Clash | The Great Wen

Tag Archives: Clash

The Rock and Roll Public Library

Posted on March 10, 2025 | 1 comment

I am not usually the type of person who can summon a quote off the top of their head but one came to mind as I looked around the Rock And Roll Public Library in St Giles. This is a collection of pop culture and ephemera accumulated by Mick Jones – of The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite – and it’s gloriously random nature reminds me of something I once read about collecting: “The most important item in any collection is always the next one”.

The Rock And Roll Public Library includes all manner of Clash and BAD-related material: lyrics, tapes, costumes, instruments, props etc. But it also includes loads of stuff. Comics, VHS tapes, posters, flyers, toys, board games – the sort of ephemera that collectively explains how we become ourselves, how we develop our areas of interest and points of references, our personal passions or things that, for some reason, struck a chord at a particular moment in our lives.

I particularly liked the colour-coordinated montages of otherwise unconnected items. There were also areas set up to look like Jones’s childhood home, and areas that focused on specific themes – Americana, Elvis and WWII for instances – showing how these influenced his musical approach both in the Clash and BAD.

I’m told that this this exhibition constitutes less than half-a-percent of the objects that Jones has collected – and continues to collect. The exhibition at the Farsight Gallery on Flitcroft Street – comes with a fantastic hardback magazine about the collection, the first of three planned issues that will come out during the year.

It’s open daily 12-7pm and entry is free. Get there before it closes on March 16 – although there are rumours of an extension.

https://www.rocknrollpl.com/

https://farsightcollective.com/

1 Comment

Posted in Art, Collecting, Counterculture, Exhibitions, Music

Tagged Clash, collection, exhibition, London, Mick Jones, pop culture, punk

Blank Generation: original punk posters in South London

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 23 comments

In 1977, Gary Loveridge spotted a Damned poster that he liked the look of hanging on the wall at his local record shop in Weston Super Mare. He decided to take it. ‘It was on the wall of the listening booth. I took it off the wall, rolled it up and stuck it under my jumper. I walked out, looking very suspicious. They probably knew exactly what was going on.’

And so it began. Loveridge, a landscape gardener, now has around 250 original music posters, and 100 devoted to punk are on display until March 8 at the 198 Gallery on Railton Road. Not all were collected in quite the clandestine way of the first, but they are all original and numerous bands are featured, including the Sex Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Lurkers, Buzzcocks, TV Personalities, Mekons, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, PiL and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

The Damned poster that got it all started

‘This is the first time I’ve seen them all on the wall together in one place,’ says Loveridge. ‘At home they are all in tubes, some on the walls but I haven’t enough room to put them all up.’

The posters were largely used to promote LPs and singles in record shops, although there are some from bus stops and concert venues. Most such posters will have been thrown out by the stores, making such a large collection quite unusual. Loveridge collected many on his way from gigs in Bristol, and then later added to his collection at markets and record fairs.

The exhibition takes in two rooms and also features part of Loveridge’s collection of badges, flyers, fanzines and other ephemera, some of which – such as the flyers for the Sex Pistols banned tour – are much sought after. Also on display is a framed advert from 1977, cut out from a local paper, promoting a gig by a mysterious band called The Spots. Now who could they be?

Punk was an incredibly visual movement, as one would expect from something inspired by glam and Situationism and created in art schools and clothes shops, so these posters are eye-catching and iconic. A small selection are reproduced below, but the real thrill is seeing them collectively and close-up; many have pulled from walls and windows so have an authentically battered look, while the accumulation of colour and striking design is a treat for the eye. But you’ve only got six weeks, so hurry.

Blank Generation: A Collection of Original Punk Posters, 198 Gallery, 198 Railton Road, SE24 0JT. Until March 8, 2012