Vinyl Record
David Bowie - The Shel Talmy Recordings
Buy David Bowie — The Shel Talmy Recordings on 180g Black Vinyl LP at Kilmorna, Listowel, Ireland. Explore the album and order online.
LP · 2026 · Parlophone
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2026 LP on Parlophone, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel, ship within Ireland from EUR 5.95 per record or outside Ireland from EUR 12.00 per record.
The Shel Talmy Recordings turns attention to David Bowie's formative 1965 sessions, before the records that made his later identities familiar. The collection gathers performances associated with Davie Jones and the Lower Third, Davie Jones and The Manish Boys, placing the young singer within the rhythm-and-blues and beat-group world in which he was then working. Talmy's production provides a connection to the wider British recording scene of the period. The twelve-track vinyl programme includes You've Got a Habit of Leaving, I Pity the Fool and Take My Tip alongside further material from these sessions. Rather than viewing every performance simply as a prediction of the later Bowie, the album rewards attention to its immediate qualities: an eager vocalist, compact band arrangements and songs negotiating the space between American R&B influences and British pop. It is a focused portrait of a musician still discovering how to make those influences his own.
These recordings document a period that can be overshadowed by Bowie's later transformations. Bringing the Talmy sessions together allows the early band settings and vocal experiments to be heard on their own terms, adding useful depth to a collection that begins with his better-known solo albums.
The standard edition is a 180-gram black vinyl LP with a printed inner sleeve and twelve tracks. Its programme includes six previously unreleased recordings. This physical sequence differs from the longer CD and digital programme, which contains additional demos and alternate performances.
Mid-1960s British beat and R&B with compact arrangements, direct vocals and an energetic small-band sound that precedes Bowie's later studio experimentation.
Recommended for: David Bowie collectors exploring his earliest recordings; Listeners interested in Shel Talmy’s production work; Fans of 1960s British beat and rhythm and blues; Collectors seeking the standard-cover 180g vinyl edition.
Which period does this collection cover? The album gathers recordings from Bowie’s 1965 sessions with producer Shel Talmy, including performances with his early groups. Is this the standard cover edition? Yes. This is the standard-cover edition on a 180-gram black vinyl LP, accompanied by a printed inner sleeve. Does the LP match the longer digital album? The vinyl edition contains twelve tracks; the CD and digital editions extend the programme with further demos and alternate recordings.