Palmolive at The Dublin Castle: The Slits & Raincoats Drummer on Her Forthcoming Memoir "Punk's Palmolive, Fighting Dragons In The Land of Concrete"

We spent a very entertaining Sunday afternoon at the legendary Dublin Castle in Camden courtesy of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club in the company of Paloma Romero McLardy, otherwise known as Palmolive, the former drummer with The Slits and The Raincoats, talking about her forthcoming memoirs “Punk’s Palmolive: Fighting Dragons In The Land of Concrete”. After an introduction, Palmolive sat behind a laptop and treated us to a ‘Punk Rock PowerPoint Presentation’ with lots of rare and previously unseen photos from her childhood right through to her time in The Slits and The Raincoats. She started off talking about growing up in Spain under the rule of the dictator Franco and how she escaped to London, knowing that she did not fit in under such a harsh regime and not wanting to conform to the norms of society. She fell in with the West London squatting scene based around the Pub Rock band The 101ers and fell in love with their frontman Woody in the process. Of course, they were both galvanized by seeing the Sex Pistols and Woody soon became Joe Strummer, leaving behind the 101ers to join The Clash and the rest is their history. There are lots of anecdotes about this time – how Joe’s new bandmate Paul Simonon got to christen her Palmolive, how Joe was intrigued by her tales of Franco’s regime and the Spanish Civil War, a subject that would inform quite a few of his lyrics with The Clash. She talks about the impact that Ari Up had on her and how she was encouraged by Joe to form The Slits in 1976 with Ari as vocalist, Viv Albertine on guitar and bassist Tessa Pollitt, who was there among the audience on the afternoon to support her former bandmate. Palmolive talks about touring with The Clash and of writing some of The Slits early classics such as “Newtown” and “Shoplifting” which sparks off an amusing anecdote about her time as a petty pilferer. 

Palmolive left The Slits before the recording of their debut album “Cut” but did feature on the superb Peel Sessions, which to my mind are some of the best recordings the band made. She talks about the run-ins she had with Sid Vicious and Malcolm McLaren, kicking (sometimes literally) not just against the male dominated music business, but also against the patronizing attitudes and jealousy from some of her peers. Palmolive then went on to join the equally influential band The Raincoats, featuring on their self-titled debut album so beloved of Kurt Cobain, Bikini Kill, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon among many others. A Q&A session followed, although some of the questioning drew some exasperated interjections from Palmolive’s friends and family in the crowd, not to mention the impressive contingent of Raincoats including Ana da Silva, Gina Birch, Shirley O’Loughlin, Vicky Aspinall and Ingrid Weiss, some of whom chipped in with their (sometimes contradictory) versions of events! I get the feeling that Palmolive may have to do some more editing before the book is ready. The floor was then open to questions so I asked Palmolive about The Slits sound and how I thought that The Clash, despite their “No Elvis, Beatles and Rolling Stones” war-cry and the Sex Pistols (without Johnny Rotten’s voice), were both rooted in traditional Rock & Roll music – you could see where their influences came from – but The Slits were truly unique, and I wondered how they arrived at their sound. She said it was more by accident than design, the fact that they really couldn’t play their instruments to start with and this chaotic, confrontational attitude were all components in the Slits sound, as she says “I didn’t play the drums, I hit them.”  

Photo Above: The Raincoats (l/r) Ingrid Weiss, Vicky Aspinall, Gina Birch, Ana da Silva, Palmolive & Shirley O'Laughlin. 

Palmolive has a wicked sense of humour with an infectious laugh, a twinkle in her eyes and some of her stories had us laughing out loud. She still carries that spirit of independence and creativity that the initial Punk explosion engendered as in the PR to the book she writes “I want to inspire you to make art, go on adventures, take risks, speak to power, believe in yourself and don’t let someone else write your own narrative.” Fine sentiments indeed. She was a thoroughly entertaining speaker, bursting with energy and I came away inspired and happy that pioneers such as The Slits and The Raincoats are still getting the recognition they deserve to this day. Palmolive and all her former bandmates that were present were more than happy to chat to fans after the talk and it was an honour to meet them and get our record covers signed. Palmolive now lives in America and lectures on Punk History, she will be appearing at this year’s Rebellion Festival which starts on August 1st. She has set up an excellent web-site Punk's Palmolive which is packed full of archive material, press coverage, merchandise and links to what she has in the pipeline. You can also sign up to her newsletter, so you don’t miss out on further news on the book’s release, it certainly promises to be a fascinating read.

