David Bowie & The Lower Third (1965–1966)

Origins of The Lower Third

The Lower Third originated in Margate, Kent, before moving into the London music scene. By the spring of 1965, Bowie was looking for a new musical setting after his association with The Manish Boys.

The Lower Third offered something closer to the direction he now wanted: a tougher and more immediate group sound shaped by the rapidly developing British Mod scene.

Bowie joined the band in 1965 and quickly became its frontman. Although the partnership would last less than a year, it became one of the most concentrated periods of activity in his early career, encompassing rehearsals, recording sessions, club appearances, regional performances and the gradual development of a new public identity.

The Bowie-Era Line-Up

The best-known Lower Third line-up associated with Bowie consisted of:

David Jones / David Bowie – lead vocals and harmonica
Denis “Tea-Cup” Taylor – guitar
Graham Rivens – bass guitar
Phil Lancaster – drums

Drummer Les Mighall was also part of the earlier Lower Third period before Lancaster joined the group. The personnel history is therefore slightly more complicated than the familiar four-man publicity line-up usually associated with Bowie and the band.

A New Musical Direction

The Lower Third marked a noticeable change from the straight rhythm-and-blues approach of some of Bowie’s previous groups. Their music was harder, more aggressive and increasingly connected to the Mod sound developing in London during 1965.

The influence of groups such as The Who and The Kinks was particularly apparent. An important figure in this development was American producer Shel Talmy, who had already worked with both bands and had previously recorded Bowie with The Manish Boys.

Talmy’s relationship with Bowie continued into the Lower Third period, providing an important link between Bowie’s earlier R&B recordings and the increasingly distinctive material he was beginning to write himself.

You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving

Video: You've got a habit of leaving

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  Video: You've got a habit of leaving

  This is an A-side single to "Baby loves that way” and was written by David Bowie. This 45 was released in 1965 by Parlophone Records (of UK) and the catalog number is R 5315.

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The first commercially released recording featuring Bowie with The Lower Third was You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving, backed with Baby Loves That Way.

Recorded with producer Shel Talmy, the single was released on 20 August 1965. Although The Lower Third provided the backing, the record itself was credited simply to Davy Jones.

Both songs were written by Bowie and display the strong influence of the British Mod movement, particularly the forceful guitar-driven approach associated with The Who.

The two recordings are important examples of Bowie beginning to move beyond the R&B repertoire of his earlier bands and increasingly relying on his own songwriting.

From David Jones to David Bowie

Video: Can't Help Thinking About Me

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  Video: Can't Help Thinking About Me

  David Jones was always going to be a big star, though it took a few false starts and much wandering through the musical tapestry of the 60's to find his rightful niche. An approach to a would-be manager was referred and he was taken on y Dick James’s partner, Leslie Conn, who managed the singer through his initial stages. First was leaving his group the Konrads to join the King Bees. Signed with Decca, their "Liza Jane" (based in part on the old song, "L'il Liza Jane") was released on the Vocalion Pop subsidiary label. Selling poorly, they dropped the group and Jones left to join the R'n'B group The Manish Boys. "I Pity The Fool" on Parlophone also failed and now Jones moved on to Mod trio The Lower Third.

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During his first months with The Lower Third, Bowie was still performing under variations of his birth name, including David Jones, Davy Jones and Davie Jones.

That changed during the second half of 1965. Wanting a more distinctive professional identity, he adopted the surname Bowie. The name was inspired by the Bowie knife and its association with the American frontiersman Jim Bowie.

Contemporary advertisements show the new name beginning to replace Davie Jones during the autumn of 1965. By the beginning of 1966 the transition was complete.

The importance of The Lower Third in this story is considerable: Bowie entered the group as Davie Jones and left it as David Bowie.

BBC Audition – 2 November 1965

On 2 November 1965, Bowie and The Lower Third attended a BBC audition in London in the hope of securing radio work.

The audition became famous because of the negative assessment made by the BBC panel. Bowie’s voice and personality failed to convince the selectors, and the group was rejected.

Seen in retrospect, the episode has become one of the striking ironies of Bowie’s early career. Within only a few years, the performer who had failed to impress the BBC audition panel would become one of British popular music’s most distinctive voices.

Can’t Help Thinking About Me

Can’t Help Thinking About Me

The most historically important record from Bowie’s association with The Lower Third was Can’t Help Thinking About Me, backed with And I Say to Myself.

The songs were recorded at Pye Studios in London and produced by Tony Hatch. The single was released by Pye on 14 January 1966 as David Bowie with The Lower Third.

