For the third time in history, the UK’s Royal Mail is honoring a legendary band by issuing a set of stamps. After the Beatles in 2007 and Pink Floyd in 2016, Queen will now be seeing their faces in mailboxes in July.
The 13-stamp set — featuring eight legendary album covers, a classic photo of the group, and four live shots of the group — releases on July 9 and is now available for preorder.
“It’s hard to put into words what I feel when looking at these beautiful stamps,” Queen guitarist Brian May said in a release. “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 realize 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 [have] an overwhelming desire to own one of these sets! Somehow it will be a way of persuading myself that it really DID all happen!”
The album-cover stamps include Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, News of the World, The Game, Greatest Hits, The Works, and Innuendo. The live shots include Freddie Mercury from London’s Wembley Stadium in 1986; drummer Roger Taylor from London’s Hyde Park, 1976; bassist John Deacon at London’s Hammersmith Odeon in 1975; and May in Budapest in 1986. And the iconic centerpiece of the set comes from the group’s first-ever studio photoshoot at a Primrose Hill studio, which shot by Johnny Dewe Mathews.
“Wow…….stamps featuring our albums! What an honor,” Taylor said in the release. “We must be really part of the furniture now! Thanks Royal Mail for stamping on us! In gratitude.”
Meanwhile, Royal Mail’s Philip Parker said, “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.”
The stamps, which are available to preorder on Royal Mail’s website, release just after Taylor’s latest single “Isolation” dropped earlier on Monday. Taylor composed the song, plays every instrument and sings on it as well.
Check out “Isolation” below:
