Rock manager and producer ;
Born: July 7, 1942; Died: November 24, 2012.
Chris Stamp, who has died aged 70 of cancer, was a music producer and manager who helped launch The Who in the mid-1960s, helped propel Jimi Hendrix to superstardom and co-founded the now defunct Track Records.
Stamp, the younger brother of actor Terence Stamp, and his flamboyant business partner Kit Lambert met while working as assistant directors at London's Shepperton Studios. They first encountered The Who when they were still known as the High Numbers. The pair instantly realised the Mod group had potential and bought out their manager Peter Meaden for £200.
With Lambert he guided The Who to artistic and commercial success and also founded Track Records, whose acts included not only The Who but the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Thunderclap Newman and Golden Earring.
Stamp, the East End son of a Thames tug boat pilot, and Oxford-educated Lambert, the gay son of the Covent Garden Ballet musical director Constant Lambert, made an unlikely team. But Who singer-songwriter Pete Townshend noted in his recent memoir, Who Am I: "The two of them knew how to get things done."
Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon and John Entwistle enjoyed a decade of huge success, from singles like My Generation to rock operas, such as Tommy and besides releasing such classic Who albums as The Who Sell Out, Tommy, Who's Next and Quadrophenia, Track issued singer-guitarist Hendrix's groundbreaking early singles and albums, Arthur Brown's pyrotechnic Fire, Thunderclap Newman's classic Townshend-produced single Something in the Air and Dutch band Golden Earring's hit Radar Love.
Stamp, who also served as executive producer of Ken Russell's 1975 film adaptation of Tommy, parted ways with the band acrimoniously in mid-1970s as drink and drug abuse took their toll on both him and Lambert and the Who's finances descended into chaos. Lambert moved to Italy and died of a stroke 30 years ago. Stamp moved to New York in 1976 and became a psychotherapist. After seeking treatment for serious drug and alcohol problems in 1987, he became active in counseling, psychodramatic therapy and healing, practicing in both the US and England.
His survivors include his wife Calixte, two daughters, three brothers and a sister.
The surviving members of The Who reconciled with Stamp in later years; lead singer Daltrey offered an onstage tribute to the late manager during a Who tour date in Detroit last month.
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