It was the first commercially released record to carry the name David Bowie.

Beyond its importance as a name change, Can’t Help Thinking About Me also points towards a developing songwriting voice. The lyric is noticeably more personal than much of Bowie’s earlier material, dealing with departure, family and the uneasy consequences of leaving home.

Decades later Bowie returned to the song, performing it again in 1999 and recording a new studio version during the sessions that eventually became Toy.

The Lower Third on Stage

Recording represented only part of Bowie’s relationship with The Lower Third. Throughout 1965 the band maintained a busy live schedule, playing clubs, ballrooms and halls in London and across southern England.

Important venues included the Marquee Club, the 100 Club, the Witch Doctor in St Leonards-on-Sea and the Pavilion Ballroom in Bournemouth.

These performances placed Bowie directly inside the British club circuit at a time when Mod culture, R&B and the emerging beat-group scene were developing rapidly. The group also shared bills with artists who were already established or approaching national prominence.

For Bowie, the period provided intensive practical experience as a frontman. The constant performances allowed him to experiment with presentation, clothing, repertoire and stage identity long before theatrical reinvention became one of the defining characteristics of his career.

Break-Up of The Lower Third

Despite the release of Can’t Help Thinking About Me, relations between the musicians and Bowie’s management deteriorated rapidly in January 1966. Money and the way the group was being managed became central points of dispute.

The conflict came to a head at the end of January. The musicians believed Bowie had failed to support them sufficiently in their disagreement with management, and the partnership collapsed.

The separation was abrupt. The Lower Third had accompanied Bowie through one of the busiest periods of his early career, but within weeks he was assembling another backing group and moving into the next stage of his development.

Why The Lower Third Matter

The Lower Third occupy a unique position in Bowie history because their story overlaps directly with the creation of David Bowie as a professional identity.

They accompanied him while he was still being advertised as Davie Jones, backed him on You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving, stood beside him through the failed BBC audition and played on the first commercial single released under the David Bowie name.

Musically, the group also helped Bowie move away from the conventional R&B format of his earliest bands. Their harder Mod-influenced sound provided a setting in which his songwriting could become more individual.

The partnership was brief and commercially unsuccessful, but that does not make it insignificant. The Lower Third belong to the transitional moment when Bowie was learning how quickly music, image and identity could be changed.

Watch – Early Bowie & The Lower Third

Video: Baby Loves That Way

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  Video: Baby Loves That Way

  Baby Loves That Way · Davy Jones (And The Lower Third) Bowie 1965!

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Surviving audio, archival material and later documentaries provide a glimpse of Bowie’s work with The Lower Third during this formative period.

Although comparatively little moving footage survives from 1965–1966, the recordings preserve the energetic Mod-influenced sound Bowie was pursuing immediately before his career began moving in a more individual direction.

Historical Overview – Bowie’s Early Bands

At The Birth of Bowie

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  At The Birth of Bowie

  Phil Lancaster, ex-drummer with David Bowie & The Lower Third, with rare vinyl - original copies of Bowie singles 'You've Got A Habit Of Leaving' and 'Can't Help Thinking About Me', plus he reveals a copy of the Lower Third drumhead as originally designed and painted by his old friend, artist Roger Seamark. As fully documented in the new John Blake book, 'At The Birth Of Bowie'.

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The Lower Third formed part of a rapid succession of groups through which Bowie developed during the first half of the 1960s.

From The Konrads and The King Bees through The Manish Boys and The Lower Third, each group contributed something to his education as a singer, songwriter and performer.

The Lower Third were different because Bowie’s time with them coincided with the moment when the name David Bowie finally became permanent. What followed would no longer be the career of David or Davie Jones attempting to establish himself on the London music scene, but the beginning of the public career of David Bowie.

Official Website & Further Information

Further archival information about David Bowie’s recordings with The Lower Third and the transition from Davie Jones to David Bowie can be found through the official David Bowie website.

David Bowie – Official Website

The official Bowie archive also documents the 1965 release of You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving and the January 1966 release of Can’t Help Thinking About Me.

Article Origin

This article forms part of the David Bowie Collaborations & Creative Circle Archive at DavidBowieWorld.com.

It documents David Bowie’s association with The Lower Third during 1965 and early 1966, including the group’s personnel, recordings, live work, BBC audition, the transition from Davie Jones to David Bowie, and the release of the first commercial record to carry the David Bowie name.

© DavidBowieWorld.com — David Bowie Collaborations & Creative Circle Archive.

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