Early Bowie music available to stream for first time

Ten years ago Alec Palao was casually flicking through a collection of old records when he noticed some faint pencil markings that were enough to draw a gasp. "Davie Jones," it read.

What he had found was musical gold: five unreleased songs by a young David Bowie, filed away under his birth name.

From Friday, those tracks, plus another five unreleased songs that came Palao's way after the initial discovery, will be available to buy and stream.

"They are probably the most visceral, raw you'll ever hear the man," said Palao, a music historian and archivist.

For the music industry, David Bowie is big business. He entered the mainstream with his 1969 single, Space Oddity, and went on to achieve 11 number one albums.

He died in 2016, but remains one of Britain's most recognisable cultural icons.

Six of the previously unreleased tracks from the new collection will be available on vinyl, tapping into Bowie's popularity in that format specifically. In 2022, Bowie was named the best-selling vinyl artist of the 21st century by Music Week, ahead of The Beatles.

"It's just a fascinating window into London in 1965 and its possibilities," said Palao.