£10,000 for rejected Bowie tape found in a loft
DAVID Bowie’s first known studio recording, which was rejected by a record company and found in an old bread basket in a loft, is to be sold at auction.
The 1963 demo tape features the star then known as David Jones and aged 16, in his first band The Kon-rads.
The group were turned down by Decca and the tape of Bowie singing I Never Dreamed was never released.
Bowie quit the band in the following months but his career took off six years later with Space Oddity.
The tape, which is expected to fetch £10,000, is part of a trove of memorabilia to be sold by former Kon-rads drummer David Hadfield, who also managed the band.
He unearthed it, while moving house in the 1990s, in the loft of his garage in a bread basket that once belonged to his grandfather.
Bowie was the band’s saxophonist but it was decided that he should sing lead vocals.
Mr Hadfield said: “David had no inclination to become a singer at this point, his heart and mind were focused on becoming a world-class saxophone player.
“Our agent Eric Easton, who also managed The Rolling Stones, asked us to do a demo so he could try and get us an audition at Decca. So in early 1963 I booked into RG Jones’s small studio in Morden. In preparation for the demo David and our guitarist Neville Wills wrote two to three songs.
“We had decided that we would do a couple of guitar instrumentals and one original song.
“I chose I Never Dreamed as it was the strongest, the other two were a bit weak.
“I also decided that David was the best person to sing it and give the right interpretation. So this became the very first recording of David Jones years ago.
“There is no other recording of the demo featuring David as lead in existence. Decca initially turned us down, but when they eventually gave us an audition later that year, vocalist Roger Ferris was the lead voice and David sang backing harmonies.”
The collection is set to go under the hammer in September at Omega Auctions, in Newton-leWillows, Merseyside, in a music memorabilia sale. (Bowie) singing