Having launched our virtual festival this year, we geeks thought we would head off to a real world festival and find out what was going down.  So on Saturday we set off (before dawn) for the Cambridge Science Festival in… er… Cambridge.  Check out the podcast, which includes an interview with numbers whizz Carol Vorderman and an acoustic set with Geek Poppers Intercontinental Music Lab.

And the festival runs until 22nd so there’s still time…

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It’s the last round! You’ll have to be a super-geek to get these…

1. If you start with amoeba, the natural end point is what?

2. What song did Let’s Tea Party play at last year’s Geek Pop festival?

3. What colour were Jim’s wellies?

4. How many geeks does it take to change a light bulb?

5. What would you rather be: a wave, or a particle?

HINT: No hints today - this is the super-geek round!

Answers on a virtual postcard via Twitter (direct message us) or email (crew@geekpop.co.uk). At the end of the week, one lucky winner for each day’s quiz will be sent a Let’s Tea Party pin badge. And we’ll send an Amateur Transplants album to the geek with the highest score after all five rounds. Questions 4 and 5 today are tiebreakers - go wild.

Well, I can’t quite believe it but launch week for Geek Pop ‘09 is nearly at an end. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t tune in and rock out for the rest of the year. I know we do keep banging on about it, but that IS the benefit of a virtual festival - that and the virtual hangovers, which seem to pass far quicker than the unvirtual ones.

I’ll get to the whole Oscars-style thanks bit in a minute, but before that you might like to hear how Geek Pop looked from our side of cyberspace. Well…

The night before launch day, Geek Pop HQ looked like it had been hit by a bomb or two. We had grossly underestimated the size of the task and were being hit by a torrent of VIP wannabes sent our way by the Naked Scientists podcast. Meanwhile, over on Facebook, Barney Brown of Intercontinental Music Lab was pulling his hair out over a lost plectrum.

Launch day arrived and somehow Geek Pop kicked off (almost) on time. Headliners Amateur Transplants didn’t disappoint, pulling off an awesome headline set at The Tetrahedron. The crowds went wild for alatinpunkcircle and Dalmatian Rex and the Eigentones. And Twitter was a-twit with Geek Pop love - according to @rathgar, geek love was “flowing over into other dimensions”. Twitterer @grizzlygrowls was perplexed as to how our artists could be performing on the Naked Scientists podcast and at Geek Pop, both at the same time… We informed him that a quirk of quantum theory allowed us to be everywhere all at once.

Over the week, you festival goers have been most supportive, with messages streaming in from as far afield as Australia and Minnesota.  And you’ve been surprisingly well behaved. We haven’t had to clean up a single pile of vomit or pull any of you out of a mosh pit. But if I’ve got anything bad to say about you lot it’s that you’d lose your heads if they weren’t screwed on. All sorts of things have appeared in the Lost and Found area - glass eyes, socks, marbles… and if anyone does come across Bill’s virginity could they please return it to him as soon as possible? Thanks. Even our artists couldn’t keep hold of anything - within minutes of Geek Pop opening its gates, the boys from Radium88 were at Lost and Found claiming to have misplaced a yak.

Like a bunch of luvvies, we spent a lot of our time schmoozing with the bands in the Green Room. I’m not sure what impressed them the most - the fact that it was aboard a virtual yacht, or the sandwiches. Although in Being 747’s case, I can safely say it was the latter.

So now to the thank yous. And while we’re on the subject of virtual yachts, we should thank Hu Lynn for ours - and all the other stage designs. Of course, we’d like to thank all our bands for offering up their music (and time) free of charge. And there are numerous others who have given up their evenings and weekends for the cause - perhaps most notably Molehill Media and break dancer Keir Moffat, for the awesome “geeky dancer” promo video. But as Keir said to us, he’s sure to be a hit with the ladies now… We’d also like to thank Richard West for his web skills and Karen (you know who you are) for being our biggest fan and wearing her Geek Pop pin badge day in, day out.

And so, I bid you adieu for another year. It’s been emotional.

Hayley.

