Stanley Donwood's Hail to the Thief artwork goes on show at Virgin in London

Virgin Megastores are showing the original artwork for Hail to the Thief at their Oxford Street shop in London from 6pm on Friday 6 June, eight pieces by Stanley Donwood, each 1.5 square metres, with the album playing in full.

Virgin's notice says the record was largely conceived in 2001, around the birth of Thom Yorke's first child, as he wrote between the calm of his home in the country and radio reports of conflicts abroad, and that it moves between peace, anger and foreboding. Donwood drew on what was in the band's heads at the time and on Los Angeles, where they recorded.

The exhibition opened as planned on the shop's first floor, in a room that until four days earlier held Virgin's disused internet cafe. Its 80 terminals came out, the walls were repainted, and sofas and round patches of carpet went in.

The opening night, announced at short notice by W.A.S.T.E., the band's mail-order and fan club, was for competition winners and press, with a raffle for five promo copies of the album from Xfm.

Ken Okumura, reviewing it for At Ease, says EMI offered Virgin eight large prints made from the digital artwork and Virgin took them. The album plays on a loop for the 22 days the room is open to the public. Okumura's advice is to put your feet up, listen to the album and admire the artwork.²