Out Spotlight XCIV

Today's Out Spotlight is musician Dee Palmer

Most of the world know Dee as "DP" the dapper dressed, "Sherlock Holmes" style pipe smoking member of rock group Jethro Tull. Dee was born David Palmer was born on July 2, 1937, in London.

Growing up Palmer did what every young man did at the time, joined the army. She learned to play clarinet during a stint in the Royal Horse Guards cavalry regiment to which she was sent. There, she studied at Kneller Hall, the Royal Military School of Music and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music, majoring in composition and winning the Eric Coates Prize.

Starting out her career as a jobbing arranger and conductor of recording sessions, Palmer recorded her first album project, Nicola, in 1967 with Bert Jansch. She was then referred to Terry Ellis, then manager of the early Jethro Tull, which was making its first album at Sound Techniques Studio in Chelsea, London.

At extremely short notice, she came up with arrangements for the horns and strings on the Mick Abraham's composition, "Move on Alone" for Jethro Tull's "This Was" album. This speed of work and professional performance endeared her at once to the band and was soon to visiting the group again in the studio with the brilliant string quartet arrangement to "A Christmas Song".

Palmer would end up officially joining Jethro Tull as keyboardist in 1976, after arranging string, brass, and woodwind parts for the band from the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1980, leader of Jethro Tull Ian Anderson intended to release a record with other musicians as a solo project (under the name 'Ian Anderson') but was persuaded by his record label to release it instead under 'Jethro Tull' name. Doing so resulted in every member of the group, including Palmer, leaving, except guitarist Martin Barre and Anderson himself. Dee formed a new group, Tallis, with another former Jethro Tull pianist and organist John Evan. The new group was not commercially successful, and Palmer returned to film scoring and session work. And during that time, Palmer produced several albums of orchestral arrangements of the music of his former band Jethro Tull, as well Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, the Beatles and Queen.

It was until after turn of the new century, that something changed in Palmer's personal life. After 60's years of living with the secret of feeling a female in a male body. Dur she was . Palmer came to terms with his transgender feelings. Dee had been married to a woman and had not transitioned for practical reasons. When Palmer's wife died, she came to terms with being a transsexual woman and started her transition. In 2003, Palmer's first name was changed to Dee and early in 2004, she announced having undergone sex reassignment surgery as well as having completed a full gender transition to become a woman.


Ian Anderson was one of the people from Jethro Tull to fully accept her, saying "I have known for the past two years of David Palmer’s intention to undergo gender-changing procedures and, like many other people who have known David for three decades as a bearded, pipe-smoking man’s man, I found it difficult to understand at first. But I fully support his decision to undertake a new life as a woman. To the many fans of Jethro Tull, I can only offer that they should accept Dee Palmer for her new persona and hope that they enjoy her musical activities in the future".