ABSOLUTE BEGINNER

David Bowie’s First Demo Found Stashed in Old Bread Basket

First studio recording, made in 1963.

It’s a voice that would go on to become one of the most famous and distinctive in rock history. David Bowie’s first-ever lead vocal recorded in a studio in 1963—when he was just 16 years old—has been rediscovered by chance, stashed in an old bread basket. In the only known recording of his first lead vocal session with his first band, The Konrads, Bowie can be heard singing “I Never Dreamed.” The demo is now expected to fetch £10,000 at auction. The tape was rediscovered by Konrads drummer and manager David Hadfield, who said he found it when moving home. The tape was hidden in an old bread basket along with booking forms, photographs, promotional sketches, letters and bills, in a loft above the garage. Hadfield recalled: “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 singing 55 years ago.” Jones would go on to change his surname to Bowie—to avoid confusion with a Davy Jones of The Monkees.