Single release: New Killer Star

David Bowie’s ‘New Killer Star’ single was released on 29 September 2003, two weeks after the Reality album.

The CD single was issued in Canada, and European countries including Austria and Italy, with a cover of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s ‘Love Missile F1-11’ as the b-side.

The cover photograph was of Bowie playing his 1956 Supro Dual Tone guitar, one of two such eBay purchases which he played throughout A Reality Tour.

The image was taken by Frank W Ockenfels III. The single for ‘Never Get Old’ used the top half of the photograph for its cover, presenting the full image when the two were aligned together.

A DVD single of ‘New Killer Star’ was also issued in several countries, including the UK and US. This contained the shorter 3:42 video edit of the song, and also included an electronic press kit for Reality. This was disqualified from chart placing due to the DVD format, meaning the song failed to chart anywhere in the world.

The video

A promotional video for ‘New Killer Star’ was released alongside the single. It was David Bowie’s first full video since 1999’s ‘Survive’.

It was directed by Brumby Boylston of the production company National Television. Unusually, it did not feature Bowie, but contained a series of 1950s-style images presented in a lenticular style, including a slumbering astronaut whose last-minute wakening averted a collision with Earth.