ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

Robert Palmer certainly has his work cut out. He's a top name on both sides of the Atlantic and he has to juggle with very different markets. For what might be a hit single or album in America isn't guaranteed to be a success over here... and vice versa.

Take his single Simply Irresistible, for which he won a US Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Performer. It flopped in Britain. He says: "I have released singles which have done well throughout Europe and nothing in the US. One of my albums, Clues, which did well in Europe, but not in Britain or the States, is now picking up in America, three years later. Someone started playing it in a few clubs in America, people got to hear it, and the interest grew."

The record markets on either side of the Atlantic are very different, he says. "There is a continual development and reassessment of radio programmes in the United States, whereas here in Britain it is an irrational whim."

It all means that Palmer, renowned for his smoothie, lounge-lizard image, has a tough workload - he records one song to keep one audience happy; and another to keep other fans happy.

At the moment he is making a video for a new single for American release. It is a duet with a female singer, B.J. Nelson, who was last seen in Britain as a backing singer on Palmer's 1988 autumn tour.

The song, Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming, was given to Palmer by Michael Jackson. Says Palmer: "I'm really happy with it." Then he tackles the video for his next UK single. "It's an old Peggy Lee ballad called It Could Happen To You. Peggy Lee is simply amazing. I saw her recently in a concert. She came on stage wearing a page-boy cut platinum wig and diamante-studded suglasses. Not only was she singing the blues, she also did numbers like See See Rider. Amazing, and she's what... 65?"

With the completion of the video for It Could Happen To You, Palmer will have made eight videos for eight out of ten songs on his Heavy Nova LP, released last year and still being pushed for all it's worth.

In the States, it has sold two million copies, gone triple platinum in Australia and gold in Japan. A curious mix of heavy rock, ballads and a bossa nova number, it received less than ecstatic reviews here.

The Peggy Lee cover is part of a broader sweep at musical genres. For several years Palmer has been recording Thirties and Forties songs, of which he has a whole batch tucked away. He now plans to create a video, in effect a film, which may feature other stars.

Palmer, who has for the past two years lived with his family in a converted mill in Lugano, Switzerland, has several other projects ahead. He will appear in the International Rock Awards show in New York, which will be internationally televised, then he picks up his band and returns to England to rehearse.

Beyond that he is looking forward to compiling a "best of" album, after Chris Blackwell, head of his old record label, contacted him to say such a compilation was imminent. Palmer said he'd like a hand in it and Blackwell agreed.

It seems a generation ago that Palmer was on the road in Britain with that wonderful band, Vinegar Joe, which also included in its lineup Elkie Brooks. Palmer quit in 1974 to go solo and, ten albums under his belt, has never looked back.

For a while he lived in the Bahamas, but the increasing presence of armed drug dealers and inadequate schools for his two children, Jim, 11, and Jane, nine, persuaded him that Switzerland was a better place to settle down.

Both his children are now bilingual, although Palmer jokingly says he can only manage an Italian menu.

Sometimes erratic - and made fun of by the British music press, Palmer still explores new musical avenues. And it's good to know that he hasn't lost his way... or his sense of humour.

Bryan Burnett (Evening Times, June 1989)