In the 1960s a pair of chancers could end up managing a rock band. So it was that Chris Stamp, a tough Cockney mod in a houndstooth whistle, and Kit Lambert, a fey intellectual toff, took The Who from panel-beating tractors in Shepherd’s Bush to smashing guitars in The Met Opera House.
Illuminating interviews with Stamp, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are the main ingredient, but the cherry on this two-hour feast of Rickenbacker glory is the rare footage. Namely, Pete demo-ing Glittering Girl on an acoustic guitar, Lambert’s visionary spiel on Mods and Rockers on French TV and the pair schmoozing Jimi Hendrix in a groovy club.
Over-long, messy and at times maudlin, it’s not the tautest rock doc you’ll ever see and it lacks perspective from outside The Who camp. None of which takes away from Lambert & Stamp’s role in creating a world-class, stage-wrecking phenomenon. Worth watching? You bedder you bet./o:p
