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18 Facts About Kit Lambert

1.

Christopher Sebastian "Kit" Lambert was an English record producer, record label owner and the manager of the Who.

2.

Kit Lambert was born on 11 May 1935, the son of composer Constant Lambert and part-time actress Florence Kaye.

3.

Kit Lambert 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.

4.

Kit Lambert's godfather was his father's friend and fellow composer, William Walton.

5.

Kit Lambert's 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.

6.

Home life was difficult for Lambert who was sent to live with his grandmother at a young age.

7.

Kit 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.

8.

Kit 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.

9.

In 1968, they set up offices in New York and signed Labelle, whose eponymous debut studio album Labelle, Kit Lambert produced, and the Parliaments.

10.

Ever since the beginning of their working relationship Kit Lambert had been trying to convince Pete Townshend to move away from simple songwriting and compose more mature fare using his troubled childhood as a starting point.

11.

Townshend has acknowledged that it was Kit Lambert who influenced him to combine rock music and opera, which led to the creation of the rock opera Tommy.

12.

At the peak of his success Kit Lambert owned a flat in Knightsbridge, London, and Palazzo Dario on the Grand Canal in Venice, where he was known as Baron Kit Lambert.

13.

Kit Lambert claimed that he was conceived in Venice and hence was connected to the city.

14.

Kit Lambert's neighbour was the heiress and renowned Modern Art collector, Peggy Guggenheim, with whom Lambert was rumoured to be romantically linked.

15.

In 1980, Kit Lambert, assisted by journalist John Lindsay, began writing an autobiography, detailing how he discovered the Who.

16.

Kit Lambert died on 7 April 1981 of a intracerebral hemorrhage after falling down a flight of stairs.

17.

Kit Lambert died when a coke dealer pushed him downstairs.

18.

The tapes made by Lindsay of Kit Lambert's interviews were several hours in length and became an important historical reference both of the era of pop and rock music as well as of Kit Lambert's own tumultuous life.