by Andrew Reynolds

Created on: March 25, 2007   Last Updated: April 08, 2007

The current rank and file desperation of attention seeking fame hounds has negated the general public to artists that, through no fault of their own, have slipped through the rigorous lists and assignation of fame, fame, fatal fame.

From cover to headline, each media outlet is full of those who have it, need it or lost it and in most cases sympathy is conspicuous by it's absence.

This jaded, Christian, trial by fire has become so common that even the tales of woe have become immermorialised in the cannon of nearly beens and have nots.

Stories like Big Stars own rise and subsequent fall, have been bounced on the lap of reason by logic hoping fashionistas too caught up in the lurid details to notice the difference between meritocracy and Paris Hilton.

Their story begins in the 1970s with customary struggle, with founding members Alex Chilton and Chris Bell both desperately searching for an outlet for their talent.

Both men had at this point been in various bands, such as The Boxtops, who had a hit with the Chilton led "The Letter" and Rock City where along with soon to be Big Star's, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel, along later member Richard Rosebourgh, they had sketched out some of the songs that would go on to grace their debut #1 Record.

Their template was easy to mark out, a love of The Beatles could be detected in their clipped pseudo-English singing style and the two headed song writing partnership, that echoed the Lennon/McCartney paradigm, along with the other British New Wave poppers whose hard fought melodies resonated in the attack and snarl of Chilton's and Bell's guitars.

The group also managed to bring the sparse, blues sound of Memphis and the south along with their flirtations with County and Western, while still retaining a forlorn melancholy that was all their own.

The irony of all this invention and common, modern day genre hopping is that a love of Stax Records, Memphis Soul sound, would eventually led to their date with obscurity after signing a distribution deal with the faulting label that had, at this point had already gone beyond it's Booker T and the MG'S, Issac Hayes salad days (Big Star represented their attempt to corner the pop market and stave off insolvency.)

The newly formed group, after taking their name taken from a local Memphis grocery chain, recorded their stunning debut album #1 Record, containing the now classic "The Ballard of El Goodo," Chilton's lachrymose kicking out of the jams, which in narrow minded hindsight sounds like

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