There Was A Light: The Cosmic History Of Chris Bell And The Rise Of Big Star

★★★★ Rich Tupica HOZAC. $39.99 (IMPORT) Forensic oral history of the American alt rock standard-bearer. Author Rich Tupica spent five years researching and writing There Was A Light. Running to over 400 pages and with countless new interviews, he puts the Big Star founder’s life under the microscope – and some. There are many fascinating insights: following the Apollo 11 space mission in 1969, Bell and bandmate Alex Chilton would spend hours tripping on LSD, watching still TV footage of the moon’s surface. Eyewitnesses revisit the pair’s fractious relationship, and explain why their group never fulfilled its initial promise. “They wanted legions of fans,” says one, “but never knew how much commitment it takes.” Bell’s death in a car crash in 1979 is explored in grim detail, but as Tupica sagely observes, it was afforded just half a page in NME, and was followed by “a decade-plus of commercial dormancy”. There Was A Light is both a labour of love and a fine achievement.