What was Hydra?

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So what was Hydra then?

Hydra was the student magazine of Hyde Clarendon College (formerly Hyde Sixth Form College), in Hyde, Greater Manchester.

It was started in the early 1980s, and ran until around 1997, when it was uncerimoniously renamed Trash Can for one issue, then sank without a trace. It was published towards the end of each half term.

Whether Hydra has been revived since then I don't know, although the college website does mention a un-named student magazine.

How did you get involved?

I joined Hyde Clarendon in 1994, but it wasn't until spring 1995 that I wrote for Hydra. I had considered getting involved before that, but other activities got in the way.

One Wednesday afternoon I had arrived in my Chemistry lesson a little early. A few seconds later, a rather out of breath Steven Jackson turned up - I've known Jacko since the dizzy years of high school. He started wittering on about the fact that the forthcoming issue of Hydra was looking a bit sparse. About a week or two later I gave three articles for Jacko to pass on.

Hydra wasn't a publication to turn down articles, and later that term I remember being quite chuffed to see my work in print.

What really persuaded me to carry on was an article at the back of the magazine by one of the two editors (who we will call Catherine Redfern, for that is her name), called 'The Lowest Form Of Wit?' In case you haven't guessed, it was all about sarcasm. The author loved sarcasm. I'll quote a little of her article:

"Just flick through the pages of this hallowed mag and you'll find that most of the articles are dripping with sarcasm, most of it emanating from a mysterious persona called Bods (interesting pen name.) Take it from me, this guy is serious. He is just one big dollop of sarcasm! My pathetic attempts at humour pale into insignificance at this supreme mastery of the art. Well done mate."

Having enjoyed writing my three articles and with such a favourable review under my belt, I kept on going. Once I'd started, I couldn't stop. Article after article appeared. There was a joke that I wrote the magazine. As I enjoyed writing I didn't really care what any one else thought. I wrote for me. It just happened to be published in Hydra.

I wrote my last piece for Hydra in 1996 - the year I left Hyde Clarendon.

During the time I was involved Hydra had had a huge renaisance, having had a good number of great contributers, and some wonderful artwork from resident artist Steven Knight. During that time Hydra had some of the biggest issues in a long time.

But for all of us, it couldn't last. University was round the corner...

But for me, new writing challenges.

Discovering the web in 1996, Planet Bods quickly followed in 1997 as an outlet for my writing. In 2001 I started writing about TV and radio for the Transdiffusion Broadcasting System and in 2002 Bods Central was launched featuring a new online blog/journal type thing named after one of my old Hydra columns.

Pretty much since the beginning of Planet Bods I have wanted to put my old Hydra articles online, and in 2003 I finally started.

Not every piece will make it online - some just don't make any sense out of context but most will. Where appropiate, articles will be given some background information.

The articles themselves have been slightly edited - fixing a few spelling mistakes, and breaking up longer paragraphs into smaller chunks to make the articles more readable on the web - but the actual content itself is unchanged otherwise.

What you make of the Hydra Files, well that's for you to decide. My writing has (I hope) improved enormously since then, but there's something about the stuff I did in my younger days that I still like... I enjoy them anyway!

Andrew Bowden
Summer 2003

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