What’s the perfect gift for the letter-writing, music lover in your life? Well, according to Australia Post it’s their new collection of AC/DC-themed stamps. However, some folks aren’t too happy, nicknaming them “un-Australian post” for messing up this new release.
As Noise11 points out, Australia Post have recently released a new collection of stamps featuring the artwork of AC/DC’s iconic albums. While that’s all well and good in theory, it turns out that some of the album covers used on these stamps were never actually used in Australia.
So what’s the issue exactly? Well, firstly there’s the fact that the wrong album covers are used for both High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, and Highway To Hell, and then there’s the fact that the ’74 Jailbreak EP is included in the collection, which was only ever released in the United States, Canada, Brazil and Japan.
The 20-stamp collection features the artwork from all 16 of AC/DC’s studio albums, in addition to their AC/DC Live and If You Want Blood You’ve Got It live records, as well as Who Made Who, which served as the soundtrack to the 1986 film Maximum Overdrive. However, since that only makes 19 records, Australia Post apparently decided to go into the international market for the last one, choosing an EP that was never released in Aussie stores.
Check out the offending covers below.
To be fair, this is a bit of a confusing mess. See, High Voltage served as AC/DC’s first Australian album back in 1975, but it wasn’t released in the US until a full year later, where it was actually released a compilation of tracks from the Aussie release of High Voltage, and their follow-up, T.N.T.
Likewise, Highway To Hell was released back in 1979, but used different artwork in Australia until the mid-’90s, at which point it was reissued with the artwork which had previously been used on international editions.
However, when it comes to confusing the artwork on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and including an release which never actually made it onto the Aussie market, well that’s just a real head-scratcher.
As Will Anderson of Triple M’s Hot Breakfast noted this morning, maybe they should be nicknamed “un-Australian Post” for messing up the album artwork of one of Australia’s most iconic groups.
Whatever the case, there’s a pretty good chance that music fans will still purchase these stamps, after all, a quick glance at the philatelic market goes to show how much collectors love misprints and oddities!
Check out AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’:
