Amateur Transplants is fronted by London-based, British comedian, Adam Kay who specialises in musical parodies. For several years, he was accompanied by Dr Suman Biswas. Amateur Transplants came to prominence in 2005 with a song about the London Underground, parodying the Jam song "Going Underground". They regularly perform live, and have been recommended by Time Out, including several successful years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Music and biography
Their music consists mainly of parody comic songs mostly dealing with medical subjects. A few of their parodies are based on the works of American comedic songwriter Tom Lehrer. They have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year since 2005 and Adam Kay performed at Latitude 2012. Ten percent of their sales, and all proceeds from the London Underground Song are donated to Macmillan Cancer Relief. The duo have released three studio albums, Fitness to Practice, Unfit to Practise and Have Yourself a Sweary Little Christmas. They also released an album of a live recording of their stage show called In Theatre. Their song Anaesthetist's Hymn was featured in Geek Pop2008. Both Kay and Biswas studied medicine at Imperial College London. Their songs "Snippets" and "Careless Surgeon" ridicule those who study medicine at rival Londonmedical schoolsKing's College London and Barts and the London respectively. The final song of their first album "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" ridicules most of the other London medical schools. The band's official website has stated that "Locum Amateur Transplant Suman Biswas appeared with Adam for a few years, but is now back to healing the sick and lame". Biswas works full-time in the NHS as a fully-fledged anaesthetist and in 2013 released a solo album entitled "Still Alive after Amateur Transplants". Since early 2020, all albums are unavailable to stream or purchase anywhere online. No statement has been released publicly explaining why.
London Underground
The band's track London Underground, along with its accompanying flash animation, was a popular internet fad in the UK in 2005. It was set to the tune of "Going Underground" by The Jam criticising the London Underground strike that was on at the time. It contains very strong language. It was released with their first album, and a newly recorded version with a rock music accompaniment was included in Unfit to Practise, as well as released as a single on the iTunes Store, reaching number one in their 'Comedy' chart having been downloaded over 4 million times. In recent live performances, as well as the newly recorded 'rock' version, the line "...chewing gum on every seat" has been replaced with "... nail bombs on every seat".
Amateur Transplants toured the UK in 2007 with "The Black and White Menstrual Show" which resulted in their first DVD. In 2010 the duo toured the UK with the "Amateur Transplants In Theatre" show leading to the live album of the same name. In October 2011 the duo toured the Norwegian city of Trondheim, and performed at Rockheim during Frampeik, an annual conference for Norwegian medical students. During 2012, Adam Kay toured Britain under the title "From Amateur Transplants: Adam Kay's Smutty Songs".
