The British Music Experience

I spent Sunday afternoon touring the British Music Experience, a new exhibit at the O2 Arena in London. As I entered the exhibit, I was thinking quite a bit about a tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland a few years ago with my buddy RB and another co-worker. RB and I were in heaven, looking at Jim Morrison’s school report cards, U2’s record company rejection letters, etc. etc. Our co-worker was unimpressed, stating at the end of the experience that basically there were only two musical acts she would ever pay money to see, Jimmy Buffett and Bon Jovi. RB and I, who both hardcore lovers of music, had no response.

The British Music Experience is trying to do the same thing, but on a smaller scale and added technology. It felt a little all over the place though since I thought the purpose was to focus on all things British. But it kind of bled all over the place with Jimi Hendrix memorabilia, Kraftwerk singles in one of the jukeboxes, a sign in tribute of Dylan going electric, when they had plenty of good material that they could have just expanded on. Here are some thoughts:

Great Things
Seeing David Bowie’s costume from the Ashes to Ashes video (I’ve never done good things, I’ve never done bad things…)
Hearing Cliff Richards and other early Brit rockers talk about Elvis Presley’s influence
The Gibson Studio where I was able to record my very own drum track to Blur’s Song 2 and listen to it online when I got home
Huge UK graphic which lit up with musicians’ hometowns, video locations, important locations in musical history

A note on the Gibson studio – This was very cool because they had real Les Pauls out for people to play and record from with instructional videos, they had acoustic guitars, drums, keyboards, bass guitars, and even a voice recording studio. The drum kit was not the typical drum kit since it was designed for the user not to have to hit the drums hard to hear the drum sound in your headphones and the cymbals looked like they were made from some heavy plastic, all computerized I suppose. As I sat down at my drum kit taking the instructional video some woman brings her adult son over to the other drum kit in front of me and he sits down and he starts going crazy on the kit, hitting everything at full force. She’s smiling proudly as everyone turns around to look at him in annoyance.

Good Things
Adam Ant’s costumes
Beatles Fan Club Memorabilia
Britpop Display
Punk Display – needed way more coverage
But everything in the “good” category could have been expanded (except Adam Ant)

Unnecessary Things
Video Studio where you could record yourself doing dances like the Macarena or Disco from Saturday Night Fever

Missing Things
Maybe this is from an American perspective but they could have done more with the rise of video. I watched a lot of Brit acts in the 80s before MTV launched and there was an occasional video show launched from a Chicago television station. Bands like ABC, Talk Talk, Haircut 100, Nik Kershaw, etc. would have never been played on mainstream U.S. radio at this time, but the videos had me hooked. There was a slight mention of the New Romantics, but not as much as I would have expected.

I thought of K and our friend M because Suede, a band they both love, was prominent in their decade exhibit. I had never heard of them.

The best, best, best part of the display was saved for the end and I am glad it was a slow Sunday because the girl that was working this display ushered me in alone. It was a montage of concert footage that wrapped around the viewer from front on both sides, with great crowd scenes from festivals and then musical acts through the decades became almost holographic. So here I was standing like I was part of the crowd watching Jimmy Page and Robert Plant perform Whole Lotta Love, and then it switched to Oasis, and then it switched to vintage Elton John, and on and on. When it ended the girl who worked the display asked me what I thought and I told her that I was glad it ended on the live music experience. She said, “Yes, and because you were by yourself it was like they were all performing for you!” It really came close to catching that live music euphoria. I wanted to watch it again and again. --J