A rare, unreleased David Bowie demo from 1965 has recently sold at an auction in the UK for £14,448 (€16,921.50). The early vinyl had been recorded while the singer was fronting Davy Jones and the Lower Third.
The recording of I Want Your Love sold on December 16th, at Wessex Auction Rooms specialist vinyl auction house. Written by John Dee and Jack Tarr, the track was later recorded by The Pretty Things, on their 1965 album Get the Picture? Keeping with the pre-NFT times, the buyer will receive only the rare record in the sale, not the recording or publishing rights to David's track.
The rare record was expected to attract bids of up to £12,000, with the seller purchasing the physical archive of one of the UK’s largest publishing companies a few years ago. This massive collection includes approximately 500,000 records - including many demos, promos, and unmarked acetates. Coming with no information other than the name of the track, it took quite some time to determine which artist recorded it.
These are very exciting times for Bowie fans as there has been a longing for new hits since the icon’s sad passing in 2016. This is the third track from the artist that has been discovered in the archive over the last two years! Rare tracks such as 1965's I Do Believe I Love You, and 1967’s Run Piper Run, have both previously sold at auctions in recent times.
“It’s been a real buzz to be the custodian of such an important piece of musical history,” director/music specialist at Wessex Auction Rooms, Martin Hughes said. “As a specialist vinyl auctioneer, I am lucky enough to handle rare vinyl records every day, but something like this does not come along every day. As you can imagine, we had interest from David Bowie enthusiasts around the world as well as general music collectors and there wasn’t a single spare phone line when the auction took place. The gavel eventually came down to an internet bidder in the UK.”
Meanwhile, Parlophone Records have revealed they are set to mark the 50th anniversary of Bowie album, Hunky Dory, with a rare limited-edition vinyl picture disc release on January 7th.
