In the opening track of Badly Drawn Boy's latest CD Born in the UK there's a line in it that talks about being a kid in the UK back in the summer of 1977: Vicious and his brothers
Were trying to set us free
But much more than this to you and me
This was the Silver Jubilee
This line really made me smile...1977 and the Silver Jubilee - if you were nine years old at the time the Sex Pistols weren't really going to have made much of an impression that year! Anyway, here's a scan of the first day cover with bureau postmark celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. The address is that of my primary school.. I distinctly remember complaining at the time when the school ordered the FDCs and they came back with the school name not our own names on the envelope!
2007 has seen a series of anniversaries and celebrations - the pilgrimage to Memphis by Elvis fans from around the world on the 30th anniversary of his death and the concert held at Wembley Stadium to celebrate Princess Diana's birthday in the year of the 10th anniversary of her passing were major media events.
Last year the Dutch postal service paid homage to Elvis with their own Elvis stamp, joining the numerous countries throughout the world which have issued Elvis postage stamps.
This Elvis stamp was released alongside a promo CD entitled Heartbreak Hotel Collector's Edition. Only 500 copies were pressed and the special presentation pack also included four of the Dutch Elvis Stamps - a must have for Elvis fans although limited in number and not easy to track down now!
Whilst leafing through some old stamp albums from childhood recently I suddenly felt a renewed interest in some of the postage stamps that I had long ago dismissed as a merely juvenile collection of jumbled commemorative issues from around the world, in favour of my adult interest in Victorian line engraved stamps. With a jolt I realised that most of these stamps had been issued in the late 1960s and early 1970s and that I'd hardly looked at them in last twenty years! Although none of them were particularly rare some them of them were actually rather interesting...
I'm now in the process of scanning and researching the stories, anniversaries and events behind the postage stamps in my collection and will post them here regularly.