Over the weekend, Geek Pop alumnus and friend of the podcast Helen Arney appeared on the Solar Stage at Green Man Festival. Here's a little video of her sun song.

Don't forget, Helen also appeared on the Geek Like Me mini-album... go buy it!

Remember Geek Pop 2011? It wasn't that long ago. You really should remember. Anyway, we did a thing at Wilton's Music Hall. All the nerds were there, including Dr Martin Austwick and band. It was epic. Now, it's taken a little while, but we've finally got round to putting up some videos on Ye Olde You Tube - or at least Mrs Jim has (thank you!). So here are some snippets from 'Luminiferous Aether' and a full live recording of 'Brownian Motion'. Unfortunately the sound hasn't come out too well, but it's worth watching if only for Martin's scissor kick.

Both songs are available to buy on Martin's album 'Songs from the Scientific Cabaret'.

Photos from Thursday night's launch gig! Thanks to Ben Valsler of The Naked Scientists for some of these (the good ones).

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So you may have noticed us banging on (and on) about our launch party on 10th March. Ooops! It's only because it's going to be GREAT! Still, on your travels around the interweb, you may not have bumped into any of our launch gigging artists, so perhaps it's time we enlightened you.

AMATEUR TRANSPLANTS

If you think you've heard of them but can't quite figure out why, it's probably because of this* - their 'London Underground Song' - which has had well over a million hits on You Tube.

Amateur Transplants are Adam Kay and Suman Biswas. They write funny songs about all sorts of things, but being doctors, they've written an awful lot of nerdy ones about medical exams, drugs, nasty diseases and so on... it's much funnier than it sounds. Here, you should probably just watch this:

Ultimately better than the Bonnie Tyler original, we think you'll agree.

Last year, for our May podcast, we caught up with Adam and Suman at the Redgrave Theatre in Bristol, where they played us a couple of songs:

Amateur Transplants live session

That was nice of them, wasn't it?

Anyway, you should come to see Amateur Transplants if you like: laughing, parody songs, smut.

Oh, and here's what some other people had to say about them:

“Superbly politically incorrect. Gloriously funny.” - The Scotsman

"Extremely funny. Never less than utterly clever" - The Telegraph

"This made me very, very happy" - Stephen Fry

*You probably shouldn't watch this if you are easily offended by swearing. There's quite a lot of it.

DR MARTIN AUSTWICK

How to describe Martin Austwick? He's a man. A physicist. A soundman. And a one-man band. Who, incidentally, now has some other people in his band. We first met Martin at last year's virtual festival, in his guise as The Sound of the Ladies. He's since played in Einstein's Garden at Green Man Festival and contributed a gorgeous acoustic version of his song "The Grand Tour" to our podcast. He's also excellent at closing umbrellas when they get stuck.

Martin will be joined by Jim Footner and Will Elsdale to play songs about science from his forthcoming album Songs from the Scientific Cabaret, due for release on the day of the launch.

You should come to see Martin if you like: acousticness, clever lyrics, beards

"A genuine musical maverick" - Subba-Cultcha

"He should be more famous" - Josie Long

"Becoming somewhat of a superhero in the underground acoustic scene" – God is in the TV zine

STEVE MOULD

Steve is our host for this year's live launch. It doesn't do him justice to say he does science stand-up, but he does do jokes that involve science, and they are funny. You might recognise him from Blue Peter (yes, THAT Blue Peter), where he's the resident science expert. He also appears regularly at Festival of the Spoken Nerd and is one half of the comedy double act Mould & Arrowsmith (guess which half...), about which people have said:

"Beyond nerdy, yet playful and ingeniously funny… far more entertaining than they have any right to be." - The List

"Riotously funny" - Fringe review

You should come to see Steve if you like: nerd jokes, fire (aha, bet you're curious now huh?), Blue Peter

OTHER REASONS TO COME TO THE LAUNCH PARTY

1. It's (probably) the only place you'll be able to get your hands on a physical rather than digital copy of the forthcoming Geek Pop EP release - AND you'll get it ahead of the official release date on 11th March

2. We hope to be able to set up a (small) fund for commissioning new science-inspired music from the profits.

3. Wilton's. This place is one of London's finest music venues.

4. Because all the cool square kids will be there.

5. If you combine the first halves of two of our acts, you get Steve Martin. (If you combine the second halves you get Martin Mould, which is potentially funnier).

ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, HOW DO I GET TICKETS THEN?

Go here. Tickets are a tenner.

This year's launch gig is sponsored by the communications and education consultancy Graphic Science, who run innovative and engaging projects and events involving science.

Folks! Tickets are now on sale for our 2011 launch featuring Amateur Transplants, Dr Martin Austwick and Steve Mould. There will be music! There will be science! It's going to be ace! Full guide to artists here >>>

Thursday 10th March, 7.30pm

Wilton's Music Hall, Graces Alley, London (nearest tube: Aldgate East)

Buy TICKETS (£10) from WeGotTickets

Download a flyer here. Facebook event here.

And massive thanks to our sponsors Graphic Science.

Happy news, dear geeks! We have confirmed the venue and acts for our 2011 live event, which will launch the Geek Pop 2011 virtual festival.

