The Cosmic Shed

Nichelle Nichols, Warwick Davis and Eugene Simon. That's Star Trek, Star Wars and Game of Thrones. Andrew and Ti report back from MCM Comic Con London and bring interviews with these three stars for starters.

You can actually watch part of the interview with Warwick on our YouTube channel.

Eugene plays Lancel Lannister in Game of Thrones and Eduard Einstein in Genius, the story of Albert Einstein's life.

Please note the signs behind us. That's our very own field of wheat, right there.

Andrew met the wonderful Hannah Peel at the, also wonderful, Cheltenham Science Festival. Imagine his joy when Hannah said her new album is all about travelling to space from a shed!

You can explore Hannah's work here. We really, really recommend that you do. Beautiful stuff.

The first track to be released off her forthcoming album is entitled "Sunrise Through a Dusty Nebula" and you can hear it now on Hannah's SoundCloud page. Yes, that's right. "Sunrise Through a Dusty Nebula"

Roll on September, we say!

'Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia'
OUT Sept 8th 2017
PRE-ORDER Limited Edition Metallic Space Vinyl and CD: hannahpeel.tmstor.es

Hannah Peel's third album is a seven-movement odyssey composed for analogue synthesizers and full, traditional 29 piece colliery brass band!

"We have a hundred billion neurons in our brains, as many as there are stars in a galaxy" Theoretical physicist and author, Carlo Rovelli.

LIVE DATES:
1st July - Hull - Capital of Culture - excerpts Live on BBC Radio 3
8th July - Bluedot Festival
9th July - Southbank London - excerpts - Music Biennial with PRS
29th July - WOMAD Festival
5th August - Edinburgh Festival
23rd Sept - Liverpool - Liverpool Philharmonic
30th Sept - Stockton - The Arc
21st Oct - Barnsley - The Civic Theatre
28th Oct - Basingstoke, The Anvil Concert Hall
MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED...

With only a year following on from the release of her second album ‘Awake But Always Dreaming’ to widespread acclaim (Voted No.1 Album Of the Year – Electronic Sound Magazine), ‘Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia’, explores one person's journey to outer space, by recounting the story of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself. With artwork by Grammy award winning designer Jonathan Barnbrook (David Bowie collaborator on albums ‘Blackstar’ and ‘The Next Day’ ) and the complete brass band and rhythm section recorded live on location in The Barnsley Civic Theatre with Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio team, this exclusive album combines Peel’s detailed, analogue synth layered production and her expressive flair for performance with ‘Tubular Brass’, featuring the top UK championship brass band players. It’s a wholly unique, collaborative sound and seemingly, a first of it’s kind both live and on record.

At the close of the album’s final song ‘The Planet of Passed Souls’, tutti brass jostle with the hiss and crackle of a 78rpm record. An emotionally charged, scratchy sample taken from a 1928 recording of Peel’s own choirboy grandfather in Manchester Cathedral leaves the listener questioning the reality of Mary’s connection with the stars… Did she ever make it to Cassiopeia? Is this all a daydream as she sits in a back garden shed tinkering with electronics and her telescope? Or maybe this is her final breath as her mind and body pass into another realm of life? Is this science or fantasy? And how much is there really a division between the two?

Hiding in the shed this episode are Andrew, Maddy, Ti and Steve as we try to express our delight at the wonderful Hidden Figures. The only thing more exciting than such a wonderful film being released is that NASA's Dr Renee Horton, currently working on the Space Launch System, joined the Cosmic Shed for this, our 40th episode.

Renee Horton tells us just how it feels when the phone rings and it's NASA calling to tell you that you've got a job there, how NASA compares now to the one we see in the film and so much more.

Quite apart from all the wonderful science and engineering Dr Horton does, she's busy writing children's books about Dr H and friends and is the president of the National Society of Black Physicists. Oh and she's just bloody wonderful.

Dr H's adventures are now available. Get your signed copy of the book (and plenty of other exciting options) here

Steve and Maddy also recommend running the solar system, narrated by Dallas Campbell who featured on the Cosmic Shed a few episodes ago

We also mention the fact that The Cosmic Shed is a finalist in the Bristol Life Awards. Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to the shed and whoever it was who nominated us.