1986, then after a brief stint on late nights and early mornings, he returned to mid mornings in January 1992. Ken also presented Radio 2’s coverage of Eurovision from 1988 to 2022 and was a regular presenter of Sunday Night is Music Night.
Ken left Radio 2 in 2023 and now presents the Morning Show on Greatest Hits Radio.
Popmaster remains a very important slot within Ken's radio show.
Ken continues to present live shows around the Country, specifically in at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall and the London Palladium in London.
Colin Martin
Producer
Colin joined BBC TV in the props department working on shows such as Dad’s Army, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Doctor Who among many others in 1970 moving into radio in 1972 to become a Music Librarian looking after many of the BBC Radio Orchestras and their music scores.
By 1975 he joined Programme Operations as a Studio Manager working for Radios 1,2,3,4 becoming a music producer in Radio 2 in 1978. Among others he produced Terry Wogan’s breakfast show, John Dunn at drive time, and launched Gloria Hunniford’s lunchtime show.
Among Colin’s original programme ideas was the popular ‘A House In A Garden’ presented by Gloria Hunniford and Alan Titchmarsh. Pop music quiz, Anagramaphone, and culinary quiz, ‘Quizeen’ piloted by Radio 4.
During his time as a producer Colin wrote and produced a number of special programmes including an A-Z of Pop, and music documentaries such The Chuck Berry and Phil Spector stories. Colin co-authored with John Dunn the book, ‘John Dunn’s Answers Please’, based on his highly popular radio feature.
In the late 1990’s Colin was tasked by R2 network Controller, James Moir, to reformat the Ken Bruce show to bring it up to date musically and establish it as the main music show on the network. He introduced a number of features for the show including ‘Tracks of My Years’ and Album and Single of the Week. Colin also devised the idea of a Ken Bruce quiz, POPMASTER.
After refining the format with Ken Bruce, Colin brought in pop music maestro Phil Swern to collaborate on the quiz, specifically to formulate the questions. By 2000 Colin was promoted to Head of Music, Radio 2 and was the architect behind the new sound on the network which saw Radio 2 become the most listened to music network in all of Europe.
Colin was included in the Financial Times ‘50 most Creative persons in the UK’, and among radio's most influential persons by pop publication Music Week.
Vanessa Brady
Business development
Phil Swern and Ken Bruce approached Vanessa to develop Popmaster into a standalone brand.
Her success for business development in the creative industries was rewarded with an OBE by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2013 for services to interior design and the UK economy after creating the Society of British and International Design (SBID) the UK's leading professional body and now the largest in Europe.
Vanessa registered additional trademarks and created the first Popmaster contract with the BBC for the license to air Popmaster. It soon became apparent that having formed contracts for a book with Penguin Random House, a board game and card game with Ginger Fox as well as Live events, radio, and a TV show that Popmaster was going to grow into an even bigger success for the ever-increasing audience that rose to 9 million daily on Ken's Radio 2 morning show.
It has continued to grow from strength to strength with the team behind the scenes that have collectively generated the nation's largest music pop quiz.
Popmaster
Supporters.
Every Business will need talented and conscientious people to make it work. At Popmaster everyone is passionate about its success, about music. Egos are left at the door; we work as a team with the passion that has made Popmaster the phenomenon it quickly became;
Neil Myners
Writes the questions
For many years Neil has assisted Phil Swern in the drafting of the questions; over the past decade or more he has created the questions for the radio and the book and continues to research, draft and check the questions for the greatest music quiz, Popmaster!
Jon Shackleton
Co-Ordinates and Produces Popmaster Live events
Ricky Marshall
Moderator at Live Events
Ricky is our Moderator and has worked as Ken's Producer for Radio for many years so is very familiar with exactly how Popmaster works. Ricky can also be found at Bauer presenting the Country Music Station. You will see him at our Popmaster live events making sure that everything runs smoothly.
Want to join our team?
Contact us to find out more.
In Loving Memory
Phil Swern - Quiz Creator
Best regarded perhaps for building one of the biggest private record collections in the world, Phil in his own right in the seventies, achieved over a dozen entries into “The Guinness Book of Hit Singles” as a record producer with acts such as The Pearls, R & J Stone, Blue Haze, Horace Faith, and The Seashells. He wrote and produced Polly Brown’s American top twenty hit, “Up in a Puff Of Smoke” and has had his songs recorded by The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Duane Eddy, and Manhattan Transfer.
