David Bowie’s first audition tape was found in an old bread basket

Back in 1963, a 16-year-old David Bowie was still using his original name, David Jones and was a saxophone player with a band called The Konrads. When the band urged him to become the lead singer, a studio-recorded demo tape of the band was rejected by the record company Decca.

That same record company later gave the band a chance after hearing another audition recording with him singing backing vocals for the band. Of course, as they say, the rest is history as Bowie soared to fame with the iconic song “Space Oddity." The audition tape is now on sale on auction.

Bowie audition tape goes on auction

As reported by the Independent, the demo tape was discovered by the band’s drummer and frontman David Hadfield in the 1990s and is now going on auction along with several pieces of Bowie-related memorabilia. The tape is being sold by the Hadfield, and it is hoped to reach an auction price of £10,000 along with several pieces of Bowie memorabilia.

Hadfield said he came across the audition tape when clearing out the loft of his garage while he was moving house in the 1990s. The bread basket that the tape was stored in used to belong to Hadfield’s grandfather.

Famous late singer wanted to be a saxophonist

Hadfield explained that Bowie was the saxophonist with the band, but they decided he should sing the lead vocals on that particular audition tape.

However, he explained that Bowie had no plans to become a singer and wanted to focus on being a world-class saxophonist. Hadfield said their agent, Eric Easton – who was also the manager of the Rolling Stones – asked the band to make the demo tape in order to attempt to get them an audition with Decca.

It was in early 1963 that the band booked RG Jones’ studio in Morden to make the audition tape.

Bowie and the band’s guitarist, Neville Wills wrote three songs for the studio recording. They decided to do some guitar instrumentals, along with an original song, for which they chose “I Never Dreamed,” as reportedly the other songs were a little “weak.”

At that stage, Hadfield decided that Bowie was the best member of the band to offer the right interpretation and sing the song.

This made the demo the first recorded ever made of Bowie singing, 55 years ago.

As reported by The Guardian, the tape contained the song “I Never Dreamed,” which was never released on record. Bowie left the band, citing creative differences, months after the audition tape was rejected and six years later became famous with the song “Space Oddity.”