ARTS
KING OF CROON
Miché Fambro performs at the Tango Cafe. PHOTO BY AARON WINTERS
MICHÉ FAMBRO AND THE MEANING OF SUCCESS BY ADAM WILCOX
I
first saw Miché and the Anglos at the old Jazzberry’s on Monroe Avenue in 1985. Their fusion of The Police and latter-period Roxy Music crooning was awesome, and I had a new favorite local band. An Anglos show had it all: shenanigans, lights, and catchy songs. But most of all, there was Miché Fambro, the lead singer, lead guitarist, and charisma incarnate, who died in 30 CITY FEBRUARY 2021
December of cancer at the age of 64. I was sure they’d be big, successful by every measure. Many years later, I got to know the strange, warm, and thoughtful Fambro. He went by Mick. Where’d “Miché” come from? Mick said he’d spelled “Micky” that way on a lark, someone pronounced it “me-SHAY,” and the rest became history. Clifton Michael Fambro was born
on Nov. 6, 1956, and raised with his siblings in West Philadelphia without much. His mother, Vivian McCord, says, “When Mick was a baby, he was quiet . . . when he was a little boy, he was quiet . . . when he was a young man, he was quiet.” Mick’s theoretical grasp of music was staggering, and he could articulate it thoroughly. But he was self-taught, “in life as well as music,” as his wife,
Wendy, says. A pair of grandparents had been Vaudeville performers, but they actively discouraged his interest in music. Their experience being exploited had made them cynical about the entertainment business. He started with drums, but when Mick saw a guitar in a pawn shop window, he was off and running, preferring the company of his guitar to most social interaction.
