Chris Stamp, who co-managed the Who during their rise to rock stardom and released the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s first single and album via his Track Records label, has died of cancer at age 70.
According to Billboard, Stamp passed away Saturday night (Nov. 24) at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He met the Who while making a film about the rise of rock music in England, and went on to become the group’s co-manager alongside Kit Lambert. The pair worked with the group until their dismissal in 1975, with Stamp also earning production credits on Who albums including ‘Magic Bus’ and ‘Quadrophenia.’
Stamp and Lambert (who died in 1981) formed Track Records in 1968 and released ‘Are You Experienced?,’ ‘Axis: Bold as Love’ and other classic albums by Hendrix along with records from The Who, Arthur Brown and Golden Earring.
After reportedly conquering his own substance abuse problems in 1987, Stamp began a new career as an addiction counseling therapist. He reconnected with the Who in later years by participating in documentaries and writing liner notes for re-releases of their classic albums.
The Who paid tribute to Stamp both on their official website and from the stage, with singer Roger Daltrey telling the crowd at the group’s Detroit concert Saturday night their former manager was a person “without whom we wouldn’t be the band we were.”
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