Born in Greenwich, southeast London, Palmer began playing bass in 1967, joining friend Brian Bath's band Cobwebs and Strange. In 1969, Palmer and Bath formed Tame with Victor King on drums. The band lasted until 1970. From 1972, Palmer and Bath were in Company with Barry Sherlock (guitar) and Lionel Azulay (drums). They signed to Cube Records in 1973. When Azulay was injured in a road accident, Charlie Morgan joined on drums in 1974 and the band changed its name to Conkers.

In 1977, the KT Bush Band was formed with Kate Bush, Palmer, Bath and Vic King, playing the pub circuit. Their live set included material that would later appear on Bush's first album.^[4] Beginning with her second album, 1978 release, Lionheart, Palmer became one of Bush's main studio bassists (along with John Giblin)^[5] and toured with her in 1979.^[3]

Palmer was credited as an engineer on Kate Bush's Hounds of Love (1985), The Sensual World (1989), The Red Shoes (1993) ^[6] and Aerial (2005).^[7] Furthermore, Del Palmer is appears in several of Kate Bush's music videos; in 1982, he played the get-a-way car driver in the video for "There Goes a Tenner", and in 1986, appeared in the critically acclaimed extended "Experiment IV" video,^[8] in which he plays a patient in a secret military base where the 'experiment' of the song's title is performed on him with horrific consequences. The clip, described as a 'film in miniature' also features Hugh Laurie, Peter Vaughan, Dawn French and Paddy Bush; it was banned from broadcast on the BBC programme, Top of the Pops, due to the graphic nature of the video.^[8] The music video, directed by Bush herself, went on to be nominated for the Best Concept Music Video at the 1988 Grammy Awards.

Also in 1986, he appeared in the video to "The Big Sky" as a guitar-playing army major, which, in 1987, was nominated for Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.^[9] Del Palmer also appeared as Houdini, the man about to be kissed by Bush on the front cover to her 1982 album, The Dreaming.

He's credited with engineering on three further albums involving Bush: Midge Ure's Answers to Nothing (where Palmer engineered her vocal guest recordings),^[10] Roy Harper's Once and Alan Stivell's Again.

He played bass guitar on Lionheart, Never for Ever, The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World and Aerial (on 5 tracks),^[11] and on one track on 50 Words for Snow. Palmer played bass on Billy Sherwood's Back Against the Wall^[12][13] and Return to the Dark Side of the Moon,^[14] both Pink Floyd tribute albums.

Palmer released his first solo album titled Leap of Faith in 2007 with a follow-up five-track EP titled Outtees & Alternatives in 2008. He released his second album, Gift, in 2010. His third album, Point of Safe Return, was released in March 2015. In 2018, Palmer played a series of concerts in England and Ireland, with members of Kate Bush tribute band Cloudbusting to celebrate 40 years since the release of her first album.

He appeared in the BBC television documentary Queens of British Pop discussing Kate Bush, and again in the BBC Four documentary The Kate Bush Story – Running Up That Hill.

Palmer died on 5 January 2024, at the age of 71.^[15] Bush paid tribute to Palmer, saying: "It’s hard to know what to say… He was a big part of my life and my work for many years. It’s going to take a long time to come to terms with him not being here with us. He was incredibly creative – talented in lots of different ways. He was a brilliant musician, bass player, a great artist – he was always drawing. Once he covered a whole recording consul [sic] in cartoons. It took him days and it looked absolutely stunning. He taught himself to be a recording engineer, engineering several of my albums and later releasing his own [...] I’m going to miss him terribly."^[16][17]

• Leap of Faith (2007)
• Gift (2010)
• Point of Safe Return (2015)

• Del Palmer discography at Discogs
• Del Palmer at IMDb