For more information please do kindly take some time to investigate the highlighted links throughout the feature, not only Palmolive's great site but also Gina and Ana's sites as both are very much active with their own music and art. I'd also highly recommend the superb Slits documentary "Here To Be Heard", and Tessa's Slits Scrapbook which comes with a DVD of the movie. As for books, some of my favourites include Zoe Howe's brilliant biography "Typical Girls? The Story Of The Slits", Vivien Goldman's "Revenge of The She Punks", Viv Albertine's "Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys", Jordan Mooney & Cathi Unsworth's "Defying Gravity", Helen Reddington's "The Lost Women of Rock Music" and Julian Yewdall's "A Permanent Record" featuring photos of The 101ers, The Clash, The Slits, Joe Strummer and more.

All Photos Copyright Retro Man Blog, July 2024.

The Blue Aeroplanes at Lafayette London, July 27th 2024

The Blue Aeroplanes made a triumphant return on Saturday at a packed-out Lafayette in London, their first live performance since frontman Gerard Langley’s recent emergency surgery. As always with the Aeroplanes, you never know what line-up you are going to see or what songs culled from their impressive, sprawling back catalogue you are going to hear. First of all, the line-up was the same as last year’s excellent show at the Electric Ballroom with the addition of a young, enthusiastic chap on keyboards and acoustic guitar, sorry I didn’t get this name. Gerard was flanked by guitarist/vocalists Bec Jevons from iDestoy and Singer-Songwriter Rita Lynch and then there's Mike Youe on lead guitar. The rhythm section comprised the spiky haired Chris Sharp on bass and longtime drummer John Langley. And then of course, there’s Wojtek who is still dancing full-on throughout the whole set – how he gets the energy I’ll never know. At one point, he even leaps down into the audience to push and pull the crowd and show them how it’s done. 

 

The set-list is predictable in its typical Blue Aeroplanes unpredictable style – the regular crowd-favourites such as “Jacket Hangs”, "Yr Own World" and “… And Stones” are joined by a selection of deep-cuts and unexpected delights. Tonight, I’m particularly happy as we get “Missy Lane” with Rita on lead vocals and “Mis-Firing,” which has one of my all-time favourite guitar riff intros, and from the band that specializes in killer guitar riff intros, that’s saying something. Bec takes lead vocals on the energetic and punky “(An Unexpected Hit of) Adoration” which is augmented by some great sax from Wojtek’s son, Alexander. They also play “Building An Ark For the Anthropocene” and a blistering “Bulletproof Coffee & A Snake-Oil Shot” from the excellent current album “Culture Gun”, which goes to prove that, despite the many personnel changes over the years, the sheer quality of the songwriting never drops. 

 

Gerard looks extremely well considering the seriousness of his recent situation and is on fine form vocally, he thanks us for being there, and admits he is happy to be here too, as he didn’t think he would make it. Admiration and emotion are buzzing round the audience and the atmosphere is fantastic. But then things take another unexpected turn when Gerard introduces a very special guest during the encore. Yes, it’s Rodney Allen, who has also had to deal with his own life-threatening illness and it was wonderful to see him take the stage. Gerard takes a break to allow Rodney to bask in the outpouring of relief at seeing what a remarkable recovery he has made and the band launch into his signature song “Fun”. Fun is probably not something The Blue Aeroplanes have had much of over the past few years, what with Gerard and Rodney’s health situations and the extremely sad and untimely passing of their genius guitarist Angelo Bruschini last year. However, tonight proved how important a top night of live music can be, it’s almost a transcendental experience. I think there were a few lumps in throats and tears in the eyes of many of the crowd as “Fun” drew to a close and we cheered for Rodney. 

