Lambert & Stamp
- Director: James D. Cooper
- Producer: James D. Cooper; Douglas Graves
CGiii Comment
Chris Stamp died in 2012...2 years before the release of this film...yet, no dedication, no in memoriam.
Without him...this film could not have been made. Filmmaker...show some respect.
Kit Lambert died in 1981...
Keith Moon (1978), John Entwhistle (2002)...all, in one form or another, from drugs.
Stamp & Lambert...chalk & cheese...straight & gay...working & upper class...friends and business partners...successful failures.
Townshend & Daltry...chalk & cheese...art-school thug & dim-witted dullard...alive & well...and, prospering...because of Lambert & Stamp.
There's a soupçon of bitterness...nothing too dramatic. And, there's an unexplored mountain of regret...
There's too much babbling...something that could have been fixed with a vicious editor.
But, alas, it's all too polite...Cooper failed to get into the story...a story that was fuelled entirely on drugs, money and greed.
Instead...a reverential stance with the survivors...and, a disservice to the dead.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Aspiring filmmakers Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert set out to find a subject for their underground movie, one that will reflect the way it feels to be young and dissatisfied in postwar London. This unlikely partnership of two men from vastly different backgrounds was inspired by the burgeoning youth culture of the early 1960s. Lambert and Stamp searched for months and finally found in a band called the High Numbers a rebellious restlessness that was just what they were looking for. Abandoning their plans to make a film, they instead decided to mentor and manage this group, which evolved into the iconic band known as the Who. The result was rock 'n' roll history.
This documentary tells the story of Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert who, in trying to make a documentary on discontented youth, end up discovering and managing rock legends The Who. Lambert, who was out at a time when being gay was illegal in England, led a somewhat tumultuous life and struggled with drug and alcohol abuse. In the mid-70s, the band amid legal issues, fired both him and Stamp, and Lambert passed away in 1981 at the age of 45. He is well regarded by Stamp and members of The Who and credited with being an integral part of the band’s early success as a personal mentor, manager, and studio producer.
Not exactly the positive depiction of a gay man according to the ridiculous 'Vito Russo Test' - still, when real-life upstages and out-strips fiction...who can you blame?!?
Erm...no-one.
Cast & Characters
Richard Barnes as Himself;
Ritchie Blackmore as Himself;
Heather Daltrey as Herself;
Roger Daltrey as Himself;
Robert Fearnley-Whittingstall as Himself;
John Hemming as Himself;
Irish Jack as Himself;
Kit Lambert as Himself;
Christopher Stamp as Himself;
Terence Stamp as Himself;
Pete Townshend as Himself