No Rock And Roll Fun

IT'S LIKE THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME TURNED INTO A COMMUNITY CENTRE: Well, we were wondering a while ago what had happened to the plans to revive the woefull National Pop Museum, and now we've found out. It's going to be turned into a Polytechnic Common Room. Fifteen million quids worth of lottery cash gone to create a subsidised bar and a pinball machine.
We're still not sure how the people behind the Pop Museum managed to get it so wrong, so quickly, so badly. We never liked the idea of putting it in Sheffield - "Def Leppard and Pulp came from here" always seemed like flaky logic to us, and as anyone who's ever tried to hitch to a gig there knows that its the most difficult city in the country to reach. Plus, Sheffield's last attempts to burn through an obscene amount of public cash in the shortest time available - the Student Games back in the 90's - had been such a dub that we were surprised they were being given a second go. But, as the mighty National Film, Photography and Television Museum in Bradford shows, provincial museums which have a clear subject and sharp ideas can thrive, even in places which Londoners might have trouble pointing to on a map. The conclusion can only be that the people in charge of the Sheffield collection didn't have a clue what they were doing. We do wonder, idly, where the people behind the project are now, although we expect the answer is "advising other cities on how to use regeneration funds" rather than "attempting to atone by doing community service."
And if you need proof that pop can work in a gallery context, we offer the wonderful Remix collection at Liverpool Tate earlier this year, and the British Library's celebration of fifty years of number ones.