Chris Stamp, the former manager of The Who and founder of the label which released Jimi Hendrix‘s early records, has died at the age of 70.
Stamp passed away last Saturday (November 24th) at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City after a battle with cancer. The Who are currently on a long tour of North America, and paid tribute to their old boss whilst onstage in Detroit, with frontman Roger Daltrey telling the crowd that without Stamp they, ‘wouldn’t be the band we were’.
According to Billboard Daltrey added: “Chris, we can never thank you enough, well, I can’t, for what you brought to my life.”
Chris Stamp struck up what would go on to be a long partnership with Kit Lambert during his time working at Shepperton Film Studios in London. It was in 1963, when recording a documentary on the burgeoning London rock scene, that the pair met The Who and became their co-managers.
In 1967, Stamp and Lambert launched Track Records, releasing Jimi Hendrix’s classic debut album ‘Are You Experienced?‘ later that year.