Palmolive

The Slits’ raucous on-stage behaviour belied the democratic way they wrote their songs. Members would bring lyrics, then create the music collaboratively, exchanging ideas, and devising arrangements together. Palmolive wrote the lyrics to several of the Slits’ initial songs, including Number One Enemy, Shoplifting, New Town, FM, and Adventures Close to Home.

Palmolive left the Raincoats after that tour for a pilgrimage to India with her friend Dave McLardy. The couple moved to Spain, then back to England before relocating to the United States, where they have lived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts since 1989. At her arrival she joined a controversial Pentecostal church named Victory Chapel in Hyannis, joining their extreme right-wing.

In November 1978, Palmolive appeared as drummer with Spizzoil in a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon), then soon joined her friend Gina Birch and Ana DaSilva in the Raincoats. Palmolive recruited violinist Vicki Aspinall into the group by hanging an ad in Compendium Books, a “centre for alternative thinkers.” Her drumming is characterized by Raincoats biographer Jenn Pelly as "more like painting, abstract-expressionist, not at all like a metronome." It fitted well with the band's non-linear, non-hierarchical approach to making music. Palmolive played on the Raincoats initial EP and their first album, The Raincoats, considered a "feminine response to rock'n'roll hegemony." She drummed for the Raincoats on a UK tour with Rough Trade labelmates Kleenex (later renamed LiliPUT after Kimberly-Clark, the manufacturer of the tissue paper brand, threatened legal action) in 1979.

Palmolive attended one of Patti Smith's October 1976 shows at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. There she saw 14-year-old Ari Up throwing a tantrum, decided she'd be a great person to front a new band, and asked her to join her band that same night. Ari immediately agreed. Palmolive next asked Kate Korus, whom she knew from the time of the 101'ers, to play guitar in the band; she too agreed. The three were joined by bassist Suzy Gutsy to form the first version of the Slits. On 17 January 1977, the English tabloid News of the World published the first article about female punks in London. The Slits were featured, along with the Castrators, another all-female band. Things were not working with Suzy, so Palmolive and Ari asked the Castrator's bassist, Tessa Pollitt, to join them.

The Slits, now including Tessa, performed their first gig at the Harlesden Coliseum in London on 11 March 1977 along with the Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, and the Clash. Vivien Goldman's review of the article in Sounds proclaimed that the group had "PRESENCE". Ari's "unfettered vocal frenzy" coupled with Palmolive's “fierce percussive pounding” and the overall freedom and wildness of the band's musical and physical performance took the audience by surprise. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones (of the Clash) said Kate didn't look cool, and proposed to replace her with Viv Albertine, Mick's girlfriend. Paloma agreed, and Viv joined the band.

The Slits gained immediate attention and soon opened for the Clash's 1977 White Riot tour. Palmolive's passionate drumming was key to the overall brashness of the group's performances. The group's audacity - on-stage and in the street - invited violence by men offended by their refusal of traditionally feminine attitudes and attire.

By the time that these songs were recorded for release on the Slits' first album, Cut, Palmolive was no longer in the band. She was unhappy due to tensions with the rest of the band over management and creative decisions, including posing nude on the cover of Cut. Disagreements built up and she was kicked out of the band just before they signed a contract with Island Records. Her drumming, along with some of the songs she wrote while with the band, can be heard on the group's 1977 and 1978 John Peel Sessions.

Paloma McLardy (née Romero, born 26 December 1954), known as Palmolive, is a Spanish-born drummer and songwriter who was a member of influential early punk bands. She founded the Slits toward the end of 1976. After leaving that group in 1978, she joined the Raincoats and performed on their first album, The Raincoats.

Her influence on punk and her role as an inspiration for women in music is chronicled in the documentary film Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits, Jenn Pelly's book The Raincoats, part of the 33 1/3 books series and the God Save the Queens: Pioneras del Punk. McLardy participates in frequent Q&A sessions at screenings of the film and other events, and was part of a keynote panel about women and music at the 2018 Pop Conference held at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, Washington. McLardy appeared in the 2019 four-part Epix documentary Punk. She is working on her autobiography.