The Rock & Roll Public Library Exhibition and Magazine Launch

The Rock & Roll Public Library (RRPL) is a large, material archive of 20th century pop culture, collected over a lifetime, which will launch the first issue of its periodic magazine on 1st March to coincide with the opening of an experiential exhibition at London’s Farsight Gallery.

Collected by British musician, songwriter and producer Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite), RRPL includes thousands of items, including books, comics, magazines, musical equipment, literature, art, clothing, ephemera, as well as music and film in every format, revealing a wide network of influences that span the entire 20th century.

Mick Jones said – “The magazine to me is like a record, with each article a separate track and it tells a story – my story. And by extension through our shared culture, all of our stories. I hope that anyone who reads it will enjoy it.”

The Rock & Roll Public Library Magazine is created to share elements of the archive and serves as a curated selective journey through the collection. A portable exhibition in itself, it invites the reader to find their own connections and inspirations from the Library’s wide-ranging artefacts. Edited by the RRPL team and featuring three different covers, the 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.

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. 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.

All images ©Jeff Pitcher