HybridLab Who?

Are you a musician interested in widening your fan base, or hankering after your own career in media?  HybridLab is a unique social enterprise set up by charity IEA (Innovative Enteprise Action).  We profile unsigned artists for free.  Check out www.hybridlab.org/about for more info, and get in touch! And Remember we are always open to suggestions for articles for the fanzine. Check out some of the previous 4 issues by typing in www.hybridlab.org/issue and then the number of the issue you would like to see.

Layer upon layer of secret winding staircases flit between large exhibition spaces, and the dark hall at its centre. Huge gothic candlesticks drip wax in gothic perspirations lighting up the pictures of ghostly images on the wall. The hall is full of abstract paintings, and disturbingly a dismembered hand painted alone on the wall. Swaths of velvet adorn the stage area of this remarkable space. The courtyard cafe is full of plants, pots and pictures, and little bridges to tucked away alcoves where you can smuggle
away and eat at the delightful cafe. The candid arts centre offers a host of activities from eating, live music, a club scene, classes in art and dance, and much more besides. This little haven is to be found in Torrens street, just off the bustling Islington road, and feels like a little oasis away from life.

After “totally blagging” her way to playing a staggering 22 gigs at Glastonbury this year, breaking the record in the process, Gaynor O Flynn proves with every waking second that she can rock it up with the best of them.  The sets varied from the 2000 strong Jazz Lounge stage to the obscure Rabbit Hole arena (where she was introduced to play by a guy in a large white rabbit suit). “Both were really good fun” laughs Gaynor.  
Determined, beautiful and enthusiastic, Gaynor makes light of the pigeonholing of talented older female musicians: “I’ve been identified as a mellow PJ Harvey and a Martha Wainwright, with strong older women the media don’t know where to put”.  Not that she minds the deserved accolades.  To listen to her new album ‘Who am I?’ is to experience gentle evolution of body and mind.  It’s gorgeous in its synthesis of soft dub beats with the roundness of bass, steel guitar, guitar, and Rhodes.  Slow and heady vocals wrap themselves around you in a healing embrace.  Performing live, however, it’s a much more gutsy Gaynor we see, revelling in rock and roll.
Her musical path was paved at an early age, she believes that “whatever you did most when you were a year old you should do in life” and Gaynor was singing.  It’s enough to make us rush to our mothers to find out if we are destined for more than eating, sleeping and playing with muddy sticks. 

The UK’s largest Independent music retailer Fopp has shut down 105 of its stores sighting failure to gain support from stakeholders and suppliers as its reason.   Outcry has been caused amongst lovers of Fopp’s legendary cheap CDs and DVDs.  This included many HybridLab bands who have signed up to a petition entitled ‘save Fopp’ running on Myspace.  Fopp was well loved largely as it’s great achievements on the back of being an independent store that started life from a Glasgow market stall.  It also pioneered live performances by unknown bands within its own shops
When HybridLab went down to the Tottenham Court Road flagship store to investigate, people were trying to get in – and were left bewildered with no idea what had happened. Fopp has been unable to generate sufficient working capital to run their expanding business. The advent of new internet technology such as i-tunes, Myspace, and downloading piracy led to intense price competition in the music market so even Fopp - the cheapest of music stores - has struggled to contend. The sudden fall of this retail giant marks the distinct shift in they way we are consuming music as, although many bands have signed the petition, their support of free downloads has partially necessitated this change.