Paul Simonon

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Paul Gustave Simonon (born December 15, 1955 in Brixton, London, England) is best known as the bass guitar player for punk rock band The Clash. He grew up in the mostly Jamaican neighbourhood of Brixton in London. Before joining the Clash, he had planned to become an artist.

He was asked to join The Clash in 1976 by lead guitarist Mick Jones, who planned to teach Simonon guitar. However, the instrument proved too difficult for Simonon, so Jones decided to teach him bass instead.

Often described during this period as 'the most handsome man in London', Paul Simonon wrote three of the Clash's songs: "Guns of Brixton" on London Calling, "The Crooked Beat" on Sandinista!, and the mostly spoken-word "Red Angel Dragnet" from Combat Rock. Simonon only decided to write "Guns of Brixton" because he was jealous of the money the band's main songwriters, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, were making in royalties, but it is now one of the band's most recognized songs.

Although Simonon was not necessarily a technically gifted bassist (he usually played with a pick as opposed to plucking the strings with his fingers), his contrapuntal reggae-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 [1].

After the Clash dissolved in 1986, Simonon started a band called Havana 3am. They recorded one album in Japan before breaking up. Presently, Simonon works as an artist - his first passion before joining the Clash. He has had several gallery shows, and even designed the cover for one of Big Audio Dynamite's (Mick Jones' post-Clash band) albums, as well as the cover for Herculean by his most recent group, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, a Damon Albarn project which has brought Simonon back into music.

Paul Simonon was immortalized on the front cover of the band's double-album London Calling, where the image of him smashing his bass has become one of the most famous pictures in rock.

He married Pearl Harbour in 1983. The couple divorced in 1990. He is currently married to former model/unofficial Clash representative, Tricia Ronane, with whom he has two sons, Louis and Claude.