There had been moving lights before – big theatrical fixtures bolted into huge, slow-moving yokes – but this is really where the modern age of moving lights began: the Vari*Lite VL1. Amusingly, it was created by Showco, then best known as a sound company!
 
A more experimental version – now dubbed the VL0 – had been shown to the band Genesis. They expected it just to change colour. They were startled and amazed when it moved. So amazed, they became both investors in the company and early adopters, forty-four fixtures (plus eleven spares) – not quite the final VL1 – making their debut on the band’s 1981 Abacab tour in Barcelona just nine months after that first showing.
 
By modern standards the VL1’s brightness and feature set were limited: a gobo wheel then three more wheels each containing seven dichroic colours to give 60 useable colours. Abacab ran on a one-off custom controller; the Vari-Lite Series 100 console came later.
 
The VL1 evolved through six generations before being replaced by the next generation of Vari*Lites - but not before being a key part of the biggest gigs of the day, including a little event from forty years ago called Live Aid…
 

VL1
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VL1
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