This Functional Family
From Inner City to Centre Stage



By Lyndon Haynes
December 2011
Book Guild
Distributed by Trans-Atlantic Publications
ISBN: 9781846245787
177 pages, Illustrated
$35.95 Hardcover

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From a strict upbringing in seventies Tottenham to the stage at Wembley Arena, this is the story of 'Lyn E Lyn', best known as a rap artist with the band Sindecut.

In his own words, Lyndon Haynes recalls the pleasures and privations of a childhood in an inner city, his lifelong battle with sickle-cell anaemia, and his equally lifelong determination to succeed. Supported by his ever-loyal family, his early teenage years saw him become a successful child actor, appearing on television and the stage. In the late eighties his passion shifted to a new musical phenomenon that was sweeping the British Isles from America: hip hop.

Caught up in a tide of musical passion, Lyndon was there at the birth of a completely new scene in London, beginning with small gigs in pubs and clubs, and, with Sindecut, gradually rising to become on of the hottest acts around. But, as ever, stardom and youth are often not the strongest combination, and with a candour only an insider can give, he recalls the pressures of both fame and commercialisation, and how the crew's refusal to be enslaved to their record contract led them to fragment and eventually disintegrate: to his mind, a terrbile waste of talent and potential.

 

 

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