first issue focuses on DIY culture – from punk rock fanzines to fashion, art school to dole queues, four-track home cassette demos to high-tech studios – a ragged map to aid further exploration and, hopefully, to inspire yet more creation. Issue 1 will be available to buy at Farsight Gallery from 1st March 2025. Register your interest for online sales and other retail outlets at www.rocknrollpl.com/magazine
To mark the launch of the magazine, an experiential exhibition of The Rock & Roll Public Library will be open to the public at the Farsight Gallery, London from 1st – 16th March 2025. The most comprehensive and in-depth exhibition of the RRPL to date, showcasing previously unseen material and artefacts, the exhibition will celebrate over-the-counter-culture, featuring elements of bookshops, newsstands, comic book stores, record shops and video rental libraries. This is a celebration of pre-digital – the analogue, the physical pop culture history of the 20th century and beyond.
Selected by Mick Jones and the RRPL team, highlights of the exhibition will include: a phantasmagoric recreation of a living room where visitors can use items from the archive such as Mick’s home recorded VHS tapes, books, comics and newspapers from another time; guests can browse through and listen to a selection of his record collection in a recreation of a 1970’s listening booth; plus a visual art installation in the style of a Kiosk that will sell the magazine and other bespoke RRPL merchandise.
The Rock & Roll Public Library will be open to the public at Farsight Gallery, 4 Flitcroft Street, London WC2H 8DJ from 1st – 16th March 2024. 12 noon – 7pm daily. For more information, visit www.rocknrollpl.com
www.rocknrollpl.com @rocknrollpl #rockandrollpubliclibrary #rrpl
The Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL) is a collection of mostly 20th century pop culture, an archive encompassing tens of thousands of items, including books, comics, magazines, musical equipment, art, clothing and ephemera, as well as music and film in every format.
Collected over a lifetime by British musician, songwriter and producer Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite). The RRPL reveals a web of influences that span the entire 20th century—a cultural history told by context, connection, and juxtaposition – it is an extensive collection which is ever-growing and always evolving.
There can be few places where scarce beat poetry pamphlets sit amongst a family of Simpsons Pez dispensers, or where Al Capone’s tie rests next to cigarette cards of royalty. The unique nature of the RRPL comes from the fact that it tells the story of popular culture through everyday items and ephemeral objects as much as it does through valuable historic artifacts.
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
