Bad Meaning Great

Yesterday I visited the Rock & Roll Public Library on Acklam Road, London, W11. It's a funky little building under the Westway - the fabled piece of road that The Clash often sang about. Fitting then that the building is full of artifacts from the collection of the band's guitarist Mick Jones. His records, his books, his tin toys and board games, many of them foraged from the Portobello Market nearby. Obsessive that I am, I can connect pieces from his hat collection to specific record sleeves and cover stories while the neon pink of the Clash flight cases also makes me a little feverish.

He clearly has a thing about the film Zulu, and his collection of music magazines is formidable. I'm surrounded by approving fans - many of them middle-aged blokes who envy Mick's ability to keep his archives together under the pressures of adult life. We're all quietly grieving the day that we chucked out the old NMEs and copies of Zig Zag. And we remember that Mick's post Clash band, Big Audio Dynamite, also provided colour, intelligence and fun.

If you can't make the visit to London before August 23, be comforted by the idea that the collection should have a permanent home at some point. In the meantime, there's some video footage here.