A demo tape featuring the first-known recording of David Bowie aged 16, playing with his band at the time The Konrads, has sold at auction for nearly £40,000, as The Guardian reports.
The tape turned up earlier this year in the loft of former Konrads drummer and manager David Hadfield. It was placed up for sale by Omega Auctions and sold for almost four times the expected price of £10,000 when it went up for auction yesterday (September 11). Omega Auctions says it sold for £39,360.
The tape features Bowie, then focusing on saxophone under his given name of David Jones, singing lead vocals on a track by The Konrads called ‘I Never Dreamed’. The recording was made well before Bowie launched his solo career and was later rejected by the label Decca.
Hadfield also found booking forms, photographs, letters and other materials from the band’s time together while he was moving house. Some of these materials, including promotional sketches by Bowie, along with photographs and band documents, sold for £17,130.
Bowie left The Konrads shortly after the recording was made and launched his solo career sometime after releasing Space Oddity in 1969.