 

Of course, to close the show we get the now traditional chaotic take on Tom Verlaine’s “Breakin’ In My Heart” and the ‘see how many musicians we can get on stage to join in’ competition peaks at thirteen people in all. These include former Blue Aeroplanes guitarist Gerard Starkie, who had opened the show with a short but impressive set of solo songs and a couple of excellent numbers from his other project, The Jesus Bolt. Tonight was a celebration, when the band and audience connect in such a way, it can be cathartic and emotional, there’s just nothing else like it. It was definitely one of those “I’m bloody glad I was there to witness it" shows that’s for sure. 

 

 

The night was even more special for me personally as the band asked to use one of my photos for the advertising in the run up to the show, and I was truly honoured. For more news, updates and merchandise, please check out The Blue Aeroplanes official website here. You can see more videos from the Lafayette show at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here and lots of Blue Aeroplanes reports, photos and videos from previous shows in our archive.

 

Love with Johnny Echols "Forever Changes" at Shepherds Bush Empire London July 20th 2024

It's not often you get the chance to see one of your favourite albums performed live at your favourite venue but last night I was lucky enough to witness Love with Johnny Echols perform "Forever Changes" in it's entirety and it was every bit as wonderful as I could have wished for. This was the second time I'd seen this line-up, the first being at the Garage in Islington a couple of years ago where I was right down the front of the stage, the gig was standing only and it was a great hot and rollicking Rock 'n' Roll show. Tonight was more civilized, seats had been installed in the downstairs stalls of the beautifully ornate Shepherds Bush Empire and I was up on the second floor balcony. I asked the security guard at the door why there were seats downstairs and he replied "it's because it's an older audience and we thought standing for three hours might be a bit much" - bloody cheek! "I'm offended by that remark, I'm not that old" I told him with a smile - although I was secretly happy to take my gin and tonic to the comfort of my seat in preparation for the show. Love these days consist of Rusty Squeezebox on lead vocals and guitars, Mike Randle on guitars and backing vocals and drummer David Green. All three were in the excellent Power Pop band Baby Lemonade who had impressed original Love vocalist Arthur Lee so much, he invited them to be his backing band for a new version of Love in the mid-'90's. This culminated in an appearance at the legendary Glastonbury festival in 2003 and a full-on orchestral performance of "Forever Changes" at London's Royal Festival Hall in the same year. Sadly Arthur passed away in 2006, leaving original guitarist Johnny Echols to take on the mantle and a change in bassist a few years later saw James Nolte replacing David Chapple. Tonight, the band are augmented by Nick Frater on keyboards, Nathan Thomas on trumpet and French horn and the Parallax string quartet, who all brought those wonderful orchestral textures on "Forever Changes" to life. In the hands of these excellent musicians, the album sounds utterly timeless and as fresh and vital as ever. 

 

You can see just why Love and the "Forever Changes" album in particular were and in fact still are, such a huge influence to this day. The complexity of the song writing, those unexpected chord changes and twists and turns, the intriguing lyrics all topped off with memorable choruses and riffs. The powerful Garage Rock freak-outs, soulful ballads, touches of Bossa Nova and Latino exotica, beautifully arranged orchestration and strung out Psychedelia, Love really had something for everybody. The first set is the album played through in that familiar running order, opening with the classic "Alone Again Or" once covered (pretty poorly it must be said...) by one of my favourite acts The Damned. Talking of favourite bands, I can never hear second song "A House Is Not A Motel" without thinking of Mick Head and his brother John from Shack. The Liverpool legends also backed up Arthur Lee for a live recording of a show at the Academy Liverpool in 1992 which is available as an album and is well worth getting hold of. The musicians of Liverpool really took Love to heart and Mick Head must be one of their biggest fans, often sporting a Love T-Shirt and he even closed the set at a recent gig with his new outfit The Red Elastic Band at Earth in Hackney with a blistering "A House Is Not A Motel". Actually, if you check YouTube here you can see Mick joining Johnny and the band at Leaf in Liverpool a few years ago for a superb run through of the same song and Mick looks chuffed to bits to be there on stage next to one of his musical heroes. Then on "The Daily Planet" I'm immediately reminded of yet another of my favourite bands, Sweden's Soundtrack of Our Lives, whose orchestral Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll owes a debt to Love's music, just listen to their "Lone Summer Dream" back to back with "The Daily Planet" and you'll see what I mean. As "The Red Telephone" draws to a close, Rusty approaches the mic "can you turn the album over to side two now?" So, side two, track one and it's one of the highlights of the whole night "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark and Hillsdale", with Nathan Thomas' trumpet particularly outstanding. The set closes just as the album does of course with two of my favourite Love songs "Bummer In The Summer" and "You Set The Scene".

