Simonon: His Journey

Clash man on his visit to the ancestral home of Strummer

16 April 2008 - When The Clash split in 1986, bassist Paul Simonon returned to his original calling of being a painter - and now more than two decades later he is launching his latest exhibition in London.

In an interview with 6 Music, Simonon has been speaking about a very special pilgrimage he made back in 2003 to the Hebrides.

Tribute to Joe Strummer

He did it in tribute to Joe Strummer because it's where his ancestors grew up. One of the pictures is of a very special house.

Paul said: "It’s amazing – it’s the only croft that still had the chimney and it was built by his great great great grand father.

"It’s a beautiful place – as a little memento I sort of left the clash box set in the fire place."

Ancestral Home

He went on to say he visited one of the ancestral homes of Joe Strummer: "I just set up the easel and started painting and then it started to rain quite heavily and I just carried on painting really and then it gets dark very quickly there and I just stayed there and worked really."

It was a very emotional experience for Paul, he said his visit to the area was a way of dealing with the death of Joe Strummer:  "It helped me a lot – deal with all that sort of emotional stuff regarding Joe.

"Basically it came about cos I got asked by the Scottish Herald and they commissioned me to go up there to do this painting.

Isle of Skye

"They actually wanted me to go to the Isle of Skye cos there's a memorial wood that’s planted in Joe's memory."

The art exhibition takes place at Thomas Williams fine art gallery at 22 Old Bond Street from Thursday 17 April.

Kelly Stooke and Adrian Larkin