Paul Simonon British, b. 1955

Simonon took up a scholarship at the Byam Shaw School of Art in Kensington (now part of Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design). It was at this time that he bumped into Mick Jones who asked him if he wanted to form a band. As an aspiring painter who had never previously played bass, he first took a lead role in the band’s visual identity, rapidly learning to play the instrument as he went along. Vocalist Joe Strummer decided to join up with the two on sight and The Clash went on to become one of the most iconic and influential bands of the last 40 years. Styled by Simonon, The Clash were recently cited as a key influence in the 2013 exhibition at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Punk: Chaos to Couture.
Simonon has always been passionate about art, and since the band split in the mid-1980s painting has become as important as his music career. His passion for painting began as a boy, his Father was an avid amateur painter using Paul’s bedroom as his studio. It was here, surrounded by books and pictures pinned to the walls that he "first encountered the world of art and beyond".