Missing David Bowie photo found in loft after 56 years

A long-lost photo of a young David Bowie backstage at gig arranged by a group of Stockport teenagers has emerged after 56 years when one of the group was clearing out his loft.

David Maynard, now 74, was a member of the Stockport Schools' Student Union in 1970 that booked Bowie for a spot at the Poco A Poco Club in Heaton Chapel.

Photos of the event were believed to have been lost, but Maynard said he always suspected he had one somewhere.

"I was relieved to find it because I had been going on about this photograph for several years, and I think they thought that I was just romancing and making it up and having a fantasy," he said.

"But I knew I had it and eventually I found it, and now it's available for everybody to see."

The picture, which has also been digitally colourised, shows Bowie, who had already secured a top-five hit with Space Oddity, in his stage outfit flanked by seven of the sixth formers in the student union.

It was only found after a water leak in Maynard's loft meant he had to clear out stacks of old boxes.

"I had a lot of photographs damaged by the water leak but not this one," he said.

Maynard, who is second from the left on the photo, said his memories of the "very hectic" night were blurry.

"We were all sort of 17, 18," he said.

"We'd organised things before but only on a small scale, in like rugby clubs or in a railwayman's club, before.

"We knew roughly what we were doing but it was a great big step up because I think the Poco a Poco on the night had a bit over what it should have had inside it, it was rammed full and they must have made a lot of money on the bar."

Maynard, said Bowie, who died in 2016 aged 69, was "quiet" but "personable" on the night.

"He had a serious, studious air about him," he said.

"He looked competent. He knew what he was doing."

Bowie's evening in the town had already been marked by a plaque at Stockport train station, where he spent the night after missing his train home following the gig.

John Barratt, of Stockport Music Story which installed the plaque, shared the news of the re-discovered photo on social media.

It has since been re-shared by Bowie's official Instagram page, which has three million followers.

Maynard said a number of photographs on the night were taken by a press photographer called Derek Martin, who worked on the Stockport Express.

He said he hoped if Martin heard about the discovery, or anyone who knows him, they would get in touch with Stockport Music Story.

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