An acetate record with a tracklisting handwritten by the man himself goes on sale today
A rare pre-release copy of David Bowie’s ‘Hunky Dory’ album is expected to sell for tens of thousands of pounds after it goes up for auction today.
The record in question is an acetate disc created after the album was mastered but before it was released to the public as a finished vinyl. It was used as the precursor for a limited run of 500 promotional copies of Bowie’s popular fourth album, released in 1971, which were given to music industry executives. Versions of this white label record, which is known amongst collectors as the ‘BOWPROMO’ are themselves tremendously valuable, with one selling for around $10,000 on ebay in 2012.
The acetate is believed to be particularly valuable for a number of reasons, not least because it is accompanied by a tracklisting believed by handwriting experts to have been written by Bowie himself. It also features a song called ‘Bombers’, which did not appear on subsequent versions of the album, having been replaced ‘Fill Your Heart’; the track wouldn’t be heard for another 19 years, when it was eventually released as a single.
Read more at the NME
Find Bowie vinyl at eil.com
On the David Bowie acetate I would like to know how did that label get written by David Bowie? the only time that David was at Apple Studio that I remember was when I mastered his “Space Oddity” which I still have the acetate and first pressing on it? this looks very strange to me as we never gave out blank demo labels!
I am George Peckham the mastering engineer 1968 to 1973!
That does sound mysterious – thanks for your comment George