From the Fly to Zero Core, the most exciting titles in the music market are put together on a shoestring and given away in shops. We talk to the editors proving that print can still thrive• See the best free magazines in pictures hereA few months after its creation, the Fly magazine almost came to a halt when a fire gutted its offices above the Falcon pub in Camden, north London. An employee who was staying in the office during a power cut forgot to blow out a candle before he fell asleep. "All our work was destroyed," says Be Rozzo, co-founder of the title. "The whole team had to move into my tiny studio flat. We had five BT lines diverted on to my mobile. I remember getting a phone call from Steve Strange, Coldplay's agent [not the ex-Visage frontman], and him saying: 'Why haven't I received these offers yet?' And I thought, if anyone had any idea we were all sitting there with the charred remains of our computers in my flat…!"In 1997, Rozzo, a former musician, founded Barfly, a small promotions company with a club night, in the back room of the Falcon with two others, Jeremy Ledlin and Nick Moore. The club focused its bookings on emerging artists and a few months later, the team started the Fly magazine to help promote their events. "But the magazine started growing," he says. "Quickly, we realised it was actually getting bigger than the club." In 1999 the Fly went national and next month, in a first for independent publishing, it's due to host a major awards show.The... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]