the Return of the Rock and Roll Library

Mick Jones's Rock and Roll Library of summer 2009 makes a gently derided appearance in Retromania

now it returns, at a different venue (first one was at Jones HQ in the flyover above Portobello vintage flea market) with one eye on permanence

story nicked wholesale from http://www.spinner.com/2012/03/08/the-clash-mick-jones-rock-and-roll-library/ although they appear to have nicked much of it from the Ham and High newspaper in North London

"I have got a lot of stuff so I thought it would be nice to share it with everyone," Jones said in an interview with Ham & High. "We are looking for a permanent place to have a lending library, which would be our ultimate goal. With so many libraries closing at the moment it would be great to open a totally new sort of library which can be used as a real educational resource to show the history of our time."

The exhibition is called The Rock and Roll Public Library and runs from March 9-31 at the Subway Gallery. It features over 10,000 items from Jones' collection including videos, books and other items gathered over his lengthy career. The location of the exhibition is also apt as it is being displayed at the "Joe Strummer Subway," the site where the Clash's late singer was a busker in the early 1970s.

"It started off as a personal collection of comics when I was a kid, but it has grown into a cultural and social history," Jones said, adding fanzines, lyric sheets and clothing worn by the Clash on stage is also featured in the collection.

The Subway Gallery's site describes the collection as "a testimony to the manner in which pop music came to its first full fruition at the same time as pop art" with the hope of it being "an invaluable and essential aid to academic research and personal inquisitiveness."

Jones, who toured with Gorillaz in 2010 along with the Clash's Paul Simonon, is reportedly working with Simonon on a biopic on the iconic British punk rock band based on the recording of their classic 1979 album 'London Calling.' Both musicians are the executive producers behind the project.