Bass guitar smashed at Clash gig to join relics at Museum of London

It is in a right state, frankly, as a result of being smashed in anger by the Clash bass player Paul Simonon, but a guitar that is a slice of rock history will this month join Roman mosaics and 15th-century altar paintings to help tell the history of Britain’s capital city.

The Museum of London has announced that the splintered pieces of Simonon’s Fender Precision bass will go on permanent display from 23 July.

The guitar was last played on stage at the Palladium in New York on 20 September 1979. Frustrated at the stiffness of the audience, Simonon raised his guitar like a giant axe, turned his back to singer Joe Strummer, and brought it crashing down.

It would probably have been forgotten had not photographer Pennie Smith been standing less than six feet away with her 35mm Pentax camera.

“It wasn’t a choice to take the shot,” Smith told the Guardian in 2019. “My finger just went off.”

The resulting photograph was chosen by Strummer to be the cover of the Clash’s 1979 album London Calling, one of the most influential albums of all time. It was later named as the best rock’n’roll photograph of all time by Q magazine.

Smith recalled Simonon being in a “really bad mood” during the gig which was not like him. He later said it was an emotional response to an audience sitting in their seats and not moving.

The guitar featured in a display exploring the album that was held between November 2019 and September last year. Closures and restrictions on visitor numbers because of the pandemic meant opportunities to see the guitar were limited, said the museum.

It is being loaned long term by Simonon and the Clash. It joins a collection that includes treasures such as the Bucklersbury mosaic, which dates from AD250 and caused a sensation when it was discovered in 1869; and the Cotehele annunciation panels, a pair of late 15th-century altar paintings with links to Westminster Abbey.

The guitar will go into the museum’s world city gallery telling the story of London from the 1950s to today. Other exhibits include Bill and Ben string puppets, a Vespa scooter and the 28in-waist trunks worn by Tom Daley at the 2012 London Olympics.