David Bowie’s First Ever Demo Found In Old Bread Basket

David Bowie’s very first demo has been discovered stashed away in an old bread basket. Bowie recorded the track, entitled ‘I Never Dreamed’ in 1963 with his band The Konrads in a bid to secure a record deal with Decca. Unfortunately, the record label and The Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton rejected it, so by the time Bowie started to gain notoriety, no one knew if the musician’s early recordings had survived the test of time.

The Guardian reported that the demo was uncovered by The Konrads’ manager and drummer David Hadfield when he was moving house. The rare tape was bundled in a bread basket which once belonged to his grandfather along with various other items including photos and letters. The demo will now be sold through Omega Auctions in September and it’s expected to fetch £10,000.

“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,” Hadfield told The Guardian. “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. 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 will be part of Omega Auctions’ Music Memorabilia, Instruments & Equipment sale. A full catalogue of items will be made available in the near future on their website.

Elsewhere in David Bowie news, it was announced that a new Bowie box set titled Loving The Alien would launch on 12 October 12. The 11CD and 15LP set brings together Bowie’s work from the mid-80s. The collection follows Five Years (1969-1973), Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) and A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982).

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Format: UK English