Kit Lambert

Early life

Kit Lambert was born on 11 May 1935, the son of composer Constant Lambert and part-time actress Florence Kaye. He was the grandson of George Washington Lambert, a sculptor and painter who was an official war artist for the Australian government at Gallipoli during the First World War. His godfather was his father's friend and fellow composer, William Walton. His godmother was Margot Fonteyn, the prima ballerina who danced for Constant's company, The Royal Ballet, and with whom Constant had an affair causing him to leave Lambert's mother. Home life was difficult for Lambert who was sent to live with his grandmother at a young age. When he was 16, his father died at the age of 45.

Career in film and music

After studying history at Trinity College, Oxford, Lambert trained at the Mons Officer Cadet School and briefly served as an officer in the British Army to carry out his national service obligations; he was stationed in Hong Kong. After returning to civilian life, in May 1961, he joined an expedition with two Oxford friends, Richard Mason and John Hemming, in an attempt to discover the source of the Iriri River in the Amazon. Lambert hoped to film the expedition as a documentary. On 3 September, Mason was killed by an uncontacted Amazon tribe known as the Panará while he was alone hunting for food. Lambert was initially arrested on suspicion of murdering his friend but, after a concerted campaign in Britain by the Daily Express newspaper, which had financed the expedition, he was released. After returning to the United Kingdom, Lambert became an assistant director (AD) on the films The Guns of Navarone (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), and From Russia with Love (1963), which is when he met fellow AD Chris Stamp, brother of actor Terence Stamp.

Soon after, he and Stamp decided to make a documentary that would show the behind-the-scenes life of a pop group. The band they chose was the High Numbers (known previously, and again afterwards, as the Who). Lambert and Stamp began filming concerts of the group, but eventually abandoned the idea of the documentary, deciding instead to become the Who's managers, even though they had no experience managing a group. After the band was turned down by EMI, Lambert and Stamp signed them up with Shel Talmy, who had produced the Kinks hits, and whose company had an output deal through Decca Records in the UK. Lambert eventually replaced Talmy as the group's producer in 1966, starting with "I'm a Boy", which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.

Ward of court

At the peak of his success Lambert owned a flat in Knightsbridge, London, and Palazzo Dario on the Grand Canal in Venice, where he was known as Baron Lambert. Lambert claimed that he was conceived in Venice and hence was connected to the city. His neighbour was the heiress and renowned Modern Art collector, Peggy Guggenheim, with whom Lambert was rumoured to be romantically linked. However, back in the UK his excessive drug use brought him to the attention of the British police and he was arrested and charged with possession of heroin. As a defence, and one rarely used, a lawyer convinced Lambert to become a Ward of the Court of Protection whereby he would avoid drug charges and a potential prison sentence while an Official Solicitor would take charge of his affairs. As a ward Kit would be provided with a small weekly stipend out of his own money to live on amounting to approximately £150 per week, even though royalties from the albums that Lambert produced for the Who and Hendrix were steadily increasing each year.