'Dark Side' cover was a unanimous decision

LONDON, April 20 (UPI) -- Internal rivalries splintered the British rock group Pink Floyd, but its members unanimously agreed on the "Dark Side of the Moon" cover, an artist says.

Artist Storm Thorgerson, who designed multiple album covers for the "Comfortably Numb" rockers, said all Pink Floyd members agreed that the album's now-famous prism design was the ideal representation for its psychedelic sound, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Thorgerson said he had preferred a cover design featuring a character drinking a cup of tea while surfing on a large wave, but the band members only took seconds to make their pick.

Following that decision by Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright, "Dark Side" went on to sell more than 30 million copies.

The 63-year-old artist, who is featuring a retrospective of his art designs this July in London, said shooting the cover for Pink Floyd's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" was not so simple.

For that cover, Thorgerson said he had 700 hospital beds placed on a British beach, but a rainstorm prompted a second identical shoot two weeks later.

"It wasn't one lapse of reason, it was two," he told the Times.