Paloma McLardy (née Romero, born 26 December 1954), known as Palmolive, is a Spanish 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. Early life and punk rock career Palmolive was born in Melilla, Spain, into a family of nine children, and grew up in Málaga with her four sisters. A teenager who chafed against the political repression and conservatism of Francoist Spain, Palmolive left for London at 17 to "learn about life". She returned to Madrid three months later to attend university, where she participated in anti-fascist activism, sometimes getting in trouble with the police. Before long, she returned to London and lived at a hippie squat at 101 Walterton Road where she met Joe Strummer, who had recently changed his name from Woody Mellor. The couple were together for several years. Joe, who played in pub-rock band the 101ers just before punk emerged in the city, joined shortly later the Clash. Punk's "explosive energy" and sense of radical freedom inspired McLardy. Like many others on the scene, she acquired a punk name, Palmolive, inspired by Paul Simonon's playful mis-pronunciation of "Paloma". Returning to London after a break in Scotland, Palmolive wanted to become a mime artist, but the troupe she contacted needed a drummer instead. She accepted but stayed with them for a brief time. She never played an instrument before and fell in love with the drums. Palmolive soon joined a band called the Flowers of Romance, but after rejecting the advances of Sid Vicious who was its leader, he kicked her out of the band the very next practice session. Palmolive was determined to start a band composed only of women, because [she] "didn't want to be playing music and writing songs and have that be dependent on whether or not I sleep with a guy." Nor did she want to follow the pack blindly by pretending to embrace people and ideas just because everyone else did. She wanted to live by her own idea of punk. 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