This evening (May 14th) saw the official launch of Storm Thorgerson's frankly unmissable "Taken By Storm" exhibition at London's gallery@oxo, alongside the River Thames. To kick things off in style, a true "one-off" design that was never used of Pink Floyd's iconic Dark Side Of The Moon cover, was auctioned to raise much-needed funds for a cerebral palsy charity.

With much thanks to the lovely Storm, we are thrilled to bring you an exclusive look at the design itself - called "Liquid Dark Side Of The Moon" - along with our report from the event, giving a taste of what visitors to the gallery over the next couple of weeks will find...

Celebrating some 40 years of creating iconic artwork for not just Pink Floyd, but other artists such as Led Zeppelin, Muse, The Mars Volta, and Peter Gabriel, "Taken By Storm" is a great chance to see some of the most memorable and disturbing yet intriguing album covers, presented in their best state, enlarged and pristine: big and bold like the music they seek to represent.

Running for some two and a half weeks, it is a wonderful opportunity to see some truly rare pieces - some familiar, others not so - in a good setting. The quality and vibrancy of their presentation is enthralling; the following shots give an idea of how the show is laid out. You really do owe it to yourself (and to Storm!) to pay the exhibition a visit if you are in London in the second half of May...

The gallery itself is in a vibrant part of London which has clearly been undergoing a fair amount of much-needed redevelopment, and is sited literally next to the River Thames. With its plain white walls, the gallery is an eminently suitable venue to display Storm's work. The prints are either silkscreen or giclee. They are all printed with archival inks on archival paper and are severely limited in number. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist and can be purchased at the exhibition.

Storm describes this latest show, modestly, as "the best show in London since my last show in London". The exhibition also has on display the rare 20/20 series (20 images of 20 prints only) in its entirety for the first time.

As mentioned above, the show was made even more special with the unique image which greeted attendees as they arrived: the Liquid DSOTM design which was printed up in an edition of just 1, purely to raise money for the Bobath Centre, a cerebral palsy charity. Bidding was naturally keen for the large, framed piece, but finished at a healthy £300. With much thanks to Storm, we can exclusively reveal this design to you:

With the paint swirls creating fractalesque patterns, it is an absorbing and original take on one of rock music's most recognisable covers. As with any of the prints, the vibrancy of the colours, and the detail within the design, only comes to life in the flesh (so to speak).

Later, a raffle with a couple of prints as prizes ended with the winner donating the top prize to the charity, to be auctioned at a later date, which was a marvellous gesture and concluded the evening in the best possible way.

The previous exhibition coincided with the release of the fourth edition of his book "Mind Over Matter: Images of Pink Floyd", which includes 50 new, additional pages of previously unreleased material, and if you don't already have it, is a must buy. You can order the book - an essential item for all Floyd fans - at time of writing with a healthy discount, through the following links which help Brain Damage with our running costs: Amazon UK, Amazon US/International, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, or Amazon France.

This show, however, is commemorated in print form by the similarly excellent "Taken By Storm" which is available in two formats: an internationally published book, and a very limited edition box set from specialist book company, Genesis. Every "Taken By Storm" box includes an incredible set of rare and unique collector's items, fine art prints, sketches and objets d'arts accompanying a lavish 200-page book, signed and bound by hand in full leather especially for this limited edition. Only 500 copies will be made available worldwide, all signed by Storm. For more details, visit www.genesis-publications.com.

If your pockets don't stretch as far as the Genesis box set, the regular edition of the book can be ordered through the following links: Amazon UK, Amazon US/International, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, or Amazon France. If you live outside these countries, don't worry - Amazon stores will ship the book worldwide.

EXHIBITION DETAILS:

The exhibition runs through until May 31st at the Gallery@Oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, South Bank London SE1 9PH. The gallery is open daily from 11am to 6pm and admission to the exhibition is free. Storm himself is expecting to be at the gallery at various times, so you might bump into him! For further information on the gallery, please visit www.coinstreet.org.