You will, of course, be thrilled to know that we will be showcasing the many extraordinary scientific and musical talents of:

Amateur Transplants

Dr Martin Austwick

Steve Mould

on Thursday 10th March, at Wilton's, the world's oldest grand music hall.

But let's not forget what it's all about: the launch event is only the beginning. We'll be kicking off a whole week's worth of celebrations, involving a specially selected bunch of 20 artists performing songs about science across four virtual stages. Lots of them are writing songs *just for us*! WE CAN'T WAIT!

This event on Facebook.

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We're back from our adventures at Green Man Festival (check out the pictures in our group pool on Flickr) and just because we love you, we've recorded a special Green Man podcast. Which means this month instead of one podcast you get TWO. Don't say we don't spoil you.

This one's an (almost) entirely live music podcast, recorded in Einstein's Garden, so there are no iTunes download links, but you'll be hearing from: Jonny Berliner, Phatmattbaker & Oort Kuiper, The Sound of the Ladies and Sibelius. You can find videos for a couple of the live performances in our last post.

You'll also hear from Andrew Glester, the man in charge of Polar, a project that sets footage of the Arctic and Antarctic to classical music in a live concert. You can reserve tickets for the first performance in January here. It sounds beautiful.

EXCLUSIVE: Octopus, I Love You - Dalmatian Rex & the Eigentones

Dalmatian Rex played the Reproductive Stage at the Geek Pop '09 virtual festival. You can find links to buy their albums at their website.

Subscribe to our podcast feed through iTunes or Google. It's like, totally free. That's not all though. You'll also receive a bunch of free music downloads from our previous festivals. And if you're looking for the online archive, it's here.

Intro/outro music by Intercontinental Music Lab.

Sponsor this podcast.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [18:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (567)

Since last Thursday, the Geek Pop crew has been roaming the wet, muddy fields of the Glanusk Estate in the Brecon Beacons. The Green Man Festival is over and lovely though it was, we're glad to be back in the warm and the dry and are nursing welly blisters...

Anyway, there will be many more highlights from Einstein's Garden - where some of our artists played - on the next Geek Pop Podcast, but for now, content yourself with this video playlist. Sorry to all the bands we couldn't catch because our camcorder battery ran out... hence it cutting out near the end of Jonny Berliner's first song. (We tried recharging it in using the bikes at the amazing pedal power stand, but to no avail).

We've also uploaded our photos from Einstein's Garden to our Geek Pop group pool in Flickr. Please feel free to add your own if you were around for Geek Pop artists.

Finally, for those who missed out on our live launch gig in Bristol earlier this year, here are the video highlights. There's crazy creature-based tunes and a mouth trumpet from the brilliant Bert Miller & the Animal Folk, a freestyle science rap jam sesh (what else?) from Phatmattbaker & Oort Kuiper and beautiful acoustic geekery from Jonny Berliner. For an interview with Jonny, check out the Geek Pop Green Room.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Also, big hugs and kisses to Molehill Media for filming the gigs.

BERT MILLER & THE ANIMAL FOLK

Part II of this set is available on their Geek Pop '10 page. And you can download their awesome self-titled EP right here.

PHATMATTBAKER & OORT KUIPER

Phatmattbaker aka Matt Baker Oort Kuiper aka Jon Chase were part of the Geek Pop '10 festival.

YOUR HOST, CHRIS DUNSFORD

(Please note: parts of Chris' set may not be suitable for children)

Part I of this set is here. You can also find Chris at the Geek Pop '10 virtual festival.

JONNY BERLINER

Jonny was part of previous Geek Pop festivals. You can download his track Dark Matter for free at Geek Pop here or buy a whole EP of his Science Songs on iTunes.

Bert Miller & the Animal Folk, Einstein's Garden, 2009

Thanks to friends in the right places we've got a whole bunch of artists from previous Geek Pops booked in to play Einstein's Garden at Green Man Festival this year. The festival is sold out as of now but for all those who have already got their tickets, see you there!

We'll also be recording special live sessions during a slot on the festival radio and at Camp Geek.

Here's the (Geek Pop) line up (all on the Solar Stage). Click on the links to find them at previous Geek Pop virtual festivals.

FRIDAY 20TH AUGUST:

1500-1530 Aidy

1630-1715 The Sound of the Ladies

1715-1815 The Layers

1815-1900 Jonny Berliner

1900-2000 Bert Miller & the Animal Folk

SATURDAY 21ST AUGUST:

1300-1345 Jonny Berliner

1715-1815 Spirit of Play

1815-1900 Aidy

1900-200 Adults (previously Let's Tea Party)

SUNDAY 22ND AUGUST:

1300-1500 Phatmattbaker & Jon Chase

1630-1715 Johnny & the Chemists

1815-1900 Dalmatian Rex & the Eigentones

Psssst! Cos we want to be able to identify the real geeks in the audience, we're extending our offer on Square t-shirts until Green Man Festival. A tenner for a t-shirt plus £1.50 post and packaging. Can't say fairer than that, boys and girls. (There's limited availability though, so look sharp). >>>