The Clash bassist/frequent Damon Albarn collaborator Paul Simonon was part of a Greenpeace activist team jailed for two weeks in June, after occupying an offshore oil rig in the Arctic Ocean. As the Daily Swarm points out (via Louder Than War), Greenpeace revealed that Simonon joined the ship's crew anonymously, as an assistant cook.

The Greenpeacers boarded the oil rig, maintained by one of Europe's largest oil and gas companies, Cairn Energy, on June 3, to demand that Cairn produce a response plan for an oil spill. The activists were charged with "hijacking" the oil rig when they refused to leave. Check out this drawing Simonon produced on his jail cell wall.

According to the Greenpeace blog, a jam session broke out while their ship was at sea. One of Simonon's fellow crew members recalls "telling the professional bass player he was 'not bad' and ought to pursue music." Simonon went the entire two weeks in jail without revealing his actual identity to fellow activists.

Last week, Simonon played a Greenpeace benefit with the Good the Bad & the Queen in London.

The blog post was part one of two covering Simonon's experience. Part two will soon be posted to a Greenpeace Facebook page.