Big Star: the reunion heard ’round the radio

Columbia was the site of a pivotal rock reunion orchestrated by KCOU 30 years ago.

BY SAM WILLS

Three decades ago, Columbia made music history. A group of music lovers from the community and KCOU/88.1 FM convinced the former members of power pop band Big Star to reunite for a concert at MU.

That concert kicked off Big Star’s second life. With a new lineup and purpose, the group would continue creating music for nearly two decades. Big Star went on to be called “one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock and roll,” according to Rolling Stone in 2003.

And it never would have happened without the reunion show in Columbia.

Origin story

Big Star, from Memphis, Tennessee, was active from 1971 to 1975. Members included Alex Chilton on vocals and guitar,

Chris Bell and Jody Stephens on drums and Andy Hummel playing bass.

The band released three albums but struggled commercially. However, its collection of dust-covered records would go on to inspire legions of other bands including R.E.M. and The Replacements.

After the band broke up, Chilton recorded his own solo work for nearly 20 years. He began making stops in CoMo, as the town had become noteworthy for boosting underground artists through the college radio station KCOU.

A local hub for new music at the time sat right in the heart of downtown at Streetside Records. The crew at the now-closed record store were major fans of the band. It was there that Kevin Walsh, who would go on to manage the store for 26 years, began his fascination for Big Star and Chilton’s solo career in the 1970s.

“When (Chilton) finally got a trio together and went out on tour for the first time as Alex Chilton, the first show was here in Columbia,” Walsh says.

As Chilton came in and out of town for shows, he developed an affinity for the city — a place with less pressure — and he liked its thrift shops and the funky Glenn’s Cafe.

“I think Alex really developed a kind of left-handed affection for Columbia,” Walsh says.

Getting the band back together

Chilton’s recurring appearances in Columbia set the stage for Big Star’s reunion here on April 25, 1993. When it came time to plan the year’s annual SpringFest lineup, a revolutionary idea struck Jeff Breeze and Mike Mulvihill, two KCOU staffers. They soon started making calls to Chilton about reuniting Big Star.

Despite the enthusiasm, there was one big issue with pulling off a reunion show: the band’s original members. Bell died in 1978, and the other bandmates had been pursuing other endeavors.

Chilton and Stephens, two of the surviving members of the band, enlisted Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies to perform with them. The pieces fell perfectly into place, and it was time for a reunion.

“These guys who are a huge underground influence coming out at the other end of a rock era, and getting together and redefining themselves was a real moment,” Walsh says. Although no one thought of it that way at the time, it ended up being a significant concert, he says.

Relive The Revival

The show was a precursor of the slew of band reunions that would happen in the following 30 years, with Coachella, for example, paying bands large sums of money to get back together.

“There’s that fucking joy that’s involved with any reunion,” Walsh says.

“And you can tell it’s rampant, it’s contagious. Now it’s quite common for bands to reunite like that. If you were an altrock band back then, you kinda took an oath to be so ‘too cool for school’ that if you quit, you would never ever go back.”

The show of a second life

Barry Hibdon’s band, Ditch Witch, was among the many bands that opened for Big Star at the reunion show. Ditch Witch was a local band that regularly worked with KCOU, and the band credits the radio station for being a driver in its career. “We were just in the right place at the right time, and we had performed well with KCOU,” Hibdon says.

He says the crowd’s anticipation for Big Star influenced how they played. “It was loose and energetic, but people adored them, and they fed off it,” Hibdon says. “Alex (Chilton) always strikes me as a bit of an enigma, but at the same time, you couldn’t take your eyes off of him.”

After the show, Hibdon says he talked to Ken Stringfellow, one of the members of The Posies who had filled in for Big Star, over beers. “I remember him thinking he thought he’d blew it,” Hibdon says. Stringfellow’s worries were unfounded; that Big Star lineup continued to tour together and even put out the album In Space in 2005.

“Epochs happen quietly,” Walsh says. A band lost in time could have been just another forgotten record on the shelf. And yet, for one moment, locals and the music industry alike were able to soak in the majesty of one of the country’s most treasured but hidden rock bands.

Big Star, featuring Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens (right), headlined KCOU’s SpringFest. Locals came to the show, as did record producers and Rolling Stone writers.