The BME has finally given showcase for British music.

Editorial Paul Williams

A PERMANENT EXHIBITION TO THE UK'S COUNTLESS MUSIC ACHIEVEMENTS has been longer coming than a new Guns N' Roses album. Now it is here, though, the British Music Experience will not disappoint.

This week's launch in The O2's Bubble will finally provide a fitting physical showcase to an industry that Britain has been a world leader in for more than four decades and, as evidenced by last month's Grammy Awards, is in particular rude health artistically at present. There are not many industries these days where you can say the UK is still so successful.

Our arrival at this point comes after a frustrating, cumbersome journey that included the dreadful National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield (hardly fitting for a city that has produced so many great artists) and the absurdity of having a UK music hall of fame television show without an actual hall of fame. And why it has taken more than 20 years since the US launched its own hall of fame in Cleveland to get to this position is baffling, to say the least.

But, most importantly, we are here at last - and what we have is quite spectacular.

The BME works because it appeals on so many levels and to so many different types of people. If your thing is staring, open-mouthed in awe, at some amazing artefacts from the past 65 years, from David Bowie's Station To Station suit and his handwritten lyrics to Five Years to all manner of instruments once played by musical gods, this will appeal to you.

But for those who prefer to get more directly involved, from physically playing the instruments to learning the steps of a dance, there will be plenty on offer, too. It says a lot about just how much there is going on ...