What Happened To The Robert Palmer Girls
A few days ago I was talking to a 22 year old acquaintance. He was dressed in a very nice black suit and a stylish tie. I told him all he needed to go with the outfit were The Robert Palmer Girls.
He gave me a WTF look. He didn't know the girls. He didn't know Robert Palmer. He didn't know the songs. I guess it's a generational thing. What we had was a failure to communicate.
You remember Robert Palmer, right? Bad Case of Loving You, Simply Irresistible, and of course, Addicted To Love.
You remember The Robert Palmer Girls. Black dresses. Slicked back hair. White powdered faces. Bright red lipstick.
Great musicians, too. Guitars, bass, keyboards and drums. Beautiful and talented.
You've seen the video. You're gonna have to face it, you loved those girls, too.
So what did happen to the girls? I'm not the only one to ask that question. There have been occasional interviews with some of them but it wasn't until a couple of months ago, June 2014, that Marc Tyler Nobleman was able to get an interview with all five of them. He even managed to get them together to meet for the first time in almost 30 years.
Let's meet the girls as they are in the video, from l-r...Julie Pankhurst-keyboards, Patty Kelly-guitar, Mak Gilchrist-bass, Julia Bolino-guitar and Kathy Davies-drum/partially hidden in the back.
Here are the girls as they are today, from l-r...Julie-works in retail and is a mother, Patty-landscape designer with 2 children, Kathy-lives in Thailand where she does charity work, Mak-still models in England and Julia-hair and makeup artist.
Robert Palmer died in 2003. He had a heart attack while on tour in France. The girls had nothing but good things to say about him and were shocked and saddened by his passing. The biggest moment in all their careers was the song and the video. They will always be linked together.
By the way...the girls really weren't playing the instruments in the video, but you knew that. Really...you did know that?!