Royal Mail Stamps guide: Pink Floyd - 7 July 2015

Royal Mail have revealed images of a set of ten stamps that will be issued to mark fifty years since Pink Floyd turned professional and became the ‘house band’ of the London Underground movement of music and arts.

You can read more about the stamps in the July and August issues of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine.

The stamps are available to pre-order from 26 May 2016 at www.royalmail.com/pinkfloyd and to purchase from 8,000 Post Offices from 7 July 2016.
 
Six stamps feature iconic album covers: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn; Atom Heart Mother;The Dark Side Of The Moon; Wish You Were Here; Animals and The Endless River.
 
A Royal Mail statement said:

'The band is renowned for its innovative album covers, many of which have become design classics.

'Through working with leading graphic designers and photographers, they established a body of work that is instantly recognisable, with album cover art considered among the most iconic ever created. Most of the band’s album covers were devised by Hipgnosis, co-founded by Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson in 1968. They were at the forefront of album cover design, using experimental techniques in photography and multiple exposures, and retouching to create the startling images.'

A further four stamps within a miniature sheet celebrate the live performances of the band.

Arguably the most visually literate band of all time, as well as being one of the most successful, their live appearances were renowned. They were among the first groups to make extensive use of light shows and projection of films for their appearances, increasing in ambition over the decades.
 
The four images show photographs of appearances at the influential UFO Club, London in 1966 where they invented the ‘psychedelic’ light show; to the extremely ambitious staging for albums such as The Wall and the Division Bell tours.

You can read more about the stamps in the July and August issues of Stamp & Coin Mart magazine. Subscribe today!

Pink Floyd were formed when the founding trio of bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright were augmented by original guitarist Syd Barrett. In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band shortly before Barrett’s departure.

Few bands in the history of rock have managed to carve out a career as rich and expansive as that of Pink Floyd. From their blues-based psychedelic roots, the members of the outfit have created some of modern music’s most totemic and inspirational albums, with ground-breaking live performances to match.