We’re starting to weed out the geeks from the chaff now. Get your brain cells round this lot…

1. What on earth is the song “11 Dimensions” actually about?

2. What’s you favourite Geek Pop ‘09 stage and why?

3. What does Dr. Stu reckon neutron stars are heavier than?

4. Which member of the Geek Pop crew is in charge of biscuits?

5. Which Chemical Brother reacts most vigorously with water?

HINT: Even if you can’t find the answer to number 4 on the site, you’ve got a 1 in 3 chance of getting it right. Statistics.

Answers on a virtual postcard via Twitter (direct message us) or email (crew@geekpop.co.uk). At the end of the week, one lucky winner for each day’s quiz will be sent a Let’s Tea Party pin badge. And we’ll send an Amateur Transplants album to the geek with the highest score after all five rounds. For questions 2 and 5 today, get creative.

For Spirit of Play, this is Day Seven in the wonderful world of geek pop - and the amazing thing is, we still have our tent, we still have our passes to the VIP area, and all that’s been lost is the keyboard player’s innocence. To compensate, we did stumble (virtually) across his old Green Flash shoes.

We’ve also stumbled around the various stages, gawping at the videos and wondering if “Wave or Particle” (that’s one of ours, you know…) could be remixed to sound more like this by Geek Poppers On Rails. Anybody who can explore natural tunings and harmonics by cycling seven sine waves in varying time frames should be signed up for Geek Pop 2010 forthwith. Meanwhile, we will concentrate on our next gig.

Ooh, and staring at the score for that On Rails track has reminded us that the SOP keyboard player, Will, can write poems - see below for the evidence . . . .

Curve

Around the hill the footpath bends,

Crosses the summit, then descends

Tracing our footsteps in reverse.

The wind is definitely worse

And you are quieter than before:

The mute expression of a Law

That says I’m not just tired and wet

But exponentially desperate.

I know this is the right way back;

The five-bar gate, the single track,

Those curtains drawn against the storm -

That could be us. We could be warm,

Watching a Bond movie (”Oh, James!”)

And millions go up in flames.

Instead, the road begins to turn.

You disappear. I’ve yet to learn

That this is why it never ends.

Around the hill the footpath bends.

Cheers,

Michael (Spirit of Play).

You’ll need to pay a visit to the Green Room for a few of these. Off you trot then…

1. Does alatinpunkcircle think that nanobots are nasty or nice?

2. What phrase is “Eben” a shortened version of?

3. Where was Thor Heyerdahl going?

4. What type of waves do On Rails make music from?

5. Name something that one of the bands has liked about our lovely Green Room.

HINT: You could say Thor Heyerdahl was out to “Prove a Point”…

Answers on a virtual postcard via Twitter (direct message us) or email (crew@geekpop.co.uk). At the end of the week, one lucky winner for each day’s quiz will be sent a Let’s Tea Party pin badge. And we’ll send an Amateur Transplants album to the geek with the highest score after all five rounds.

Well, this is unheard of – I’m sat here in the press office at a festival, and the computers all work, the WiFi’s quick, and there’s even a man in a t-shirt that says “technical support” (the t-shirt, not the man).

I’m Adam by the way; I’m half of Amateur Transplants – a sweary, singy, doctor double-act. We’ve just finished our set at the Tetrahedron – it seemed to go pretty well (although someone did throw a burette at us near the start. I assumed that was a bad sign, but Suman thought burettes might be what geeks throw instead of knickers).

I’ll have to keep this quick – we’re manning the first aid tent in about half an hour. Lord knows what sort of injuries you get at a festival – trench foot maybe? Not entirely convinced I’d know what to do with trench foot. I might have to Google it when I get there - does the WiFi stretch to the first-aid tent? I’ll ask the technical support man in a minute.

Our CDs and DVDs are on sale at the merchandise stand (opposite car park 3), or you can order online: www.amateurtransplants.com. I’d think carefully before buying one for an elderly relative though.

Keep listening,

Adam.

They’re a bit harder today, but you will find all the answers on the site (except for question 5).

