The Royal Mail has a terrific series of stamp designs it plans to release on January 7 that features the covers of some iconic British rock music albums over the last 40 years.

The Classic Album Covers collection features album covers from these bands: from left to right, top row – Pink Floyd: The Division Bell, Coldplay: A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Blur: Parklife, New Order: Power Corruption And Lies, Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed; bottom row – The Clash: London Calling, Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells, Led Zeppelin: IV, Primal Scream: Screamadelica, David Bowie: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

Special stamps are something the Royal Mail has been doing for years and no doubt is a nice earner albeit perhaps a drop in the overall revenue bucket.

In the current climate of confrontational workplace relationships – remember those postal strikes last autumn: the issue’s not resolved, just on hold – it makes you wonder just who would buy such stamps apart from collectors.

I thought perhaps that the Royal Mail’s goal with stamps like these is to appeal to younger members of society to take up letter-writing and posting. But no, I think it’s too late for that.

Collectors’ items they are, then. And it will take up to 5 days to receive your purchase in the mail, according to the Royal Mail website.

That says it all, really.

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