Philip Rambow

Philip Rambow

Philip Rambow is a Canadian-born singer, songwriter and guitarist associated with rock, pub rock and new wave. He begins his career in New York with a band called Saturday Night, then moves to England and forms the Winkies in 1973.

The Winkies

The Winkies play basic, Stones-influenced pub rock, but their theatrical glam rock stage clothes set them apart from other bands on the scene. Brian Eno notices them after leaving Roxy Music and takes them on tour as his backing band in early 1974. The tour ends early when Eno suffers a collapsed lung, but it leads to a major-label deal with Chrysalis. The Winkies’ only album appears in 1975 and does not succeed commercially, and the group disbands by the end of that year.

Solo work and songwriting

Rambow returns to New York and spends time on the city’s emerging punk scene. He contributes his own song “Night Out” to the Max’s Kansas City 1976 compilation, and records a version of Darlene Love’s “Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts?” for the punk Phil Spector tribute album Bionic Gold.

Before the end of the 1970s, he returns to England and forms the Phil Rambow Band for his debut solo album, Shooting Gallery, issued by Capitol in 1979. The record is poorly received. He also establishes a reputation as a songwriter, contributing material to Ellen Foley’s Night Out and writing “A Star (In Her Own Right)” for Nick Gilder.

Work with Kirsty MacColl and later activity

Rambow co-writes several songs with Kirsty MacColl, including “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop (Swears He’s Elvis),” and plays guitar on her debut album Desperate Character. He resumes, and then ends, his solo career with Jungle Law on EMI in 1981, a record described as fitting the rootsier side of new wave singer-songwriters such as Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. He later appears at the Kirsty MacColl tribute concert in 2002 following her accidental death.