Even a year after his death, David Bowie has kept on surprising us with wonderful gifts such as a new, unheard EP. Now, the Royal Mail in the UK are giving him a special honor.
After we dubbed 2016 as the year of Bowie, the Royal Mail in the UK are kicking off 2017 with a limited edition series, including stamps, stamp sheets, framed stamps and fan sheets.
The Royal Mail have never included a solo music artist until now, with David Bowie adorning their Music Giants Special Stamp series.
Whether it be a gift, souvenir or for practical use, the collection includes ten special stamps, with six featuring his albums Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane; “Heroes”, Let’s Dance, Earthling and ★.
The last four will depict moments from The Ziggy Stardust Tour (1973), The Stage Tour (1978), The Serious Moonlight Tour (1983) and A Reality Tour (2004).
“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.” Royal Mail stamp Strategy manager, Philip Parker said.
While Bowie is the only solo artist to ever have been dignified with a stamp series by the Royal Mail, The Beatles (in 2010) and Pink Floyd (in 2015) are the only bands.
Davidbowie.com gave a run down of each stamp:
- Hunky Dory, Bowie’s fourth album and released in December 1971. Time magazine chose it as part of their “100 best albums of all time” list in January 2010.
- Aladdin Sane, his sixth album and released in April 1973. The album features the iconic photograph by Brian Duffy.
- Heroes, his twelfth studio album and released in October 1977. This was the second instalment of his “Berlin Trilogy” recorded with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti. The title track remains one of Bowie’s best known and acclaimed songs.
- Let’s Dance, his fifteenth studio album and released in April 1983. Co-produced by Nile Rodgers, and featuring three of his most successful singles Let’s Dance, Modern Love and China Girl. Let’s Dance is Bowie’s best-selling album.
- Earthling, his 23rd studio album and released in February 1997. The striking cover art features Bowie in an Alexander McQueen designed Union Flag coat.
- ★, Bowie’s 28th and final studio album, released on his 69th birthday – 8 January 2016 – and charting at No.1 in more than 20 countries. Bowie died two days after the release of ★, the album reaffirming his legacy as modern music’s most unrelenting innovator and topping critics’ ‘Best of 2016’ lists.
- The Ziggy Stardust Tour, 1973. The tour promoted Aladdin Sane and took in the UK, North America, and Japan.
- The Serious Moonlight Tour, 1983. The tour was designed to support the Let’s Dance album and up to that point was Bowie’s longest and most successful concert tour.
- The Stage Tour, 1978. Also known as Isolar II – The 1978 World Tour was staged to promote the Low and “Heroes” albums.
- A Reality Tour, 2003/2004. Staged to promote the Reality album, this tour became Bowie’s longest tour and it would also be his last.
The stamps will go on sale March 17, but you can preorder now at the Royal Mail.