1. What is the name of Amateur Transplants’ new album?

2. What is Dr. Stu’s day job?

3. According to Professor Science, what’s better, sandstone or obsidian?

4. Who has “slender legs like Red Rum” and could be described as a “wazzock” or a “wallybasher”?

5. Scientifically speaking, which is the worst band in the world?

HINT: For the answer to question 4, try reading Steve’s diary post…

Answers on a virtual postcard via Twitter (direct message us) or email (crew@geekpop.co.uk). At the end of the week, one lucky winner for each day’s quiz will be sent a Let’s Tea Party pin badge. And we’ll send an Amateur Transplants album to the geek with the highest score after all five rounds. Question 5 today is a tiebreaker.

Greetings geekpoppers.

So, what better way to spend National Science & Engineering Week than conducting my own investigation into the effects of virtual scrumpy? Especially when combined with a constant barrage of geekrock soundwaves (or are they particles? Best ask Spirit of Play). My conclusions thus far have been somewhat hazy, but one thing is for certain - the fermented product of orchards can transform your mind into a chaotic fractal of TERROR if you don’t watch out.

Over the past few days, I have stumbled in on many musical marvels, my favourites of which are:

On the Reproductive Stage, Dalmatian Rex & the Eightones proved to be the perfect afternoon soundtrack with their soothing drone akin to the likes of Stereolab, but with greater Krautrock leanings. I get the feeling that they love an octopus. I don’t blame them - a cephalopod as smart as a dog? Surely one of the greatest invertebrates of all time!

Professor Science: perhaps a glimpse of a parallel universe has been revealed to us here whereby Buddy Holly survived the plane crash and dedicated the rest of his musical output to actually being a geek - rather than just looking like one. ‘Sweet Home Apparatus’ was my highlight of a storming set.

Intercontinental Music Lab over at the Tesla Tent was a real treat - in particular their song about the fictional evil genius, Dr Robotnik. Some great insights into the psyche of this pointless computer game megalomaniac as well as some excellent observations on his appearance, claiming him to be ‘the spit of Windsor Davies’ and possessing ‘slender legs like Red Rum’ - all delivered with the diction of the late great Vivian Stanshall. Top notch!

Other acts worth a mention so far have to be the return of the Amateur Transplants - I remember them from last year. Kind of like a scientific Richard Stillgoe, only actually funny. The Standards also had a stand-out song about string theory which frankly wrapped my mind into a knot. Our Dave from Being 747 also has a song about this which will feature in our band’s next musical adventure into the complete history of science - watch out for that! The Standards also reminded me of a fantastic group from up around our home in Yorkshire called Shatner. Perhaps the mighty Shatner will get their chance to peddle their time-defying pop in next year’s festival? Yesterday’s music, tomorrow - apparently.

Right then, I’m off to try and find our lost giant prehistoric sea-scorpion microphone stand - perhaps it scuttled over to the Lost & Found area? OK - Don’t forget to catch us as we perform our natural history musical opus ‘Amoeba to Zebra‘ on the Reproductive Stage. We’ve been touring this show around schools in the UK for the last year or so to rapturous feedback from staff and pupils alike. It is actually designed to have full relevance to the national curriculum in biology and we are planning the release of the album of the show to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ later this year. Please come and check us out at the festival, or see the whole story with video clips and more tunes at www.amoebatozebra.co.uk - we’re available for schools/museums/zoos/all manner of geek shindigs… Get in touch!

Cheers,

Steve out of Being 747.

And so the search for the biggest geek - the geek to rule them all - begins. We’ll start you off with some easy ones, but they’ll get harder…

1. Is the name of this year’s festival: a) Geek Pop ‘09 b) Greek Pop ‘09 c) Chic Pop ‘09?

2. Name a drug from The Drugs Song.

3. What has “eight wobbly arms”?

4. Which was Hayley’s favourite band of the festival?

5. Name an album with “science” in the title.

HINT: You’ll get all the answers (except 5) from the Geek Pop ‘09 Festival Highlights podcast.

Answers on a virtual postcard via Twitter (direct message us) or email (crew@geekpop.co.uk). At the end of the week, one lucky winner for each day’s quiz will be sent a Let’s Tea Party pin badge. And we’ll send an Amateur Transplants album to the geek with the highest score after all five rounds.