Chris Stamp

Christopher Thomas Stamp (7 July 1942 – 24 November 2012) was an English record producer and manager known for co-managing and producing such musical acts as the Who and Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s and 1970s and co-founding the now defunct Track Records. He later became a psychodrama therapist based in New York State.

Childhood Born into a working-class family, Stamp was raised in London's East End and was one of six children. Their father, Thomas Stamp, was a tugboat captain, and their mother was Ethel (née Perrott). Actor Terence Stamp was his older brother.

Stamp and Lambert met the members of the Who during one of their performances at the Railway Hotel (no longer standing) in Harrow and Wealdstone. At that time the band was known as The High Numbers.

Stamp and Lambert's contrasting personalities and backgrounds also made an impression on the band; in a 1972 Rolling Stone article Keith Moon said that the two men "were...are...as incongruous a team as [the Who] are".

The duo made a move to acquire the High Numbers from their manager Peter Meaden; Lambert had learned from The Beatles' attorney David Jacobs that the band's contract with their previous manager was legally invalid. In effect, Meaden had no legal claim to the band and in 1964 he accepted a buyout for relinquishing control to Stamp and Lambert.

By autumn of that same year Stamp and Lambert convinced the band to change their name back to the Who (a name they were using prior to Meaden's management) and began to focus on the band's Mod image. They encouraged the Who to add more blues, James Brown, and Motown covers to their sets, as these styles were especially popular with Mod audiences.

By late 1966, with two hit albums by the Who under their belts, Stamp and Lambert established their own record label. The following year they signed artist Jimi Hendrix and founded Track Record Records, eventually known simply as just Track Records. Soon the label released its first single, "Purple Haze", followed by their first album, Are You Experienced. Track Records went on to profit from hit singles such as "Fire" by the band the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, which reached No. 1 in the UK and Canada and No. 2 on the US Billboard charts, as well as "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds, which reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Stamp and Lambert also helped launch the Who's seminal rock opera Tommy.

During a 2005 interview,

Chris Stamp continued to work on Who-related projects and to give interviews about his forays into the music business. He provided liner notes for the 1995 re-release of the Who's 1966 album A Quick One, and provided a foreword to the 2005 re-release of the Who biography Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of the Who 1958–1978. He also sat on the advisory board of the John Entwistle Foundation, formed in honour of the Who's bass guitarist.

In 2014, an American documentary film was made about Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp entitled, Lambert & Stamp. It was produced and directed by James D. Cooper. It had its world premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2014.

Career in psychotherapy Until his death Stamp worked as a psychodrama therapist and addiction counsellor. Trained at the Psychodrama Institute of New York and the Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute, he was a Licensed Mental Health Counsellor (LMHC), a Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counsellor (CASAC), a Certified Experiential Therapist (CET), and an Auricular Acupuncture Detox Specialist (ADS). He worked as a consultant for the Freedom Institute in New York City and kept a private practice in East Hampton, New York.

Death Stamp died of cancer on 24 November 2012 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was survived by his wife of 33 years, Calixte, his daughters Rosie and Amie, his sons-in-law Edmund and Nicholas and several grandchildren; Betsy, Thomas, Gracie, Evie, Esmé and Maggie as well as his elder brother Terence, younger brothers Richard and John, and sister Lynette. He was 70 years old.

Discography

Filmography

TV appearances Stamp appeared in the second episode of the BBC documentary series Pop Britannia, which originally aired on Friday, 11 January 2008. Stamp appeared in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music series about Keith Moon. Stamp appeared in an episode of the BBC documentary series 'Imagine...' entitled 'Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin' originally aired in 2013