To mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the rock band Queen, the Royal Mail put on sale a collection of 13 stamps on July 9, 2020. One of the stamps depicts the flamboyant stage performances of Queen’s iconic leader singer Freddie Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara. It shows Mercury performing to a crowd of 72,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1986, reported gaystarnews.com.
There were "eight loose stamps, a miniature sheet of five stamps depicting various stages of their musical career and concerts… a Prestige Stamp book with more stamps and an illustrated information card, including a brief synopsis of how Queen’s music evolved to attain phenomenal global success,” noted a communiqué from Rusi Dalal, trustee of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. "Never before has such recognition for any organization been depicted on Royal Mail stamps of Great Britain. In fact the Royal Mail had earlier issued a single stamp of Mercury as a world renowned singer and songwriter,” added ZTFE president Malcolm Deboo.
The Mint postal set (top) and miniature sheet (above): recognition for Queen
The Mint stamp set available for GBP 9.56 with four First Class stamps and four stamps of GBP 1.63 each shows a collection of eight classic Queen albums. Queen’s first album featuring synths, The Game in 1980, Greatest Hits in 1981 that remains UK’s biggest selling album, The Works in 1984 and Innuendo in 1991 that was Mercury’s final Queen album are the ones featured on the stamps that bear a denomination. The miniature sheet available for GBP 5.54 includes three First Class stamps and two GBP 1.63 stamps. The full Queen line-up on a First Class stamp is reportedly "the first time a band has been featured on a definitive sized stamp.”
A stamp collector during his childhood, Mercury’s stamp album is part of The Postal Museum’s collection. According to senior archivist Gavin McGuffie’s findings shared on postalmuseum.org, on Mercury’s death in 1991, his father Bomi decided to auction his own and Freddie Mercury’s stamp collections and The Postal Museum’s predecessor purchased the album in December 1993. The amount paid was donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity set up to remember Freddie who had succumbed to this disease.
Among a few of Mercury’s personal items to still exist in the public domain, "Freddie’s album has been on tour to places including Prague (twice), Australia and the Dominion theater (home to the musical We Will Rock You). "As pop memorabilia and for cultural reference, Mercury’s collection is priceless,” states McGuffie.
The collection includes stamps from a wide range of countries across the world, many from the former British Empire. Those of particular philatelic interest are from Zanzibar where he was born. Meticulously arranged on black sheets, by color, size or type, he frequently created balanced patterns or formed letters from the alphabet. When the Bulsara family moved to Feltham, Middlesex in 1963, three years later Freddie joined Ealing College of Art to study graphic illustration.
Mercury also features on stamps from Republique Du Benin, Republique Centrafricaine, Republique Democratique Du Congo and Dagestan.
Last year, to commemorate his 28th death anniversary on November 24, the Freddie Mercury Museum was inaugurated in his hometown Zanzibar. Located in the same house where Freddie and his family stayed until they migrated to England, the Museum showcases "his roots with the Zoroastrian religion, his childhood and upbringing in Zanzibar, followed by his schooling in Panchgani, India, and then his extraordinary journey to becoming one of the greatest stars of all time,” according to the Museum website, freddiemercurymuseum.com. Prominently inscribed on one of the walls were Mercury’s famous words "I’m not going to be a star. I’m going to be a legend.”
Glimpses of the Freddie Mercury Museum in Zanzibar; the rock star in his childhood and later
Javed Jafferji who had earlier opened Mercury House in Stone Town came together with friend Andrea Boero to start the Museum in 2019. "The Freddie Mercury Museum is officially partnered with Queen Productions Ltd in the UK which has helped us make this dream a reality by providing us with the necessary content to make this one-of-a-kind museum,” states the website whilst giving credit to "Rusi Dalal, a close friend of the Bulsara family and one of the key supporters (for) sharing with us his insight.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic the Museum is currently shut and the launch of Mercury Tour to take visitors on a guided walk to spots in Stone Town where Mercury spent his childhood has been postponed, according to cnn.com