•Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May launch stamps in London’s West End
Royal Mail is celebrating over seven decades of popular UK stage musicals on a new set of stamps issued on the 24th February.
The Musicals stamps sees a cast of eight musicals taking centre stage, including the Queen tale We Will Rock You, West End classic Oliver!, and Monty Python’s Spamalot, amongst others.
Queen members Roger Taylor and Brian May, who helped launch the Musicals stamps at the Dominion Theatre, said: "We’re thrilled that We Will Rock You has been immortalised on a Royal Mail stamp. The image on the stamp takes us back to when we were touring as Queen and embodies the rock and roll music that we wanted to celebrate in We Will Rock You the musical."
We Will Rock You, named after the Queen hit single was selected as one of the four 1st Class stamps alongside Blood Brothers, Oliver! and Spamalot.
Whilst the longstanding and ever popular Me and My Girl, which was first produced in 1937, graces the 97p stamps, alongside The Rocky Horror Show, Billy Elliot, and Return to the Forbidden Planet.
Philip Parker, Royal Mail Stamps spokesperson, added: "Our Musicals Stamps reflect the diversity and popularity of the wide range of musicals that have graced not only West End stages, but also hundreds of others around the world."
Ends
For further information contact:
Ruth Barker
Royal Mail Press Office
100 Victoria Embankment
London
EC4Y 0HQ
www.royalmail.com/stamps
Notes to Editors:
For all the latest information on all Royal Mail Special Stamps launches and news, please follow RoyalMailStamps on Twitter at: twitter.com/RoyalMailStamps
Select stamp launch information and videos can be viewed on Royal Mail Special Stamps’ YouTube Channel at: www.youtube.com/user/RoyalMailStamps. Exclusive footage of Brian May and Roger Taylor talking about the We Will Rock You stamp can be seen on the Royal Mail Special Stamps’ YouTube Channel from 24th February 2011.
Stamps and stamp products are available at all Post Offices, or online at www.royalmail.com/stamps and from Royal Mail Tallents House (tel. 08457 641 641), 21 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB.
For almost 50 years Royal Mail’s Special Stamp programmed has commemorated and celebrated events and anniversaries pertinent to British heritage and life. Today, there are an estimated 2.5 million stamp collectors and gifters in the UK and millions worldwide. Her Majesty the Queen approves all British stamp designs before they are printed.
Queen, the band, celebrate their 40th anniversary this February.
Musicals - stamp by stamp
Value
Description
1st - First Class inland letter rate Oliver!
1st - First Class inland letter rate Blood Brothers
1st - First Class inland letter rate We Will Rock You
1st - First Class inland letter rate Monty Python’s Spamalot
97p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Rocky Horror Show
97p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Me and My Girl
97p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Return to the Forbidden Planet
97p - Rest of World airmail up to 20gm Billy Elliot
1st Class - Oliver!
With music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, Oliver! first appeared in the West End in 1960, and enjoyed a long run that launched the careers of several child actors. The original London production of Oliver! opened in the New Theatre (now the Noel Coward Theatre) on June 30, 1960 and ran for 2,618 performances.
1st Class - Blood Brothers
This 1983 musical by Willy Russell is one of the longest-running plays of all time, with the 1988 West End production still running after over 20 years.
1st Class - We Will Rock You
A rock-theatrical musical based on the songs of Queen and named after their hit single of the same name. The show was written by Ben Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor. Opening in the West End in 2002 it has been extended indefinitely making it the longest running show ever at London’s Dominion theatre.
1st Class - Monty Python’s Spamalot
Music and lyrics by Eric Idle and John Du Prez based on the screenplay of the Pythons’ film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and includes three songs from the 1975 film. The musical tells the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest for the Holy Grail and features a chorus line of dancing divas (and serfs), flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and a legless knight.
97p - The Rocky Horror Show
Written by Richard O’Brien The Rocky Horror Show premiered at the Theatre Upstairs in June 1973, before establishing itself at the Comedy Theatre in the West End until September 1980, closing the play’s initial run of 2,960 performances.
97p - Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth.
The musical had a successful original run on the West End in 1937 and very successful revivals in both London and New York in the 1980s. The show stopper, "The Lambeth Walk", was the subject of a news story in The Times of October 1938: "While dictators rage and statesmen talk, all Europe dances — to The Lambeth Walk."
97p - Return to the Forbidden Planet
A Jukebox musical by director Bob Carlton based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1950s sci-fi film Forbidden Planet (which itself drew its plot loosely from The Tempest). Return to the Forbidden Planet started life with the Bubble Theatre Company as a production for open-air performance in a tent. A revised version of the musical opened, indoors, at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool in the mid 1980s. It later moved to the Tricycle Theatre in London. After some rework a final version opened the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End in September 1989
97p - Billy Elliot
Music by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall based on the smash hit film, Billy Elliot. Set in the North East of England against the background of the historic 1984/85 miners’ strike, Billy pursues his passion for dance in secret to avoid disapproval of his struggling family. The show opened in London in May 2005.
