He was a fresh-faced teenager, a fan of modern jazz and who had just spent four months in hospital after a punch in the face left him with a damaged left eye.

Young David Jones had taken up playing the saxophone in a bid to emulate his musical hero, jazz legend John Coltrane. And as he left Bromley Technical High School, the young man who would eventually became a global musical legend had already informed his parents that he planned to become a pop star – prompting his mother to find him a job as an electrician’s mate.

Jones – later, of course, far better known as David Bowie – had already had a taste of performing Shadows numbers with his band, The Konrads, at the school PTA fete, and even cut a demo disc which was promptly ignored by record company chiefs.

What happened later is, of course, musical history. David Bowie’s brief spell as tenor saxophonist and backing vocalist with little-known group The Konrads would be rapidly overtaken by his launch into mega-stardom, while the band’s single recording with the young “thin white duke” was destined to be long forgotten.

That is, until now. For David’s Bowie’s first known studio recording has now emerged, 55 years later.

The 1963 recording, which was rejected by Decca Records – infamously, the same record company which turned down The Beatles in favour of The Tremeloes – has suddenly re-emerged after being found discarded in a bread basket.

The demo tape features a youthful 16-year-old Bowie performing I Never Dreamed, which he co-wrote with other members of the band.

The tape, which is expected to fetch £10,000 at auction, is part of a trove of memorabilia to be sold by The Konrads’ former drummer David Hadfield, who also managed the band.

He found it tucked in a bread basket that once belonged to his grandfather, stashed in the loft of his garage.

Bowie was originally the band’s saxophonist, however, it was decided that he should sing lead vocals for the tape.

Hadfield said: “David had no inclination to become a singer at this point, his heart and mind were focused on becoming a world-class saxophone player.

“Our agent, Eric Easton, who also managed the Rolling Stones, asked us to do a demo so he could try and get us an audition at Decca.

“So, in early 1963 I booked into RG Jones’ small studio in Morden. In preparation for the demo, David and our guitarist Neville Wills wrote two to three songs. We had decided that we would do a couple of guitar instrumentals and one original song.

“I chose I Never Dreamed as it was the strongest, the other two were a bit weak.

“I also decided that David was the best person to sing it and give the right interpretation. So this became the very first recording of David Jones (Bowie) singing 55 years ago.

“There is no other recording of the demo featuring David as lead in existence,” he adds. “Decca initially turned us down, but when they gave us an audition later that year, vocalist Roger Ferris was the lead voice and David sang backing harmonies.”

Despite the young Bowie’s unique voice and charismatic presence, the group was rejected by Decca and the tape of Bowie singing I Never Dreamed was never released.

Bowie quit the band in the following months, apparently dissatisfied with their choice of pop-style material. While they continued and eventually peaked as a support act for the Rolling Stones, Bowie went on to perform with a succession of other bands until finally finding success six years later with Space Oddity.

Modern digital technology means today’s fledgling stars’ early recordings are unlikely to end up stashed in someone’s loft.

However, recording in the past meant consigning music to master tapes, some of which had a habit of being wiped for new material, or the metal tabs cut up and sold for waste. Even tapes which by today’s standards would be considered “gold dust” were destroyed by record companies looking for more storage space or simply lost in fires or thrown out.

In the 1960s, RCA Records demolished its Camden warehouse, with four floors’ worth of discs, ledgers and rehearsal recordings still inside, while in 1978 Atlantic Records’ warehouse in New Jersey was destroyed by fire, resulting in the loss of thousands of irreplaceable reels of tape from jazz and pop artists.

Now set to take its place in musical history, the Konrads’ recording is among a collection of letters, bills, booking forms, photographs and promotional sketches from Bowie’s early career that will go under the hammer at a music memorabilia sale in September at Omega Auctions in Newton-le-Willows.

Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said the tape was a “significant recording, completely unique and of great historical interest, being the earliest studio recording of a fledgling musician who would go on to super stardom”.