Queen honoured with 13 special Royal Mail stamps
"What an honour," says Roger Taylor
Last updated 23rd Jun 2020
The Royal Mail is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Queen by launching a very special series of stamps in their honour.
There are a total of 13 different Queen stamp designs available to pre-order in a variety of packages on the Royal Mail website ahead of their official release on Thursday 9th July.
Eight Queen albums feature on the stamps – ‘Queen II’ (1974), ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ (1974), ‘A Night At The Opera’ (1975), ‘News of the World (1977), ‘The Game’ (1980), ‘Greatest Hits’ (1981), ‘The Works’ (1984) and ‘Innuendo’ (1991).
There are also four stamps featuring live shots of Freddie Mercury at Wembley Stadium in 1986, Roger Taylor at Hyde Park in 1976, John Deacon on stage at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975 on the A Night at the Opera Tour, and Brian May at Népstadion in Budapest, Hungary in 1986 on the Magic Tour.
Completing the stamp collection is an iconic photograph of Queen taken by Johnny Dewe Mathews at the group’s first-ever studio photoshoot in a Primrose Hill studio.
The full set of 13 stamps, available in a Presentation Pack, retails at £16.00.
Package prices range from £4.35 for a Queen Prestige Stamp Book right up to a whopping £699 for a Queen Gold Proof Coin Cover featuring five stamps, a £25 Queen coin struck by the Royal Mint and an individually numbered Coin Cover celebrating Queen’s legendary live shows.
Enthusing about the Royal Mail's Queen stamps, Brian May says: "It’s hard to put into words what I feel when looking at these beautiful stamps.
“Since we four precocious boys started out on our quest 50 years ago, our lives have been devoted to making our impossible dream come true. Sometimes it’s strange to wake up and realise the position in which we are now held – we have become a national institution! And nothing brings this home more than this incredible tribute from Royal Mail.
“It’s particularly poignant to look at this collection of images now - now that we are all in a world dominated by a coronavirus, in which none of this could have happened. I just know that I feel an overwhelming desire to own one of these sets! Somehow it will be a way of persuading myself that it really DID all happen!"
Roger Taylor adds: “Wow.......stamps featuring our albums! What an honour. We must be really part of the furniture now! Thanks, Royal Mail for stamping on us! In gratitude."
Royal Mail’s Phillip Barker comments: “With their truly original, theatrical sound and effortless ability to mix musical styles, Queen are rock royalty. We pay tribute to one of the most loved bands of all time with these stunning stamps.
Queen are the third rock band to be honoured by the Royal Mail with stamps, following The Beatles in 2007 and Pink Floyd in 2016.
At the start of the year, Queen became the first band ever to be celebrated with an official commemorative UK coin collection from the Royal Mint.