 

The second set didn't just contain the obvious crowd-pleasers - as Rusty said trying to make sense of the numerous crowd calls for various favourite numbers - "sorry, we can't play all our songs!" In fact, the "Forever Changes" outtake "Wonder People (I Do Wonder)" was a personal highlight, it would have made a perfect 1960's Californian Summer single rather than an obscure hidden gem and "Feathered Fish", a track Arthur wrote for Sons of Adam was a storming Garage Punk rocker that wouldn't be out of place in the set lists of most of my favourite contemporary bands that I play in Retrosonic Podcast. "Always See Your Face" from the often over-looked album "Four Sail", was fantastic as was "Your Mind And We Belong Together". The heart-wrenchingly beautiful "Orange Skies" was wonderful with Nick Frater expertly replicating the flute on the keyboards. There's a wonderful chemistry beween the band members on stage, they look like they are all having as much fun as we are, and this means a lot to an audience. Love fans really seem to have taken to each band member, Mike and Rusty handle the complexities of Love's guitar lines perfectly, Rusty proving to be a mighty fine vocalist in his own right. He's a genial and engaging frontman that pays his respects to Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean, nicely acknowledging the legacy and history of the band. Him and Mike make great guitar sparring partners and along with the excellent rhythm section of Dave Green and James Nolte, not forgetting the additional musicians on stage tonight, they all do that legacy proud. Of course, there's Johnny - super cool and laid back - the audience strike up the football chant refrain "Johnny, Johhny, Johnny f**kin' Echols!" It raises a smile from the legend himself. His guitar playing is something to behold and he's equally adept on maracas too. On an emotional "Signed D.C." Johnny takes over on impressive lead vocals, ending the last line of the song with "signed J.E." which was a nice touch. Then it's a raucous blast through the Sixties Garage Rock nugget "Seven & Seven Is" which explodes into come-down guitar motifs and the band can put down their instruments to lap up the applause and standing ovation from a thoroughly satisfied crowd. What a show. I've been going to gigs for 43 years now, and in that time I've been fortunate enough to witness some very special musical happenings and tonight was up there with the very best of them. On the excellent 'Love Revisited' Facebook fan's forum (please join here...), someone posted at the start of the tour "my friend says this is the farewell tour, say it isn't so..." and Mr Johnny Echols himself replied "your friend doesn't know what he's talking about, we shall keep playing as long as people want to see us!" That's what we want to hear and I'm sure all at the packed out Shepherds Bush Empire certainly want to see them play again. Johnny Echols for President!

Love with Johnny Echols are half way through their UK tour now so please check out their web-site for details on the remaining tour dates and how to book tickets. You can check out more videos from the show at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here.

Tours - "Language School" / "Foreign Girls" - 7" Vinyl Reissue of Classic Power Pop / New Wave Single

Bachelor Records have just re-issued one of the greatest Power Pop singles of all time "Language School" backed with "Foreign Girls" by the sadly short-lived Tours which is available as a limited edition of 500 copies and comes with a four page booklet with liner notes and rare photos. It's a classic pairing that sums up all the very best of 1979, that golden year for melodic guitar Pop. It was a huge favourite of John Peel who played "Language School" on his BBC Radio 1 show for 50 consecutive nights, claiming it was runner up only to his beloved "Teenage Kicks" by The Undertones as one of his all time favourite single. Joint singer-songwriters Ronnie Mayor and Richard Mazda were dubbed the 'Lennon & McCartney' of Punk and Richard Branson signed them up to Virgin Records. Unfortunately, the band only managed to release one more single, the equally excellent "Tourist Information" before they split up. As regular listeners to our Retrosonic Podcast will know, my co-host and colleague, the Rock Photographer Paul Slattery, has banged on about how great Tours were for ages and we've played many songs by the band in various episodes. Paul took some great photos of Tours back in their early years and was chuffed to bits when they decided to re-form in 2018 for a gig in their native Poole, so he hot-footed it down to the south coast with camera in hand to capture rehearsals and the gig itself.

Tours "Language School" heard live again for the first time in almost 40 years! I went down to Poole with writer Dave McCullough back in 1979 to photograph the band Tours for a feature in Sounds magazine. They were unusual because there were two songwriters and two lead singers, Richard Mazda singing his own songs and Ronnie Mayor singing his. However unusual, they were a really excellent band with great tunes and a fantastic sound. - Paul Slattery

You can order the new "Language School" vinyl single and download from the Bachelor Records Bandcamp site here or from 14th Floor Music Distribution here.

 

You can read all about Paul's visit to Tours reunion rehearsals here and the gig at the King Charles in Poole here, both features include excellent photos by Paul, old and new. Don't forget Retrosonic Podcast Episode 47 where Paul Slattery discussed "Retrospectively Yours", the excellent compilation from Ronnie Mayor of Tours, the criminally underrated, short-lived Power Pop/New Wave band who Paul first photographed and championed way back in 1979. There's a special feature on the album which highlights Ronnie's songwriting skills with The Tours and Da Biz and we pick a selection of songs from both bands.

Retrosonic Podcast · Episode 47 "This Is No Audition" with Rock Photographer Paul Slattery

 

Ruts DC "Electracoustic Vol. 3"

Ruts DC have just released the third volume in their inspired Electracoustic series, where they revisit and reimagine, not only the old classics, but many of the hidden gems, B-Sides and album tracks from The Ruts and Ruts DC impressive back catalogue. “Electracoustic Vol. 3” is slightly different from the previous volumes, in that it also includes a brand new as yet unreleased track entitled "Bound In Blood”, that proves that the band are continuing in their rich vein of form. The Electracoustic series works on all levels, probably because as the title suggests, these are not just the usual bland acoustic versions that some bands and artists put out as filler or a quick, cost-effective and easy release. Not at all. Often, these are complete re-workings of the songs we have come to know and love, and adding in electric guitars and bass allows them to experiment with the arrangements and add a real texture and variety to proceedings. Hearing the familiar tracks in such a different context also makes you re-evaluate the songs themselves and highlights just what superb songwriters The Ruts were, and more importantly that Ruts DC still are. 

I have written before about Ruts DC and how difficult it must have been for Segs to follow on from Malcolm Owen’s unique vocal delivery, and later for Leigh Heggarty to follow Paul Fox’s unbelievable and singular guitar playing and of course, anyone who has seen them play live in their current guise will understand just how remarkable both have done. So, the Electracoustic sessions are also a chance for both Segs and Leigh to add their own skills and personalities to the old Ruts songs and this gives a totally fresh and invigorating listening experience. I guess first of all, most people will be intrigued as to how they are going to tackle the more straight-ahead Punk Rock songs of the early Ruts and on Vol. 3 you get three great examples, well, three if you get the CD version. The vinyl album ends with “Human Punk” and the bonus tracks on the CD include “Criminal Mind” and “Society”. “Criminal Mind” gets twisted into a blistering Rockabilly shuffle complete with handclaps and drummer Dave Ruffy’s fantastic brush work. “Society” gets filtered down to a sprightly acoustic Folk-Punk classic with an electric blast of guitar from Leigh and Segs’ voice doesn’t lose any of the latent aggression of the original, that most of us only heard as a chaotic live recording. 

