The Big Issue 9 September 2024

“Rock’n’roll,” sang Alex Chilton on 1972’s “Thirteen”, “is here to stay…” We couldn’t agree more, so it’s a real honour to present Out Past Midnight: A Big Star Sampler, a compilation of hand-picked tracks from one of the greatest bands of all time. With this CD, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Big Star’s Radio City, along with the live tribute shows later this year, and marking a half-century since Chris Bell set out on his solo career with I Am The Cosmos – but really, there’s no need for an excuse to immerse yourself in Big Star. You can read more about Chris Bell and that incredible, harrowing solo record in the same issue, dated October 2024 (it’s out in UK shops now, or available to buy online), but in the meantime spin these 10 tracks and chart the group’s journey from power-pop perfection on 1972’s #1 Record to the more unhinged, rawer grooves of 1974’s Radio City, and finally the expansive, avant-garde obliteration of Third, recorded in late ’74 and first released four years later. We hope you dig this sampler as much as we do, whether you’re revisiting these cuts, discovering the rarities or making your first ventures into the world of Chilton, Bell and co. As the former sang on “Thank You Friends”, it’s “never too late to start…”

“Rock’n’roll,” sang Alex Chilton on 1972’s “Thirteen”, “is here to stay…” We couldn’t agree more, so it’s a real honour to present Out Past Midnight: A Big Star Sampler, a compilation of hand-picked tracks from one of the greatest bands of all time. With this CD, we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Big Star’s Radio City, along with the live tribute shows later this year, and marking a half-century since Chris Bell set out on his solo career with I Am The Cosmos – but really, there’s no need for an excuse to immerse yourself in Big Star. You can read more about Chris Bell and that incredible, harrowing solo record in the same issue, dated October 2024 (it’s out in UK shops now, or available to buy online), but in the meantime spin these 10 tracks and chart the group’s journey from power-pop perfection on 1972’s #1 Record to the more unhinged, rawer grooves of 1974’s Radio City, and finally the expansive, avant-garde obliteration of Third, recorded in late ’74 and first released four years later. We hope you dig this sampler as much as we do, whether you’re revisiting these cuts, discovering the rarities or making your first ventures into the world of Chilton, Bell and co. As the former sang on “Thank You Friends”, it’s “never too late to start…”