Gitbox Rebellion

Gitbox Rebellion will play an intimate and beautiful concert at Arts In Heretaunga, the Hastings Community Arts Centre.

Gitbox Rebellion are an innovative, experienced guitar Ensemble performing both original compositions and a few well-loved guitar hero covers. Founded by Nigel Gavin in 1988 Gitbox Rebellion (MK1) toured regionally and nationally and released 2 very successful albums on Rattle Records, including Pesky Digits and Touchwood. The music is beautiful and hypnotic.

Previously instigated by Nigel Gavin as a workshop for players of mixed experience, the group quickly outgrew its original brief. Technique improved rapidly, the pieces became more complex, and Gitbox Rebellion, the performance unit, was born.

The guitar is not naturally endowed with either a vast dynamic range or timbrel variety, so some application was required to explore the sonic potential of the instruments. Various techniques were improvised, involving such esoterica as pipe-cleaners, coins, broken strings, and sticks.

The essence of Gitbox Rebellion's sound is textured wall-to-wall guitars, where the traditional acoustic character of the instrument remains fundamental. It's a touchstone when everything else about the music becomes unfamiliar, and the mild mannered acoustic character is extended to dynamic effect.

A major step forwards occurred when the group was exposed to Guitarcraft, a teaching and performance method developed by Robert Fripp. This not only helped to further develop technique, but also provided a philosophical focus, where each player became more conscious of the need to "let the music speak.'

Composing material for the band originally came about in response to a lack of repertoire, but soon became integral to the musicianship of many members. While opportunities exist for improvisation, the pieces are largely tightly structured.

Although it acknowledges the importance of its South Pacific location, Gitbox Rebellion offers few musical tags to make this locale immediately obvious. The themes reflect the group's international outlook, yet a distillation of influences emerges which could only have occurred on an out of the way island at the end of the earth.

Gitbox Rebellion's members play only acoustic guitars. The name proclaims the musical manifesto Gitbox being pigeon for guitar, the Rebellion is against the constraints of its own blues rock tradition.
In 2017 Nigel Gavin reformed Gitbox Rebellion after countless requests from people who had attended their live performances and listened to their albums.

This is a unique chance to hear the new line-up featuring three original members Nigel Gavin, Kim Halliday, Russell Hughes and new members, Tomislav Skulic, Sam Loveridge, Sonia Wilson, Rob Mita and Dan Sperber.

(Gitbox Rebellion)... the group played with a discipline and rapport that would be the envy of any classical chamber orchestra. In sum, Gitbox Rebellion provide stimulating, intelligent, and above approachable music that will ensure them a steady following. - NZHERALD

Beautiful and hypnotic, and often mouth-gaping, the way Nigel coaxes the sounds from his guitars is at times miraculous – and the superlatives can't be stopped! This is the Gitbox Rebellion man – he can play any kind of genre and make it hummmm with the skill of a master.