The Man Who Preferred Not To: Alex Chilton

IF EVERYONE who heard the Velvet Underground in the ’60s formed a band – so the joke goes – then everyone who heard Big Star in the ’70s became a rock critic. Big Star were the ultimate critics’ darlings, a band garlanded with superlatives that never translated into sales but kept their flame alight long enough for the group to become a key influence on the post-punk music of the ’80s and ’90s.