A rare piece of musical history is set to go under the hammer, with the first demo of David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ going up for auction.
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning one of the greatest David Bowie rarities imaginable, then you might want to start checking between those couch cushions for some loose change.
You might remember how last year it was revealed that David Bowie’s first-ever demo had been discovered in an old breadbasket, decades after it was first recorded. Soon, this piece of music history went under the hammer where it fetched nearly £40,000.
Now, it looks as though history could repeat, with a demo recording of Bowie’s ‘Starman’ up for grabs.
As the BBC reports, the tape found its way into the possession of Kevin Hutchinson back in 1971, when David Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson gave it to him to help learn the song.
Apparently, Hutchinson listened to the song – which bears the label ‘David Bowie rehearsal tape’ – before packing it away in his attic for decades.
“I remember listening to it and thinking, ‘This is OK,’” Hutchinson explained. “I didn’t think, ‘This is fantastic.’ At 16, you’re not totally impressed. Nothing impresses you.”
While Hutchinson noted that the tape was “totally forgotten about” for over 40 years, it also contains early recordings of Bowie’s ‘Moonage Daydream’ and ‘Hang Onto Yourself’, both of which would be released on The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars in 1972.
In an interview back in 2017, Kevin Hutchinson explained that his wife helped jog his memory of the tape following the viewing of a David Bowie documentary the previous year.
“I think she thought I didn’t have the tape because when you say to someone, ‘I once did some stuff with Mick Ronson and with David Bowie, people think, ‘Yeah tell me another one.'”
The tape is set to be auctioned in the town of Newton-le-Willows on Tuesday, where auctioneers assume it could fetch £10,000.
While this might be out of the price range for an average fan, it does make us want to go check our memory boxes for any long-lost musical relics.
Check out David Bowie’s ‘Starman’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI66hcu9fIs
