IMAGINE – John Lennon, Bono, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Sade and The Who, together in one space, for one whole month. For die-hard music fans, it’s a dreamscape to blow the mind.

Thanks to Dragons’ Den’s Guy Portelli, the prolific London sculptor who won a mighty £80,000 of funding from the fire-breathing James Caan, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis, to bring his pop-music-art to life, the icons have come to Taunton for an art show like you ain’t never seen.

Just last week, the Beatle and co were teetering in London’s Saatchi Gallery.

But from now until November 28, Portelli’s pop stars, forged from materials including bronze, acryclic and aluminium, occupy the “neutral, non-elitist space” of the Creative Innovation Centre.

Drawing on his 18-piece pop-music-art collection, Portelli’s Taunton exhibition is given a Somerset twist, modelling itself on the Glastonbury music pantheon.

And just like the world’s most famous music festival, the idea behind Portelli’s show is of a meeting of Glastonbury music gods: pop icons through the decades, together on the summit of music’s Mount Olympus, “capturing the Glastonbury essence”.

On the show’s opening night, Portelli told the County Gazette: “There are a lot of similarities between art and music.

“A good piece of art has a bass line, has a melody, has discord, has harmony, in the same way that a piece of music has. With my work, I try and harness the shadow of pop iconography … the polarisation of two extremes. I’m interested in that tension.”

For this, U2 frontman Bono is a key part of Portelli’s oeuvre. His sculpture of Bono ‘Guns, Gold & Gods’, straddles the world’s poverty and riches.

On one side of his face, you see opulent, decadent, powerful America, with the poverty and corruption of Africa, on the opposite side.

Bono’s famous sunglasses, meanwhile, are polished bronze, like stark pools of gold.

Guy said: “Ten minutes of Bono’s conversation has the power to change things.

“But for somebody to have that power, there has to be a certain level of hypocrisy. When people stick their necks out they are always going to be criticised and slated – and I’ve found that myself – but it goes with the territory.

“The world needs people to measure itself against. We live in this strange world, where the people we see on television are viewed under the microscope, where common people feel like they own you and know you, but actually, everyone’s pretty much dealing with the same things, whether you’ve got a lot of money and fame or living hand to mouth.

“Ultimately, however, I’m not interested in the people; I’m interested in what they represent to the rest of the world; how the world’s responding to it.”

Portelli’s work trys to generate the feeling that an icon, or musical movement, through its energy and charisma, does, or what they or it stood for as the embodiment of an era did, way back when.

Joining Portelli’s Golden Age in big style is the incredible work of documentary photographer Charles Everest. In 1970, the freelance worked for five solid days at the game-changing Isle of Wight music festival, where a rumoured 600,000 people congregated. Hendrix played. Everest took some 3,000-4,000 snaps.

His son, Neil, is undertaking the ongoing, painstaking task of curating and bringing his father’s work to light, with real pride and relish.

His favourite shot? “Jimi Who? Hendrix is cutting a lonely figure in the dark of the night, surrounded by speakers and equipment,” says Neil.

Hendrix’s lightning bolt guitar is in the foreground, along with an amp clearly borrowed from The Who.

Neil says: “Who would think, from this image, that 600,000 people were just out of this shot with all eyes on him?”

Visitors to CICCIC will also get to see paintings by Chris Myers RI RBA, reflecting the Pop Icon theme.

Portelli, by bringing his big-name London show to Taunton, is attempting “the unexpected”, he says.

But it also marks the tip of the iceberg for his Taunton plans.

“The provinces have a real hunger for art, and there’s real potential to tap into the arts down here,” he says.

“I hope to come back with some big ideas.”

Guy Portelli’s exhibition,The Golden Age of the Pop Icon, is open 9am until noon, Monday to Friday, by appointment at the Creative Innovation Centre, Paul Street, Taunton, on 01823-337477.