“I was not in a position to tell any of the others in the Clash what to wear. I didn't sew a little outfit and say, 'Here Mick, here's a nice onesie for you!' But when I started splattering my trousers with paint Jackson Pollock-style, the others followed suit, and then people up and down the country were doing it.”
Paul Simonon was a painter before he was a punk, and he carried his artistic desire into the look of The Clash: action paintings, splattered jeans, and stage backdrops for the legendary London punk band. On the occasion of Wot No Bike, Paul Simonon’s new exhibition at London’s ICA, filmmaker and long-time friend Baillie Walsh spent the day with the artist, exclusively for NOWNESS.
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