Ice 'n' Roll: Live Earth From Antarctica

July 3, 2007 — -- Hoping to become a cool band? Play a show in Antarctica.

Nunatak, a band made up of five British scientists stationed at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera research station, is doing just that. The band will play the first live concert on the continent Saturday. The performance is part of Al Gore's Live Earth festival, which will feature all-day concerts on every continent in order to raise awareness of climate change.

Stationed at Rothera, the band's members are researching climate change and evolutional biology on the Antarctic peninsula.

"I can't believe we've been invited to do this," said Matt Balmer, lead singer of Nunatak. "It's a fantastic opportunity to encourage people of the world to deal with climate change."

Although each band member has played in a band before, the group has only been rehearsing since October. Saturday will be Nunatak's first live performance.

Nunatak's musical influences range from local bands to novelty acts.

"Our biggest influence is the mighty Hoff," said a laughing Tris Thorne, Nunatak's fiddler, referring to "Baywatch" star and musician and David Hasselhoff. "We listen to Britney Spears a lot, too," he added.

Thorne also listens to acts from his native Scotland like Chris Dreever.

Because scientific research takes priority over the musical sort at Rothera, simply finding time to rehearse has been Nunatak's biggest challenge.

"We're a lot busier than most people expect, but we make the time," said Thorne. "Thursdays are our music nights. We often play together on the weekends too."

Because of Antarctica's freezing temperatures and prolonged darkness in winter, Nunatak's audience will consist of the other 17 scientists stationed in the area. However, the concert will be viewed by up to 2 billion people via film, television and the Internet.

The Live Earth performance will be the biggest show that any member of Nunatak has played.

"It's as many people as you can squeeze into a British pub," said Thorne of his past gigs. "Having 2 billion people potentially watch your show is so staggering that we can't even comprehend it."

In order to film the show, a new HD movie camera and sound gear were shipped to the station. A high-speed data link will transmit the performance to the United Kingdom.

The brutal Antarctic conditions have also affected Nunatak's instruments. Thorne admitted that his fiddle was coming apart at the seams.