First use of Vari-lite video?

  • Is there video anywhere that shows the first use of the Vari-lite in concert. From what I've read it was on the ABACAB tour during the song DODO. I've looked on youtube but couldn't find it. I was hoping someone here might know if it exists.

  • Is there video anywhere that shows the first use of the Vari-lite in concert. From what I've read it was on the ABACAB tour during the song DODO. I've looked on youtube but couldn't find it. I was hoping someone here might know if it exists.

    Can't help you with the video. But, I was at one of the first American concerts on that tour, and there was a stunned reaction from the crowd when the lights were first used.

  • Unless there's an earlier film floating around somewhere the closest you'll get is the 3SL film, but it's not shot/edited very well and as a result misses some key cues. If I remember correctly that crucial first sweep of the lights in Dodo isn't captured properly other than a vague wash of the beams. I might be mistaken.


    Typically they held the sweep back until then, about 4 songs in, correctly knowing it would heighten the effect. I'd heard about the lights but still wasn't prepared for how mindblowing it'd be.

    Abandon all reason

  • At the concerts I attended the lights during Dodo caused an audible gasp and then an eruption of cheers during the Abacab, 3SL, and Mama tours. The lady I was dating at the time of the Mama tour was not a huge Genesis fan (she preferred the Talking Heads). But I remember hearing her exclaim “Oh my God!” during Dodo. The only other light-related crowd reaction that ever approached that at the concerts I attended were the “glowing Phil” effect during the 666 section of Supper’s Ready and the exploding color of lights and then thousand pins of light effect during the end of SR, circa 3SL.

  • The only other light-related crowd reaction that ever approached that at the concerts I attended were the “glowing Phil” effect during the 666 section of Supper’s Ready and the exploding color of lights and then thousand pins of light effect during the end of SR, circa 3SL.

    Again, partly testimony to their smart approach. Those set-piece 'gasp' moments were kept to a minimum. Another was the panic spread during Cage, "keep on turning". Other bands would, and since have, overused that kind of moment and go for an approach based on keeping everything dynamic as this = exciting. The Genesis approach epitomises the less-is-more notion and shows how to enhance the impact.


    One of my absolute favourite varilite moments was on the IT tour in Second Home, at the point it transitions out of the mid-section and starts its return to the main theme, when every light flips downwards from the static horizontal. It's just beautiful and so well-designed. That whole track kind of pushes the dynamic varilite use furthest for that show but even then it's withheld to just the right degree.

    Abandon all reason

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    Not exactly high quality filming but it does hold sentimental value for me as I was at the Ottawa show in early December, 1981. IN fact, somewhere at the end of Afterglow, my hands are clapping as I was on the floor (general admission) at the Civic Centre. Anyway, you can see the use of varilights during that first tour. As others have said, our mouths dropped when Dodo started as we had never seen anything like this before. Enjoy....

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    Not exactly high quality filming but it does hold sentimental value for me as I was at the Ottawa show in early December, 1981. IN fact, somewhere at the end of Afterglow, my hands are clapping as I was on the floor (general admission) at the Civic Centre. Anyway, you can see the use of varilights during that first tour. As others have said, our mouths dropped when Dodo started as we had never seen anything like this before. Enjoy....

    I had almost forgotten how nice the part of firth of fifth with vocals is! Wish they'd brought that back at some stage.

  • During the Abacab Tour, the "wow" moment I remember the most is the "Outside the cage" section of ITC, when all the Varilites centered on Phil, plus of course the "keep on turning" part. Curiously, I don't remember being that puzzled by their use on Dodo.