Now here we have Christmas music, which takes all forms, from the religious to the secular - and here we have the great Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, whose epic "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the Christmas Number One twice, in 1975 and 1991. This was the only time the same song by the same artist has managed that feat. It`s an amazing song though and well deserves the honour. It’s on YouTube if you never heard it. Now I did wonder if this song was also one of the longest playing songs, because it is almost six minutes in duration but a quick search revealed it is way short of Shri Ramcharitmanas which lasts for almost a hundred and forty hours. And there are lots more long playing facts at JScalco/records
Sadly there is not much description on this set in our British Trade Index part III, but it is listed, as :
The Rock & Pop Collection 86 x 62. Nd. (144)
Sadly Panini does not appear in our updated British Trade Index, but some of their issues appear in the Australian & New Zealand Indexes, and this one does! Therefore we do have quite a good description of the issuer, from the heading which tells us that :
Cards produced in Italy (word “Figurine” in Italian loosely translates to word “Cards” in English) and were issued in identical form in the U.K. and Eire, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Special albums issued, inscribed with distributors` names in each territory. Australian distributor was “Sweet King Confectionery Imports Pty. Ltd., Coogee, N.S.W.”
and gives us a slightly larger description of the set, that being :
THE ROCK AND POP COLLECTION. 87 x 61. Nd. (144) Issued in packets of three stickers, packets dated 1980.
Now we have been shown a packet, and it is white, with an inset circle of Rod Stewart`s head. However a French site called Paninimania shows another packet which has Sting, lead singer of The Police on it. The same page also shows the album, which has the same images of Rod Stewart and Sting, plus other artists who appear on packets, these being Blondie`s Debbie Harry, and Kate Bush. The album also shows The Boomtown Rats and Selecter but I have not found these groups on packets, and also they are both on double sticker spreads. Curiously the card of the Boomtown Rats is also flipped horizontally so that the checked costume is on the left on the album and the right on the cards. And if this was your musical era, you can see all the cards, albums, packaging, etc, on a website called ImageEvent/80Panini