Past, present and future: an Experience fully worthy of UK talent.

Launched this week, the British Music Experience reveals an environment that takes it beyond the realms of the museum

By Paul Williams

THE ARTEFACTS ARE IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH - from Marc Bolan's guitar and Queen's bass drum to Dusty Springfield's dress - but when the British Music Experience opens its doors at The O2 next week, do not expect a dusty old museum.

As a sneak preview reveals, the BME's emphasis instead is on interactivity and bringing the past 65 years of British music history alive, with visitors being given the chance not just to look at the vast number of exhibits but to take part in activities from playing a selection of instruments to learning the steps of a famous dance.

"It's not a museum," stresses curator Paul Lilley. "Because music means so much to people and evokes emotion the BME had to be active and alive and engaging. That's why we went down more of the experience route to engage people and to bring out some of that emotion of the music."

But that does not mean the Experience is not brimming with some amazing artefacts, thanks to the generosity of music companies and the artists themselves, including Keith Richards who has lent a #750,000 guitar, and Kate Bush, who has provided the red shoes made famous by her 1993 album of the same name. In all, around #5m worth of memorabilia has been lent to the BME, which organisers estimate would take you two weeks to get round if you were to read, watch, listen to and activate everything in it.

The exhibition, which is officially launched this Thursday and opens to the public next Monday, has been curated by Paul Lilley, while its director of curatorial affairs Bob Santelli brings with him a background that includes being the recently-opened Grammy Museum's executive director as well as previously serving as president of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Museum.