Post by Jane / Redsky

TIL how European Paul Simonon is. "My mum was born in Nice, one granddad was from Whitby, my dad was born in Camberwell and his father was from Belgium. So I'm a bit of everywhere." h/t the ex-Q magazine / New Cue newsletter May 2023 @thenewcue.bsky.social thenewcue.substack.com/p/the-new-cu...

Your new album has a real mix of European styles on it... Most definitely. When I was a kid my granddad used to play Jacques Brel and my dad liked Françoise Hardy. But then growing up in South London and Ladbroke Grove I got exposed to West Indian music; ska, rocksteady, reggae. So I've always listened to all kinds of music. And then there was a period where I lived in Italy with my stepfather and my mum and I was exposed to lots of Italian music and spaghetti westerns.

Has music always been tied into the visual side of things for you? It's feelings. A song evokes many things. It can cheer people up, it can piss people off. For every emotion possible, there's a record for it. Hopefully our record has got quite a range on it. Essentially, it's a European record. We're not part of Europe anymore, but it's as if we were. My mum was born in Nice, one granddad was from Whitby, my dad was born in Camberwell and his father was from Belgium. So I'm a bit of everywhere. Was moving from Brixton to Italy when you were a kid a culture shock? Totally. My father left, which was a shock to me, and my stepfather turned up and he won some scholarship to study music in Italy. So suddenly we left Brixton and went to Italy. All of a sudden it was like: Olives! Pasta! Pizza! We didn't have Pizza Hut

jun 15, 2025, 5:09 pm • 19 4

Replies

His Grandad being from Whitby is great news. I can now claim the Clash as a Yorkshire band.

jun 16, 2025, 12:31 pm • 3 0 • view