A fan has claimed to have found another ‘secret surprise’ hidden within the artwork to the vinyl of David Bowie‘s ‘Blackstar’.

After one fan found that leaving the sleeve exposed to sunlight unveiled a galaxy of stars, the artwork’s designer Jonathan Barnbrook then revealed that there were even more tricks to be discovered.

After other fans started sharing their own discoveries after experimenting with the artwork, now another has written to NME to share their own theory.


“It’s all in the booklet that comes with the album,” wrote reader Chris Gray. “I noticed that their is a very quirky design on the page where the lyrics ‘Girl Loves Me’ appears. I was pretty sure this was an instruction – and so it transpired.

“What you have to do is bring the booklet to within about 10cm of a wall in a blackened room and shine a torch on the images that appear in the booklet (such as the stars, the man and woman, the ‘Lazarus’ title etc, etc,) and what you get is a range of fantastic coloured and 3D images. The lyrics also appear 3D with red shadow colouring…”

Have you discovered any ‘Blackstar’ secrets? Write in the comments below and let us know

“There are a lot of other things going on that aren’t completely at the surface, but I do hope people see them – not necessarily straight away,” said designer Barnbrook earlier this year. “This thing of keeping the meaning open, I think is better. There’s one big thing which people haven’t discovered yet. Let’s just say, if people find it, they find it. If they don’t, they don’t.”

Read more: David Bowie in NME People Of The Year

Last week, Bowie was named as the UK’s favourite musician – ahead of the likes of Prince, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

Advertisement Bowie passed away in January at the age of 69. A special tribute concert to David Bowie is set to take place at Brixton Academy on his birthday on 8 January, featuring friend and actor Gary Oldman along with over 30 musicians that collaborated with Bowie throughout his career.