Actually, we're talking about the other Gibson for those of you who were thinking about William Gibson. Gibson Guitar corporation, the famous manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars (their website is down due to a configuration error at the time of writing), are launching an island in Second Life on Wednesday, 16 July to promote their products, and the work done through the Gibson Foundation (ditto on the website cock-up, sorry).
While Gibson Island (not to be confused with the more famous Gibson location in Second Life, the cyberpunk dystopia named for the aforementioned William Gibson) is not yet open to the public, we were able to get an early peek at the site (a really long lens comes in handy) while Metaverse Media Group staff and contractors were finishing up construction on the site.
As part of the launch, 70s multi-platinum solo artist and former Fleetwood Mac vocalist/guitarist Bob Welch will perform in an exclusive concert with other Second Life musicians. Bob Welch's avatar (Bobwelch Magic) will also appear on stage along with celebrity musicians Cypress Rosewood and Von Johin.
The concert kicks off a series of concerts which will be produced and performed only on the Gibson Island in Second Life over the period of a few months. Wednesday's inaugural concert series is a first for the musical instrument manufacturing industry and features an entire day of exclusive performances on the Gibson Island.
Information on timing is a little sparse, but we think it all kicks off at 7PM SLT (US Pacific time) on 16 July, judging by the signage on display.
The island itself (which you can find here) sports a diner, dance areas, assorted guitar freebies (that is, tee-shirts with guitars on them, not actual guitars - if you want those, there's a half a dozen other places you can go in Second Life that feature Gibson knock-off merchandise) and theater areas with videos. Shaped like a giant guitar body, the whole thing is fairly strongly coupled to the Gibson theme (though we hope that the site will get a final once-over and a spell-check before it opens on Wednesday).
