Paul Simonon
Paul Simonon
Paul Gustave Simonon is an English musician and artist best known as the bassist for the Clash. More recent work includes his involvement in the supergroup the Good, the Bad & the Queen and playing on the Gorillaz album Plastic Beach in 2010, which saw Simonon reunite with the Clash guitarist Mick Jones and Blur frontman Damon Albarn – and which also led to Simonon becoming the live band's touring
"Ive got one thing to say about being the bass player … I didnt want the role of being Entwhistle or Bill Wyman, stuck in the background. Thats too depressing and if that was what Id been offered with The Clash I wouldve turned it down. Maybe thats the nature of the job, or has been in the past; the bass player as the one that held the fort, so to speak, along with the drummer, letting every body else go lunatic. But, yknow — why cant we all be lunatics?"
"What made a big difference was the open door policy we had. Anyone who wanted to come backstage could, and it was never a problem. I dont know whether other bands did that. It was good for us to meet people who had come to see the group and converse with them, ask them Whats it like in your town? What, there are no clubs here? So what do you do? It was about sharing information and it was good to know what was going on out there, and how people were dealing with their lives. And that spread right across the world."
