Shel Talmy

25/09/2026

04/09/2026

MORE ON “DAVID BOWIE – THE SHEL TALMY RECORDINGS”

With release date in just in a couple of weeks, we asked Alec Palao, who assembled and annotated this long-awaited collection, to answer some basic queries that have come our way:

-- What tracks on this set do Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins actually perform on?

Page plays lead guitar on ‘I Pity The Fool’ and rhythm guitar on ‘Take My Tip’, Hopkins plays piano on ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’ and ‘Baby Loves That Way’. They are of course also heard on the alternative takes of these tracks.

-- Where does the other material come from?

Five songs were on individual acetates, and should be familiar to fans as they were first heard on the Rhino set “Early On” in 1991. A further five tracks, incredibly raw, punkoid R&B-influenced rock which features original Lower Third drummer Les Mighall, I discovered in Shel’s closet on a 12-inch disc inscribed with “Davy Jones” in china pencil. These tracks were recorded at Central Sound.

The crazy version of ‘I Want Your Love’ was on a Regent Sound acetate that was brought to my attention by its owner, my friend Jim Lahat. I’d like to mention here that, contrary to what it states on some Bowie forums, this is the only previously unidentified track from acetate that I personally have ever verified as being by David Bowie.

Everything else, including the three unreleased acoustic demos from Central Sound, comes from master tape. I might add this is not the sum total of Bowie’s work under Shel’s remit. Three lacquers we were unable to access, another was too technically compromised to include.

-- How did it all get processed?

The tape-sourced material received new high-resolution transfers. These recordings did not need much attention, as for the most part they all derive from the pink-backed AGFA stock that IBC used (and which Shel preferred), which if archived properly maintains an excellent frequency response. Each acetate was carefully dubbed – not a simple task - and then I spent considerable time on restoration. The rule here is very much “first do no harm”. I would like to thank Michael Graves and the team at Osiris for their assistance with the handful of tougher items.

-- Any idea who the second singer harmonizing on the track ‘Today’ might be?

I wish I knew, as they fit quite well with David’s voice. George Underwood is the logical choice, but he wasn’t in Bowie’s orbit at that particular moment, so I can only surmise it is one of the other Manish Boys.

-- Why does the vinyl release only have some of the content of the CD?

This was a decision made by the record company. I will say however that the vinyl could be considered more “conceptual”, in that it gathers the four single sides, along with all the demo tracks that were recorded with the Lower Third – in other words, all the Shel recordings that feature David singing with a band (minus the alternative takes, of course). Personally, I think they sit well together as a single LP. Connoisseurs of vinyl will appreciate that Jon Webber at AIR did an excellent “loud” cut, so it definitely plays like a vintage UK pressing.

-Any other thoughts to offer?

This project has been years in the making, so I do hope that all Bowie fans, be they casual admirer or hardcore old-salt, accept the content for what it is – raving ‘60s R&B and pop-art sounds - and not judge it against whatever era of the man’s career they might particularly admire themselves. Bowie did not emerge fully-formed, but then what artist of his magnitude ever has? You have to imagine his is one of rock’s most remarkable apprenticeships. Again, speaking personally, I have always liked the pre-‘Space Oddity’ material as much as the ‘70s classics that I grew up on, but that is also because I love that particular period of British music-making, and all of Bowie’s 1960s recordings reflect the time of their creation - in exciting fashion, to my mind. Lest we forget, Shel Talmy had a lot to do with the landscape of that epoch. The release in actuality speaks to the legacy of both men.

David Bowie

14/08/2026

SHEL TALMY RECORDINGS - 2ND SINGLE: TODAY (DEMO)

“Today we’ll love again...”

Another previously unreleased track from The Shel Talmy Recordings album is issued today, Friday 14th August.

As we told you a month ago, the album is the definitive 1965 collection produced by Shel Talmy (The Who, The Kinks) and it’s available for pre-order now on CD, LP, and a limited 1LP Red Vinyl exclusive to DavidBowie.com. ( https://davidbowie.lnk.to/TSTR )

Arriving September 18, this release compiles Bowie's rarest early sessions and features unheard tracks with guest appearances by Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins.

