In the year that would have marked his 70th birthday, Royal Mail is issuing a set of 10 stamps to honour David Bowie.
The late singer’s life as ”one of the most influential music and cultural figures of all time” will be celebrated with a collection of 10 stamps, six of which will feature the images of his ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Aladdin Sane’, ”’Heroes”’, ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘Earthling’ and ‘Blackstar’ album covers, and the remaining four which will feature him performing live on tours across four decades.
David’s 1972 ‘Ziggy Stardust’ concerts, ‘The Stage Tour‘ from 1978, the 1983 ‘Serious Moonlight’ tour and ‘A Reality Tour’ from 2004 will all feature on the postage marks.
The collection is the first time Royal Mail have dedicated an entire stamp issue to an individual music artist or cultural figure.
Philip Parker, Royal Mail stamp strategy manager, said: ”For five decades David Bowie was at the forefront of contemporary culture, and has influenced successive generations of musicians, artists, designers and writers. Royal Mail’s stamp issue celebrates this unique figure and some of his many celebrated personas.”
The stamps and a range of limited edition souvenirs are available to pre-order now at www.royalmail.com/davidbowie and will be on sale from 14 March 2017.
Among the limited-edition items are a Berlin Years Souvenir Cover set, of which there will be just 3,000, and an album art fan sheet featuring all six Special stamps and an array of Bowie album covers, of which there will be 10,000 available.
And collectors will appreciate the ”’Heroes”’, ‘Hunky Dory’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’ framed stamp and print sets, which are only available for UK orders and each in a numbered limited edition run of just 950, costing £79.99 each.
Previously, the only other music artists to have a dedicated stamp collection were groups The Beatles, whose tribute was released in 2010, and Pink Floyd in 2015.