“Pretty Lunatics” from the last album “CounterCulture?” is the closest they get to an all-out acoustic number and here it’s a stunningly emotional tug at the heartstrings. Some tracks are not that dissimilar to the originals - the take on the Punky Reggae classic “Jah War” for example but “Dope For Guns” slows down and strips the familiar song back to highlight the mightily impressive bubbling bass line and it really takes on a new life of its own. For me, it’s the tracks from the post-Malcolm Ruts DC albums “Formula Eyes” from “Animal Now” and a brilliant laid-back version of “Whatever We Do” from “Rhythm Collision Vol. 1” that really hit the spot, and dare I say, could well improve on the originals. So, please don’t hesitate in adding this fantastic album to your Ruts collection, if you think you might have heard it all before, then think again and give it a try. You won’t regret it and it’ll have you listening to that almighty back catalogue with fresh ears.  

“Electracoustic Vol. 3” comes in blue vinyl and as mentioned, the CD has three bonus tracks, and both are available to order, along with new merchandise, from the band’s official website here. Don’t forget Volumes 1 and 2 while you’re at it! Ruts DC are also out on a U.K. Electracoustic tour at the moment, culminating in a show at the legendary 100 Club in London on Sunday July 28th so please check the band’s site for the full list of tour dates and how to buy tickets. You can check previous reviews of Ruts DC shows in our Retro Man Blog archive and also original live videos at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here. Finally, don't forget our thoroughly entertaining Retrosonic Podcast with Ruts DC guitarist Leigh Heggarty.

Retrosonic Podcast · Lockdown Lowdown Episode 2: Leigh Heggarty of Ruts DC

 

VIVA Strange Boutique - Tokyo's Post-Punk, New Wave & Indie Store

VIVA Strange Boutique is a fantastic store located near Okusawa station in the south-west of Tokyo close to Jiyugaoka and its packed with vintage Post-Punk and Indie posters, badges, records, music magazines and memorabilia. The emphasis is very much on U.K. Post-Punk and Indie with prominent displays of the more avant-garde and DIY acts such as Alternative TV, Television Personalities, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV. Store owner Minami, who also sings and plays guitar with her own band, She Talks Silence, designs and produces original, officially authorised merchandise for some of her favourite bands and artists such as Felt, A Certain Ratio, The Raincoats, Durutti Column, David J, The Vaselines, Primal Scream, Sparks and the Japanese band Plastics who were a kind of cross between The B-52's, Wall of Voodoo and early Talking Heads. She's had some well known visitors too, DJ Don Letts and Devo's frontman Mark Mothersbaugh have popped in to visit the store. 

 

You can check out the VIVA Strange Boutique online store here for the full list of merchandise, as they also offer shipping worldwide. Of course, you can probably guess from the store's name, that Minami is a huge fan of The Monochrome Set and they recently invited the band over to Tokyo to headline a sold-out gig at the WWWX venue in Shibuya to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the store's opening. 

 

There's also an exhibition space in the basement and luckily we were able to catch an exhibtion of stunning photos by the music photographer Toshi Yajima who also just so happened to be in the store, so we could have a nice chat about this work and career as a UK based correspondent sharing his photos to various publications back in Japan. He took very early photos of the Sex Pistols in their Denmark Street rehearsal room in 1976 and would go on to photograph all the musical greats such as The Clash, The Jam, David Bowie, XTC, Iggy Pop, The Damned, Japan, Morrissey, The B-52's, Devo, Paul Weller, The Specials and Kraftwerk among many others - all are featured in an excellent book entitled "Each & Every One" which was actually published by VIVA Strange Boutique. Hopefully, we will be doing a more in-depth feature on his superb pictures sometime in the future.

With thanks to Minami and Toshi Yajima. For more information on VIVA Strange Boutique please check out their web-site here and Facebook page here, they are also on Instagram.