--- title: David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket description: The musician’s early demo recording is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction canonical: https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-23T15:05:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:56:37.425Z og:title: David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket og:description: The early recording of Bowie is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction og:url: https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3333eb0d0a6b33fc/698935f7096a94cced6a2f88/gettyimages-2639097.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3972 og:image:height: 2234 og:image:alt: Head Of David og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket twitter:description: The early recording of Bowie is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3333eb0d0a6b33fc/698935f7096a94cced6a2f88/gettyimages-2639097.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket > Sponsored content. 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The early recording of Bowie is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction_ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 23, 2018 3:05 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Jul 23, 2018 3:05 PM UTC Before David Bowie was a [musical legend](http://time.com/4179348/david-bowie-cover-story/), fashion icon, rock star, and [two-time _TIME_ cover star,](http://time.com/4179890/david-bowie-cover/) he was just another teenager yearning for the spotlight. Now, a recording [Bowie](http://time.com/4174940/david-bowie-best-songs/) made as a 16-year old kid with his first band, The Konrads, has been discovered in a bread basket of all places. The recording was made when Bowie was still performing as David Jones, before changing his name to avoid confusion with the Monkees’ singer Davy Jones. [According to _The Guardian_,](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/23/david-bowies-first-demo-track-discovered-in-old-bread-basket) Bowie and The Konrads were encouraged by their agent, the legendary Eric Easton, who also managed the Rolling Stones, to make a demo tape. The band booked time at an East London studio and the young Bowie jumped on the microphone to sing “I Never Dreamed”, even though previously he had only sang back up with the band. The only known recording of that session was discovered by David Hadfield, who was The Konrads drummer and manager. Hadfield says found the tape when packing up his home for a move, discovering the recording “in an old bread basket that had belonged to his grandfather along with a host of other material including booking forms, photographs, promotional sketches, letters and bills, in a loft above the garage.” According to Hadfield, it is the very first recording of [Bowie](http://time.com/4175126/david-bowie-best-music-videos/) singing. Hadfield is putting the recording [up for auction](http://www.omegaauctions.co.uk/departments/memorabilia-auctions/) where it is expected to fetch $13,000 (£10,000). Bowie passed away in 2016 at the age of 69, just two days after the release of his 25th studio album, _Blackstar_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/"},"headline":"David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket","datePublished":"2018-07-23T15:05:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:37.425Z","description":"The early recording of Bowie is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction","url":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","David Bowie"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3333eb0d0a6b33fc/698935f7096a94cced6a2f88/gettyimages-2639097.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3333eb0d0a6b33fc/698935f7096a94cced6a2f88/gettyimages-2639097.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Head Of David","caption":"Head Of David","creditText":"Evening Standard—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/","name":"David Bowie's Demo Was Recently Found in a Bread Basket"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"The early recording of Bowie is expected to fetch $13,000 at auction","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5345836/david-bowie-demo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```