15 Facts About Paul Simonon

Paul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash.

Paul Simonon's father, Gustave, was an amateur artist and his mother, Elaine, was a librarian.

Paul Simonon's paternal grandfather was a Belgian who moved to England during the First World War.

Paul Simonon grew up in both the South London area of Brixton and Ladbroke Grove in West London, spending around a year in Siena and Rome, Italy with his mother and stepfather.

Paul Simonon studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, which he attended on scholarship.

Paul Simonon met Mick Jones in 1976, and six months later the Clash was formed when Joe Strummer joined, with Jones on lead guitar.

Paul Simonon learned 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.

Paul Simonon is credited with coming up with the name of the band and was mainly responsible for the visual aspects such as clothing and stage backdrops.

Paul Simonon was shown on the front cover of the band's double album London Calling: Pennie Smith's image of him smashing his Fender Precision Bass guitar during a 1979 concert in New York City; the image has become one of the iconic pictures of the punk era.

Paul Simonon played bass on almost all of the Clash's songs.

Paul Simonon has had several gallery shows, and designed the cover for Big Audio Dynamite's album, Tighten Up, Vol.

Paul Simonon reunited with Damon Albarn and Mick Jones on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, and was the bassist of the Gorillaz live band supporting Plastic Beach, along with Mick Jones on guitar.

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.

Paul Simonon joined other Greenpeace activists in illegally boarding one of Cairn's oil rigs; an action which earned him two weeks in a Greenland jail.

The project arose out of Paul Simonon's time writing music in Mallorca during the Covid-19 lockdown and subsequently busking in front of cafes in Palma.