Coldplay album gets stamp of approval from Royal Mail

Enemies of Coldplay might not yet be able to send the band on a one-way trip to oblivion, but at least fans can now use one of their album covers for postage. A teeny-tiny version of A Rush of the Blood to the Head is among 10 new stamps issued by the Royal Mail, honouring iconic LPs from the last 40 years. Calling them "some of the most potent graphic images of modern times", the Royal Mail has announced miniature tributes to the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed, Led Zeppelin's IV, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, the Clash's London Calling, New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies, Primal Scream's Screamadelica, Pink Floyd's The Division Bell, Blur's Parklife and Coldplay's 2002 album. By purchasing certain Royal Mail souvenir packs, you even get, er, liner notes . The Royal Mail claims to have undertaken a "lengthy research process" to choose which albums to celebrate, but despite the finalists' relative variety, however, there's no sign of straight pop, let alone hip-hop, jazz, folk or R&B. That's either because the Royal Mail's curators don't like the Streets' album covers – or because they're too busy combing through back-issues of Mojo. Then again, they can always blame it on the Queen: according to the BBC, Her Majesty approved every design. To celebrate such endorsement, Coldplay launched a contest to give away one of the new stamps to a fan. "We visited our local post office earlier today and bought some of the Coldplay stamps," the band wrote on their website. "Very nice they are too." Somewhere out there, someone's getting a lucky 44p prize.