Coming off of the growing love for “Space Oddity” in 1969, David Bowie was on the up-and-up. Riding the wave of that newfound attention, David Bowie’s New Electric Band (a band so new that they didn’t come up with a name yet) decided to play a career-defining set at the Basildon Arts Lab in Essex, England. An experimental music club operating under the Basildon Arts Centre, the whole of the show was a big deal. It also featured performances from bands like Iron Butterfly, High Tide, and Overson.
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David Bowie’s Band Went Through Some Turmoil Before Making it to Basildon Arts Lab
Bowie was part of quite a few bands early on in his career. David Bowie’s New Electric Band itself went through a few different name changes. They started with The David Bowie Band and Harry The Butcher. They cycled through those names in a matter of days, too. The Basildon gig was technically their third performance, and Bowie would eventually settle on the band name Hype.
The band’s first performance wasn’t exactly well-received. They were more or less booed as they left the stage. Luckily, that all seemed to change in a matter of weeks. Following the Basildon Arts Lab gig and a slot on John Peel’s The Sunday Show on BBC Radio, Hype was signed to Mercury Records.
The Basildon Arts Lab set was on another level. Bowie headlined the event on February 28, 1970 with High Tide; a band that also featured Simon House, who would collaborate with Bowie in the future. Oddly enough, a band called Iron Maiden also performed. However, they were not the heavy metal band most people think of.
The early iteration of Hype was truly something to behold. The outfit featured Bowie, Mick Ronson on the guitar, John Cambridge on the drums, and Tony Visconti on the bass. The band didn’t get a ton of cash for performing at the Basildon, which is wild considering how big Bowie would become in just a few years.
“David [Bowie] did agree to accept a job at Basildon Arts Centre on February 28,” said author Kenneth Pitt in the tell-all David Bowie: The Pitt Report. “This venue was similar to his own Arts Lab and they offered to pay him 100% of the takings, less their expenses. The other bands on the bill were High Tide, who were paid fifteen pounds, and Iron Maiden, who received ten pounds. David’s share was fifty-one pounds.”
We all gotta start somewhere.
Photo by Art Zelin/Getty Images
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