Twinkle, twinkle

The news that Big Star were to reform for only the second time since their demise over 25 years ago made many a rock hack jump for joy. Their show in Dublin’s Red Box next month will be the first time that the cult Memphis band have ever performed here and it is not to be missed under pain of death.

There are, of course, only three Big Star studio albums: #1 Record (1972), Radio City (1973) and Third aka Sister Lovers (recorded 1975, released 1978), with the former glorying in the soulful, acoustic charms of Chris Bell, who then left the band and subsequently died in a car crash after recording one posthumously-released solo album.

Radio City saw Alex Chilton moving centre stage as the chief singer and songwriter, fashioning what many regard as the definitive power-pop album, with ‘September Gurls’ effortlessly summing up teen angst atop blissed-out, glistening guitars that still sound fresh after nearly three decades.

The third and final record is an Alex Chilton solo album in all but name and is a haunting, haunted masterpiece that is regarded by Peter Buck, for one, as one of the top three greatest albums of all time. It makes for uneasy listening and represents a creative high for Chilton even as it signals a personal low.

The line-up coming to Dublin includes Chilton on guitar and vocals and drummer Jody Stephens from the original band with ex-Posies Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow (who’s also part of REM’s extended family) augmenting the formation. hotpress spoke to Stephens by phone in the famous Ardent Studios in Memphis – where he works as studio manager, and which is the very same place where Big Star’s holy trinity was recorded.

The present formulation of Big Star first appeared in 1993, playing a brace of shows across the States before playing a few shows in the UK, including headlining the second tent at the Reading Festival.

"Those shows were the first time we had played together in 20 years," recalls Stephens. "It allowed a certain freshness in the performances. Because we don’t play that often, the material stays fresh and relevant. It still sparks an emotional response from me."

How does the current incarnation of Big Star compare to the shows you played in the ‘70s?

"We didn’t have much of an audience in the ‘70s. We supposedly sold 4,000 records. We played New York city but we played Max’s, Kansas City and it holds 125 people, if memory serves me correctly. Outside of rock writers, we just didn’t have a fanbase back then."

Why?

"It’s a lot of things. Maybe it was the right place but the wrong time for what we were doing."

Like the Velvet Underground before them, the Tennessee combo’s record sales were in inverse proportion to the influence they subsequently wielded on generations of Big Star-struck bands and songwriters, from The Stars Of Heaven to Elliott Smith, from The Replacements to Teenage Fanclub. Indeed, Alex Chilton has had a tribute album recorded in his honour (‘The Singer Not The Song’) and Stephens tells me that there is also an unreleased Big Star homage that features Matthew Sweet, Teenage Fanclub, Juliana Hatfield, and Afghan Whigs that stalled because of record company difficulties.

But let’s go back to where it all started, the ironically-titled #1 Record. What does Jody remember about meeting Chris Bell for the first time?

"The first time I met Chris was through Andy (Hummel, Big Star’s bassist). Andy and me were outside on the sidewalk. Andy introduced me and Chris said hello and immediately pulled Andy ten, fifteen feet away to talk to Andy. In a way that set the tone for my impression of Chris as being someone who kept his thoughts to himself; or to a small circle.

"Chris was a really driving force with that first record and just brilliant with guitar sounds. He was a little obsessive with his songs, I thought. He could never capture that moment. He worked on that set of songs for years. The night he died, I was out looking for him and I happened to miss him by about 20 or 30 minutes here at the studio. I enjoyed having Chris as a friend."

It’s been said that there was a lot of tension between Chris and Alex in that they were both vying for creative control of the band.

"You know, I don’t remember a tension between them," says Stephens. "From what I remember, they would each bring the songs in pretty much done and I was left to just create the drum part for it. I remember probably the natural, normal tension of any creative process when you’re working on new songs and things aren’t quite going right but it was nothing out of the ordinary."

Although there are no plans afoot as yet to record any new Big Star material, Stephens would like to give it a try.

"We’ve talked about it but nothing’s ever come of it. We did record one song called ‘Hot Thing’. That was a lot of fun. It’s a sort of hybrid between early Stax and what Big Star was doing."

Instead, Chilton is content to record lo-fi, low-profile solo albums of material often culled from the pre-rock’n’roll era. So we should thank the gods that he has chosen to revisit, however briefly, the halcyon days of Big Star. See you at the Red Box.

Big Star play the Red Box, Dublin on Wed, 8th August