Film Discussion: Lambert & Stamp

June 30, 2015
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Anyone who thinks that the universe doesn’t have a nasty sense of humor just hasn’t been paying attention. A month ago, when I was selecting which of The Music Hall’s June films I wanted to discuss, Lambert & Stamp just leapt off the page at me. After all, I love The Who and I love documentaries in general and rock documentaries in particular. So a documentary about The Who (before they were The Who) promised to be a total peanut-and-jelly sandwich experience.

Then the U.S. women’s’ soccer team got into the semifinals of the Women’s’ World Cup.
Against Germany
On Tuesday night.
Oh, hell.

Well, there’s nothing to be done about it. Life is full of tough choices, and I’m sticking with my resolve to enjoy this movie to the nostalgic max. I have confidence that the U.S. women can get along without me.

But I still wish the universe weren’t such a gleeful snot about these things.

So, Tuesday night, June 30, we will be discussing a rock documentary about the early days of The Who, as told by a couple of aspiring filmmakers from the Sixties (Lambert and Stamp), who set out to make a documentary about an unknown rock band and ended up as the managers of The Who! Right guys, right place, right time, right skills. Lambert and Stamp provide the vintage footage, modern director James D. Cooper organizes the film and gets new material from Stamp and the surviving members of The Who. And the rest is history.

The critics have loved the film (“rollicking,” “heady” and “tune-filled”) and I think it will be the best noisy fun to be had in Portsmouth until the fireworks go off this weekend. I hope to see you there, which is at 7:00 in The Historic Theater.

Paul Goodwin
TMHMG