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.