Sept. 21 issue of 12 stamps from Great Britain celebrates musical icon Dame Shirley Bassey

By David Hartwig

Great Britain’s Royal Mail celebrates musical icon Dame Shirley Bassey with 12 stamps in a Sept. 21 issue.

“For seven decades Dame Shirley Bassey has captivated fans across the world with her distinctive and powerful voice,” David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at Royal Mail, said. “This stamp issue is a fitting celebration of one of the UK’s most revered and longest serving musical icons.”

Bassey’s illustrious career began in 1953, and her more notable works in the 70 years since include the theme songs to three James Bond films: Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Moonraker (1979).

The Sept. 21 issue includes a set of eight stamps presented in two horizontal se-tenant (side-by-side) strips of four. The stamps in one strip are denominated at the first-class rate (currently £1.10), and the stamps in the other strip are denominated £2 (the international economy rate for letters up to 100 grams).

The stamps in the set of eight show Bassey in various performances. The first-class stamps, from left to right on the se-tenant strip, show Bassey at London’s Pigalle nightclub in 1965, at the town of Bournemouth in 1974, at the Roundhouse in London in 2009, and at the 2002 Safeway Picnic in Hyde Park, London.

The £2 stamps, from left to right on the se-tenant strip, picture Bassey performing in Brighton in 1988, on a television show in 1963, at the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Cardiff, Wales, and during the 2013 Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif.

Four stamps on a souvenir sheet feature candid black-and-white photographs of Bassey taken during recording and rehearsal sessions throughout her career. Two are valued at the first-class rate and two are denominated £2.

Starting at the top left and going clockwise, the singer can be seen rehearsing before a 1978 concert at Royal Albert Hall in London, rehearsing in 1962 at the Talk of the Town theater in London, in the recording studio in 1961, and at Grouse Lodge Studios in Ireland in 2009. …

The Dame Shirley Bassey stamps and related products can be ordered from Royal Mail’s website. Ordering information also is available from Royal Mail, Tallents House, 21 S. Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9PB, Scotland.

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