The Who’s Former Manager Dies

The Who have paid tribute to their former manager Chris Stamp, who died of cancer on Saturday (November 24), aged 70.

At a concert in Detroit on Saturday night, Roger Daltrey called Stamp a man “without whom we wouldn’t be the band we were,”. He added: “Chris, we can never thank you enough – well, I can’t, for what you brought to my life”.

Stamp first met the band in 1963 with his business partner Kit Lambert when they were filming a documentary about the British rock scene. The pair later became The Who’s co-managers.

In 1967, Stamp and Lambert launched their label Track Records, releasing Jimi Hendrix’s single “Purple Haze” and album “Are You Experienced?”.

Stamp also worked on the production for The Who’s 1968 LP “Magic Bus” and is also credited as executive producer of “Tommy”, “Who’s Next”, “Quadrophenia” and the soundtrack for the 1975 “Tommy” rock opera.

In the mid-1970s, Stamp and Lambert split with The Who and moved Track Records to New York, where they produced records for the soul group Labelle. Lambert died after suffering a brain hemorrhage in 1981, and Stamp entered rehab in 1987, later re-training as a therapist, NME reports.

A message posted on the band’s website said the loss was “hard to bear” and that tributes would follow.