The Rock & Roll Public Library

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About The Rock & Roll Public Library

For photographs of The Rock & Roll Public Library.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE: THE ROCK & ROLL PUBLIC LIBRARY

2 ACKLAM ROAD,
Portobello Green,
London, W10 5TY
(02077929626.)
Ladbroke Grove Underground.

22nd July to 25th August 2009,

11am-7pm. Wednesday-Sunday (free)

‘Rock & Roll’ and ‘Public Library’ shouldn’t mix, one phrase is brash, loud the other sedate and quiet. Yet these two cultures are about to collide. For the first time since the 1850 Library Act that much loved British institution the public library is about gain a loud, revolutionary 21st Century companion.

The Rock & Roll Public Library is Mick Jones’s (The Clash, B.A.D, Carbon Silicon) direct artistic challenge to the likes of the corporate 02 British Music Experience. Rather than let his creative legacy atrophy Jones is reworking (with curator Robert Gordon McHarg III) his own archive collection as a unique ‘guerrilla-installation.’ Set under the Westway motorway in 3000 sq.ft of former office space, Jones’s four-week artistic and civic endeavour will also encourage visitors to enrol, freely interact with the exhibition (Jones began collecting well before he formed The Clash in 1976 to eventual international success, as such it forms an invaluable guide to the influences that informed Jones as a pop-artist). Also uniquely by request users will be able to scan (courtesy Genus, U.K distributor of the Book2net Kiosk) certain objects and via memory stick carry them away. Numerous young-bands will also be recording at the Library (courtesy of Strummerville). Note visitors to the world’s first, resolutely alternative, Rock n Roll Public Library shouldn’t expect peace and quiet.

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The Rock & Roll Pubilc Library
Gallery
Norwich University College of the Arts
Tuesday 13 April to Saturday 22 May 2010
Opening times: Mondays - Saturdays, 10am-5pm

Text from the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2010 web page:

Mick Jones, iconic guitarist and songwriter with The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite, and Carbon Silicon, has amassed an impressive collection of the paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with. This archive sits alongside a parallel general collection of books, magazines, videos, ephemera, toys and games which mark out his life, times, and influences. The installation of this material will turn the Gallery at NUCA into a remarkable archive, raising questions about the act of collecting as well as offering some small insight into the influences and interests of a musician and cultural icon.