And now for yet another documentary feature set in the world of art. Nope, we’re not following another globe-trotting photo-journalist. This is in the world of music, rock n’ roll, to be precise. We’re heading back over fifty years, when the Beatles ruled the pop charts. Seems that another quartet were becoming pop icons beside the “fab four”. As the years have passed, both groups have been whittled down to duos. I’m referring to The Who, but this film’s title doesn’t profile anybody at the footlights, smashing up their instruments. No, it’s about the unlikely pair behind the pandemonium. They might sound like an old vaudeville team to rival Bud and Lou, but those rock standards might never have become a part of our lives without LAMBERT & STAMP.
In swinging mod, mad London of the early 1960’s, two fledging film makers had a unique plan to break into the cinema scene. Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp decided to find and develop a music group with the idea of eventually making a film about them (kind of like Richard Lester with A HARD DAY’S NIGHT). The partners seemed a most unlikely team. Kit was the Oxford-educated son of celebrated classical music composer Constant Lambert. He was also a closeted gay man at a time when it could get you thrown in jail. Chris was the hard-drinkin’, skirt-chasing son of a tug boat captain. After seeing the band, the High Numbers, at the hottest club in town, the men became their managers and agents. Slowly they began molding an image for the foursome, exploiting current fashion trends, and eventually changing the band’s name. In order to keep the fellows signed, Kit and Chris guaranteed them a salary. Often the two would work on the crews of Hollywood films based in Europe, then send their wages back to the band. For the next ten years, the group is celebrated throughout the world as their managers begin their own label, Track Records, that would sign Jimi Hendrix and Arthur Brown. But when the Who’s Pete Townsend completes the first rock opera “Tommy”. Kit and Chris are pushed aside when the movie adaptation is produced. The duo eventually pursue other projects, while battling personal demons, as the Who continues on, despite disputes and devastating deaths.
Happily director James D Cooper was able to make use of extensive interviews with Stamp, recorded before his 2012 passing. He seemed a man who was most comfortable with his place in pop culture history, full of self-deprecating humor and recollections of those wild days and nights. Plus we get to talk with his much more famous elder sibling, film star Terence (yeah, General Zod himself!). Lambert, having passed on decades ago, is a bit more mysterious since his story is mostly told though Chris and other friends and colleagues. Fortunately Kit became the face and voice of the duo, so there’s plenty of vintage TV news footage of the man. Like many of his contemporaries, he seems to be a victim of the period’s over-indulgences as the film chronicles his 70’s descent into the disco scene.
And, of course, there’s the band itself. In one of the film’s funniest moments, Chris recalls one girlfriend’s reaction to his signing the then “High Numbers” calling them, in less polite terms, unattractive. They probably didn’t adorn the walls of many teen bedrooms then (Daltry did go on to heavy metal heart-throb status eventually) but their incredible talents and charisma made them an enduring musical force. Like Kit, drummer Keith Moon left us long ago, so we can hear retellings of his legendary antics along with lots of performance and home movie footage which reminds us that he was likely the inspiration for the Muppets’ “Animal”. Aside from the film of his stage work, founding member John Entwistle is often a hovering enigma as we unfortunately don’t really get to know him. Thankfully there’s enthralling interviews with the still-rockin’ survivors. Roger Daltry reflects modestly about his time as front man. There’s more time spent with The Who’s creative force Townsend who pulls no punches about slights and conflicts, never letting the glow of nostalgia erase the tough times.
But, oh that “go go” mod sixties footage (we almost expect Austin Powers to pop up), sweeping us up in that swinging, free-wheeling time. This film is a terrific overview of the career of a remarkable duo and the band they helped turn into superstars, but more importantly, it’s a trippy time machine back to a seemingly simpler time. Hey nice goin’, LAMBERT & STAMP! Ga-rooovey!
4 Out of 5
LAMBERT & STAMP opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre
