While studying Economics at Aix-en-Provence, he began listening to Jimi Hendrix and was inspired to form his own band, Lupus, made up of various school friends.

Though unimpressed by the performance, afterward he ended up talking with the band's American expatriate drummer Stewart Copeland, who showed him some songs he had been writing and introduced him to the rising punk scene.

Copeland was already under the impression that he had convinced singer and bassist Sting to join, but despite heavy use of word-of-mouth and advertisements in musical publications, Padovani was the only guitarist he could find who was interested in punk and had actual playing ability.

[3] Copeland later recalled of Henry Padovani: He couldn't speak much English but he'd picked up some musicians' slang and he used to say 'Where can I put my homp (amplifier)?

[1] However, Sting was dissatisfied with Padovani's technical abilities, paving the way for Andy Summers, whom they met after a brief tour as part of Mike Howlett's band Strontium 90.

[3] The night after an aborted studio session with former Velvet Underground multi-instrumentalist John Cale in the producer's chair, Copeland called Padovani and asked him to leave the band.

After taking a two-month vacation in Corsica, he returned to London and was immediately handed the rhythm guitar spot with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, who at the time were far better known than the Police.

Padovani remained with bassist Val Haller and drummer J.J. Johnson, and the trio recorded a final single, "So Many Ways", as simply The Electric Chairs, before management problems forced them to disband completely.

In 1988, Henri took part in the recording of Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin's Copy Cats album which also featured Jayne County on backing vocals.

The album was sung in French, and both Stewart Copeland and Sting played on the track "Welcome Home", representing the first time that the original members of The Police had recorded together since "Fall Out".

It features contributions by Sting, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Glen Matlock and Kim Wilde among others.

The Flying Padovanis reformed in 2007 for an album made of old and new material, Three for Trouble released in May that year, followed by a tour which included an appearance at the Fuji rock festival in Japan.