Brian May, legendary lead guitarist of the iconic British band Queen took time out to sign his 10 foot hand painted Gibson Les Paul on site at the Gibson GuitarTown London charity exhibition. The free standing fiberglass replica guitar named "The Ultimate Air Guitar" was specially designed and hand painted with acrylics and crayon by the London based visual artist Andrew Hewkin.

The unique 10 foot guitar forms part of the Gibson GuitarTown London charity campaign, which can now be seen on public display around More London, South Bank, SE1 by City Hall until 12th September 2007. Following the display, Brian May’s signed guitar along with 29 other specially hand painted 10 foot Gibson Les Paul guitars will be auctioned off at an event to raise money for The Prince’s Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy on November 8th in Central London.

"It seems the electric guitar is here to stay! Gibson GuitarTown, London, looks set to become a glorious testament to this fact, and will be raising money and awareness for three great charities. I'm proud to endorse its imminent success." said Brian May.

There are 29 ten foot free standing Gibson Les Paul replica guitars on public display around More London, SE1 on London’s South Bank by City Hall. They have all been individually and creatively hand painted by many visual artists such as Sir Peter Blake and Gerald Scarfe and signed by household name British musicians such as Noel Gallagher, Robert Plant, Paul Weller, Ozzy Osbourne, Mark Knopfler, Rod Stewart, Keane, Stereophonics, James Blunt, Razorlight, KT Tunstall, New Order, Magic Numbers, Graham Coxon, Gallows, Kasabian, The Kooks and Dirty Pretty Things to name a few.

There are a further 30 regular sized Gibson SG guitars on public display at The O2 signed by artists such as Ronnie Wood, Slash, The View, Kaiser Chiefs, Depeche Mode, Mark Ronson, Lemmy and Corinne Bailey Rae to name a few which will also go under the hammer at the auction in November.

Brian May was recently awarded a doctorate in astrophysics after interrupting his studies over 30 years ago. "I can't tell you what a relief this is," said Dr Brian May, who gave up his scientific research for music in 1974. Brian completed the 48,000-word study of interplanetary dust entitled Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud at Imperial College, London. Brian will be conferred officially with the title at a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2008.

Photo credit - Jessica Long