Village Gamer

With its latest stamp release in the Canadian recording artists series, Canada Post is paying tribute to music’s living legends, and making history in the process. For the first time, bands – rather than individual performers – are being featured on its stamps, including RUSH, The Tragically Hip, The Guess Who and Beau Dommage. Collectively, the featured bands have sold tens of millions of records worldwide and achieved critical success that has earned them an array of awards.

• RUSH has sold more than 40 million records and ranks third only behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for the most gold and platinum records sold by a rock band. This past April, RUSH added to its many awards and honours by becoming the first Canadian band to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

• The Tragically Hip has remained among Canada’s most popular bands since it started in 1984, and is especially known for its riveting live concerts. Along the way the Hip has earned several awards, including 14 JUNO Awards and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, and it has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

• The Guess Who began in 1962 and is still recording and performing sold-out shows across the globe. In 2002, the band received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, adding to its numerous other honours, including being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canada’s Walk of Fame and the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.

• Beau Dommage was the first band to receive a medal of honour from the National Assembly of Quebec. Its self-described “folk-rock-urban” sound catapulted the band to success during the ’70s when it toured throughout Quebec and across Europe, selling hundreds of thousands of albums and earning Félix trophies and a Billet d’or. Though it disbanded, Beau Dommage regularly reunites to thrill its enduring fan base.

Current members of each band collaborated with designer Louis Gagnon of Paprika to help create their stamps. The result is a set of four stamps that feature group shots of The Tragically Hip and Beau Dommage, the Starman logo from the back cover of RUSH’s 2112 album and the famous Guess Who logo. Texture and colour was used to unify the four stamps, along with each band’s graphic logo. Each stamp will be released individually on its own Official First Day Cover.

The stamps measure 32 mm x 32 mm with simulated perforations. The Permanent™ domestic stamps are printed by Lowe-Martin on Tullis Russell paper using five-colour lithography. The stamps are pressure sensitive and the Official First Day Covers will be cancelled in Winnipeg for The Guess Who, Toronto for RUSH, Kingston for The Tragically Hip and Montréal for Beau Dommage. The stamps are also available in booklets of 10 stamps, a set of four booklets and a souvenir sheet of four stamps.