A 1963 demo recording featuring David Bowie has been discovered and is headed to auction.
According to The Guardian, Bowie’s demo of the song “I Never Dreamed” with his first band, The Konrads, was unearthed in an old bread basket by the group’s drummer and manager David Hadfield in a loft above the garage during a recent house move.
Working under his original name, David Jones, the future music icon and the band wrote some songs for the demo session at RG Jones in Morden, with the tape to be used by the group’s agent in his attempts to secure a record deal for the outfit.
“We had decided that we would do a couple of guitar instrumentals and one original song,” explains Hadfield. “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 singing 55 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 demo – which will go up for bids during a September 11 event hosted by Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows on Merseyside – is reportedly expected to fetch £10,000 (US $13,000).
Auctioneer Paul Fairweather called the tape “completely unique and of great historical interest, being the earliest studio recording of a fledgling musician who would go on to super stardom.”
The singer changed his stage name to David Bowie in late 1965 to avoid confusion with then-emerging pop star Davy Jones of The Monkees.
The 1969 single, “Space Oddity”, put Bowie on the map and led to the beginnings of a groundbreaking catalogue that saw the singer push the creative envelope while exploring various genres as a musical chameleon.
Bowie – who sold an estimated 140 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1996 – passed away from liver cancer on January 10, 2016, just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 25th album, “Blackstar.”
See also:
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