With Australia Day just around the corner, our country’s postal service is set to get patriotic by having ten iconic Aussie artists put their stamp on our nation, quite literally.
News Ltd reports that Australia Post is celebrating January 26th with the latest in their Australian Legends series, which has previously featured Anzacs, Olympians, writers, screen stars, legends of Horse Racing, and celebrated country music star Slim Dusty. The latest collection now adds ten more musical names to receive philatelic commemoration.
The 2013 collection will see Australian acts joining Dusty by being immortalised on postage stamps, the latest collection featuring legendary bands AC/DC, INXS, The Seekers, Men At Work, and Cold Chisel, as well as famous faces Kylie Minogue, John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John, Paul Kelly, and the ever-hatted, ever-knowledgable Molly Meldrum.
Jimmy Barnes told News Ltd that being immortalised on a stamp was perhaps the strangest accolade that had been given to Cold Chisel over the course of their 40 year career. “I’m going to look really small on a stamp – I’m much taller,” joked the lung-busting frontman, who appears as he does on the album artwork for Chisel’s 1980 album, East, slumped in bathtub.
“I think one of the romantic things about stamps is I see letter writing as a dying art and it’s something I really love,” says Barnes. “Instead of emails, I would much rather get a letter from someone because they are so precious when you think someone took the time thinking about you and writing something to you.”“There was originally only going to be eight stamps… Maybe Little River Band or Savage Garden should have been in there…” – Michael Gudinski, Mushroom Group
Barnes has music mogul Michael Gudinski to thank for his new mail celebrity status, the Musrhoom Group boss chaired the panel that helped finalise the shortlist of bands and singers for the Australian Legends stamps. “It was a hot debate,” Gudinski said. “Maybe Little River Band or Savage Garden should have been in there, but there’s only a limited amount of stamps you could do.”
“There was originally only going to be eight stamps but they were very keen to do a Molly stamp, so it became ten. But I can tell you now, I won’t be licking Molly’s stamp!” he joked, before adding seriously: “I think it’s a credit to Australian music… it covers a wide range of acts. It’s fantastic Australian music has become so generational and accepted.”
Interestingly, until 1997, members of the British Royal Family were the only living persons allowed to appear on Australian stamps, with legendary cricketeer Sir Donald Bradman was the first in the Australian Legends stamp series the same year.
The designs for the stamps themselves aren’t the most slickly produced to come from Australia Post. Featuring ClipArt styled musical notation as a backdrop, and large chunky-coloured text, the Aussie faces like Kylie and Molly look like awkward headshots, while the album art selections are reduced to squint-or-you’ll-miss-it scale.
You can view the ten commemorative stamps (in all their underwhelming, basic photoshopped glory) in the slideshow below:
