[press release]
PINK FLOYD: ROYAL MAIL ISSUES SPECIAL STAMPS TO HONOUR LEGENDARY ROCK GROUP 
- 10 new stamps will be issued on 7 July 2016 to celebrate one of the most successful and influential British rock bands of all time
- 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 further four stamps within a miniature sheet celebrate the ground-breaking live performances of the band, from the appearances at the now legendary 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
- The Division Bell album cover appeared on a stamp in 2010
- The stamps are available to pre-order online from 26 May at www.royalmail.com/pinkfloyd
- The stamps will be available to purchase in 8,000 Post Offices from 7 July 2016
Royal Mail today reveal images of a set of 10 stamps that will be issued to mark 50 years since Pink Floyd turned professional and became the ‘house band’ of the London Underground movement of music and arts.
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.
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 convey the experience of these live performances, from the 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.
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.
STAMP-BY-STAMP
THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (EMI Columbia, 1967)
Pink Floyd’s psychedelic debut is named after Chapter 7 of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s novel, The Wind in the Willows, one of frontman Syd Barrett’s favourite books. Photographer Vic Singh shot the cover image using a prism lens given to him by George Harrison some weeks earlier.
ATOM HEART MOTHER (EMI
Harvest, 1970)
Pink Floyd’s fifth album provided them with their first UK Number One. It was also the first of their LPs not to feature the band’s name on the front of the sleeve, setting the tone for subsequent albums. Hipgnosis, co-founded by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, designed the cover – the cow’s name is Lulubelle III.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (EMI Harvest, 1973)
With sales in excess of 40 million copies worldwide, The Dark Side Of The Moon remains in the Billboard chart in America over 40 years after its release, and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-charting album. Created by Hipgnosis, with graphics by George Hardie of NTA, the prism device is a classic.
WISH YOU WERE HERE (EMI Harvest, 1975)
With a theme of ‘absence’, the Hipgnosis design message was summarised by Storm Thorgerson as ‘not being present in a relationship or conversation’. The concept even extended to the album being shrink-wrapped in opaque black plastic which had to be slit or removed to access the music and images.
ANIMALS (EMI Harvest, 1977)
Animals was released as punk raged. While Johnny Rotten wore a T-shirt with the slogan ‘I Hate Pink Floyd’, Nick Mason busied himself producing The Damned’s Music for Pleasure. The photograph of Battersea Power Station features the now legendary floating inflatable pig designed by Roger Waters.
THE ENDLESS RIVER (Parlophone Warner, 2014)
Ostensibly a tribute to the late Richard Wright and described as a ‘headphones’ album by David Gilmour, The Endless River beat all records for volumes of online pre-orders. For the album cover, Aubrey Powell discovered 18-year old graphic designer Ahmed Emad Eldin’s enigmatic work, which was recreated by design company Stylorouge and photographer, Simon Fowler.
PINK FLOYD LIVE
While their studio work has always been important, Pink Floyd have been defined by their live performances. Their early shows in 1966 at London’s UFO Club married the use of pioneering liquid light effects that matched the psychedelic quality of the music itself.
By 1973, the band’s stage set was further expanded to mirror the dramatic sensibilities of the music: the tension that pervades The Dark Side of the Moon was reflected by lighting director Arthur Max’s innovative work, which included a 15-foot model plane flying over the audience, crashing on stage in sync with the explosion during the track On the Run. The In The Flesh Tour (aka The Animals Tour) of 1977 continued that pattern of spectacle through the use of inflatables, including the now famous pigs, and saw Pink Floyd make US stadiums their own.
Next came the Wall, Roger Water’s ambitious theatrical concept base on alienation which saw a physical wall built between the audience and the band.
Some 14 years later, spectacular stadium shows had become the norm, with Floyd underlining their status as pioneers during The Division Bell Tour, captured to great effect on the p.u.l.s.e DVD and beating all records in terms of gate receipts.
1st Class UF
O Club, 1966. The UFO Club opened on Dec. 23, 1966. Pink Floyd were booked for the opening along with Soft Machine.
1st Class – The Dark Side of the Moon Tour, 1973. This show included the special effect of a plane crashing into the stage at the end of the song On the Run.
£1.52 – The Wall Tour, 1981. Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters designed a series of animations for the Wall Tour. These animations were projected onto a 40-foot high wall of cardboard bricks which was gradually built between the band and audience.
£1.52 The Division Bell Tour, 1994. Over 5.3 million tickets were sold for this tour and it grossed approx. 100 million US dollars.
MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI) announced it has initiated support initiatives to help those impacted by the massive wildfires in Canada. From now through the end of June, MoneyGram is waiving fees for those who want to donate to the American Red Cross to support wildfire relief efforts.
“We celebrate long, lazy summer days, vacation time and fun with our stamp for
“It’s time we say thanks to “man’s best friend”. Dogs not only make wonderful pets but they serve humans in many different ways. Our
These stamps will all be issued June 21st.
The ancient Olympic Games were held over a period of 1500 years. The Games were reestablished in the late 19th century by Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the first modern Olympics took place in Athens in 1896.
Track and Field – the queen of sports – is the most popular Olympic sport. Israeli athletes began participating in Olympic track and field in 1952.
The Japanese martial art of Judo became an Olympic sport at the 1964 Tokyo Games. Judo is now one of the most popular sports in Israel and throughout the world.
Sailing is one of Israel’s most prominent sports. The most prominent achievement in this field is the Olympic gold medal for windsurfing.
The connection between humans and ancient dogs (which evolved from wolves) began thousands of years ago. These dogs helped humans hunt and protected them and their possessions. The special bond has continued to grow and the dog is thought of as ìa manís best friendî. Dogs serve humans in many different ways: hunting, herding, transportation and guidance, defense and security, location, search and rescue, detection of drugs and explosives, aid to the disabled including guide dogs for the blind and even disease detection. In addition to individuals, dogs assist police and military security forces. These forces operate special canine units: the Israel Police Canine Unit and the IDF Oketz Special Canine Unit. These dogs go through a meticulous selection process from birth and later undergo significant training that requires great knowledge and patience.
Guide dogs allow blind people to be independent and increase their self confidence. They are chosen from breeds that have proven over time to be suited to working with blind humans. In Israel most guide dogs are Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers or a combination of the two.
Search and Rescue dogs belong to various different breeds, including the Belgian Shepherd Malinois, which appears on the stamp. S&R dogs perform a large variety of tasks, including locating missing persons and people trapped beneath rubble. Dogs can move and maneuver quickly in places that are difficult for humans to access. Their sense of smell and hearing are much more acute than those of humans. Such dogs have saved many lives in disaster areas. They are loyal helpers and enhance their teams’ operative abilities.
Our calendar consists of twelve months – the amount of time it takes the Earth to complete one full cycle around the Sun.
In October 1914, a few months after the outbreak of WWI, the Ottoman Empire aligned itself with Germany and Austria against the allied nations (Britain, France and Russia). The Great War, as it was called at the time, lasted for more than four years and fundamentally changed the history of the world, including the situation of Eretz Israel. In early 1915, the Ottoman military waged a campaign in the Sinai Peninsula, intending to conquer the Suez Canal. But the attack failed and the Turks were forced to retreat back to Eretz Israel. During the retreat the Turkish force was attacked repeatedly by British aircraft stationed in the Suez Canal area and since it had no planes of its own, the Ottoman army was powerless against these strikes.
show or by mail.
June 1 –
PRODUCT RANGE AT A GLANCE
Miniature Sheet: £6.04
Andrew Ross who designed the stamps was challenged to devise interactive stamps that particularly appealed to children and encouraged them to brighten up their letters and cards. He wanted to ‘push the envelope’ whilst working within the constraints of the technical requirements around postage stamps including the need for them to be easily read by Royal Mail’s sorting machines. He came up with the idea of engaging, friendly and fun animal characters that could ‘cling’ to the top or side of envelopes. He wanted to create a variety of shapes and colours to generate interest but was mindful that each character had to sit comfortably alongside each other and have a degree of consistency so that they clearly
looked like they were part of a set.
Number of stamps: Six
First Day Covers: 

(New York, NY) — Renowned collector and Wall Street money manager William H. Gross will sell his acclaimed Hawaii stamp and cover collection during World Stamp Show – New York 2016 with his proceeds from the auction to be donated to nonprofit organizations, including The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. The collection features many of the most iconic rarities of Hawaiian philately, including ten Hawaiian Missionary stamps.
Lot #24 [shown on the left] — This is the only recorded cover with more than one of the rare 1857 “5” cents on 13-cent provisional surcharge (in this case, five examples), used in combination with United States postage. It is widely regarded as the most outstanding United States and Hawaiian mixed-franking cover outside of the Missionary issue. Pre-sale estimate: $250,000 – 350,000

