Paul’s book Wot NO Bike was a limited print run publication of his work. Encouraged by Anomie Publishing to collaborate on a publication about his recent body of painting, Paul has been personally involved in the book’s development, resulting in a cloth-bound hardback publication in an edition of 1000 copies. Edited by Bruce Cameron and Serena Rees, and designed by Martin Bell /Fruitmachine, the publication features twenty-two new and recent paintings under the banner of ‘Wot No Bike’.

The bikes, jackets, boots, helmets, gloves and other biking paraphernalia that feature in Simonon’s paintings are his own possessions, things that he uses pretty much every day. As such, the paintings are as much in the tradition of self-portraits as still lifes: “It’s like writing a diary, in a way, but in paint”, says Simonon.

With an independent-minded, outsider spirit, Simonon’s paintings in ‘Wot No Bike’ bring British subcultures of the 1950s to 1970s into dialogue with modernist and realist painting traditions, particularly the social realism that came to the fore as these subcultures were emerging. Bound up in the middle of this is Simonon himself – his personal history, family, childhood, adolescence, adult life, social life, private life, music and, in fact, his inner life.

Signed copies of the book are now SOLD OUT