Listen to the second single, Today (Demo), (from 14th August) here: DavidBowie.lnk.to/TDD

Link to full press release in our Linktree.

15/07/2026

We are very proud to share the news that the long-anticipated anthology of Shel’s work with David Bowie will be released on 18 September by Warner/Parlophone worldwide.

For the few who might possibly not be aware, Shel signed David, then known as Davie Jones, to his production company in January 1965. They went on to cut two records together, ‘I Pity The Fool’ with The Manish Boys, and ‘You’ve Got A Habit Of Leaving’ with The Lower Third, before Bowie moved on to pastures new later that year.

Shel Talmy was not only the first true producer David that worked with, he was also the first to recognize his songwriting talents and actively encourage them. In fact, the very first publicly-released Bowie composition was ‘Take My Tip’, the flipside of the Manish Boys single in March 1965.

During the time that he was signed, David made recordings of several other of his early originals for Shel’s publishing company, Orbit Music. A handful of these were released on the Gary Stewart-compiled collection “Early On” in 1991, though only issued on CD and cassette, and now long out-of-print.

The new 22-track set “David Bowie – The Shel Talmy Recordings” gathers the previously released recordings cut by David for and with Shel, and adds no less than ten unheard, and in most cases undocumented, items that have lain hidden until now.

These unreleased gems were discovered by Shel’s colleague Alec Palao in the producer’s vault completely by chance. Indeed, five songs come from a blank 12-inch lacquer with the words “Davy Jones” inscribed in white china pencil, that Alec literally found in Shel’s office closet, while looking for something else.

The acetate is particularly significant, not just as the earliest demo by David and The Lower Third, but as the rawest and most primitive David Bowie would ever likely sound, bristling with the roughest edges of primal British R&B. Anyone who is a student of Shel’s work in that era, either from The Kinks or The Who, or his famed deeper cuts with the likes of The Sneekers, Mickey Finn and First Gear, will instantly recognize the excitement of this crude but powerful material.

Another unheard lacquer is The Lower Third’s recording of the outside composition ‘I Want Your Love.’ This was a publisher’s demo intended to showcase the song for The Pretty Things, but David and the group perversely went all-out to make the song over in their own image. The result is again as over-the-top as Bowie would ever get, flirting with the wild, chaotic style then associated with The Who.

In complete contrast, three further demos are dreamy acoustic pieces that reveal a completely different side of the Bowie of the time, with inspirations ranging from folk and pop balladry to show tunes, all the while highlighting the versatility that the ambitious star-in-the-making already possessed, and would go on to become his trademark.

Of course, Bowie’s work with Shel was almost five years before he achieved any measure of stardom with ‘Space Oddity’, and even longer before the familiar strains of ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Ashes To Ashes’ or ‘Let’s Dance’, so unsurprisingly these diamonds-in-the-rough may not prove instantly recognizable to the casual fan.

As Palao states in his extensive accompanying notes, “David Bowie the artist is a book of chapters, the turn of each page delivering something completely different and unexpected from the last. And in perusal, a cardinal error would be to pit any of these episodes against the others, when in fact each fascinating phase in his career should be considered complementary … The sounds here should not be judged by the standards of his later career, but by the standards of what was happening in Britain at that precise point in time. In which case, they speak as loudly of the excitement of London and its music scene in that pivotal year of 1965 as they do for the launch of its brightest future star.”

This particular project was one that Shel was anxious to see happen, and both he and Alec spent considerable time bringing it to fruition, with a handful of false starts along the way. Shel was to sadly pass just as the arrangements for this collection were finally being made. Nevertheless, the long-awaited release of “David Bowie – The Shel Talmy Recordings” acts as a fitting tribute to both men.

The full collection will be available on CD and digital, with an edited 12-track LP version (containing six of the ten unreleased songs) and an exclusive UK RSD edition in red vinyl with alternative art.

David Bowie