Bowie as absolute beginner for £10k

THE first known studio recording by pop legend David Bowie is set to fetch £10,000 at auction.

The 1963 demo tape, made with his band The Konrads when he was 16, featured him singing a song called I Never Dreamed.

He was the band’s saxophonist but took lead vocals on the tape, which was never released after record label Decca rejected it.

The tape is in a memorabilia trove being sold by ex-Konrads drummer David Hadfield – who found it in a bread basket in the 1990s. He said: “David had no inclination to become a singer, his heart and mind were focused on becoming a world-class sax player.

“Our agent, Eric Easton, asked us to do a demo so he could get us an audition at Decca. So in early 1963 I booked into RG Jones’ studio in Morden. This became the first recording of David singing.”

The collection, including Bowie’s sketch of a promo idea, will be sold in September at Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside. Bowie died of cancer in 2016, aged 69.

National Album Day, with BBC Music, will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first LP on October 13.