Paul Simonon - Biography

Biography

Simonon was born in Croydon, Surrey. His father, Gustave, was a clerk in the civil service and his mother, Elaine, was a librarian. He grew up in the South London area of Brixton, spending around a year in Siena, Italy with his mother and stepfather. Before joining The Clash, he had planned to become an artist and attended the Byam Shaw School of Art, then based in Campden St, Kensington (now part of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and relocated in Archway, London).

He was asked to join The Clash in 1976 by lead guitarist Mick Jones, who planned to teach Simonon guitar. However, the instrument proved difficult for Simonon, so Jones decided to teach him bass instead. Simonon would learn his bass parts by rote from Jones in the early days of The Clash and still did not know how to play the bass when the group first recorded. He is credited with coming up with the name of the band and was mainly responsible for the visual aspects such as clothing & stage backdrops. He was also immortalised on the front cover of the band's double album London Calling; Pennie Smith's image of him smashing his bass has become one of the iconic pictures of the punk era.

Paul Simonon wrote three of the Clash's songs: "The Guns of Brixton" on London Calling, "The Crooked Beat" on Sandinista!, and the B-side "Long Time Jerk". He sang "Red Angel Dragnet" from Combat Rock but this song was written by Joe Strummer.

Simonon played bass on almost all of the Clash's songs. Recordings that he did not play on include: "The Magnificent Seven" and "Lightning Strikes (Not Once but Twice)" on Sandinista! (played by Norman Watt-Roy), "Rock the Casbah" on Combat Rock (played by Topper Headon), and 10 of the 12 tracks on Cut the Crap (played by Norman Watt-Roy). Many of the tracks on Combat Rock are thought to have bass tracks laid down by Mick Jones or engineer Eddie Garcia and early recordings on Sandinista! featured bass played by Jones or Strummer, some but possibly not all of which Simonon later re-recorded once he rejoined the sessions after filming Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.

Simonon's contrapuntal reggae/ska-influenced lines set him apart from the bulk of other punk rock bassists of the era in terms of complexity and the role of the bass guitar within the band. He usually played with a pick as opposed to plucking the strings with his fingers.

After the Clash dissolved in 1986, Simonon started a band called Havana 3am. They recorded one album in Japan before breaking up. He also participated in a Bob Dylan session along with the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones that became part of the Dylan album Down in the Groove. Currently, Simonon works as an artist – his first passion before joining the Clash. He has had several gallery shows, and designed the cover for Big Audio Dynamite's album, Tighten Up, Vol. 88, as well as the cover for "Herculean" from the album The Good, the Bad and the Queen, a project with Damon Albarn on which Simonon plays bass. In 2008, after a seven year gap, Simonon began exhibiting paintings again with an exhibition at Thomas Williams Fine Art, London. One of his paintings was bought by British singer Lily Allen for £23,500, according to the Telegraph newspaper. Paul reunited with Damon Albarn and Mick Jones on the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, and is also the bassist of the Gorillaz live band supporting Plastic Beach, along with Mick Jones on guitar. The band headlined the 2010 Coachella Festival, and took up residence at the Camden roundhouse for two nights in late April 2010.

In 2011, Simonon spent time aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza incognito under the guise of "Paul the assistant cook" in response to Arctic oil drilling in Greenland by Cairn oil. He joined other Greenpeace activists in illegally boarding one of Cairn's oil rigs; an action which earned him two weeks in a Greenland jail. His identity was revealed to other crew members after the voyage, and he joined Damon Albarn and the other members of The Good, the Bad, and the Queen for a performance in London celebrating Greenpeace's 40th anniversary.

Simonon and Mick Jones are now working as executive producers for a new film based on the recording of The Clash classic 1979 album London Calling.