In the 1960s, a new music rushed across radios and black and white TVs. Pop music took us to the guts. A psychedelic culture emerged and found growing audience at Woodstock, in the Fillmore East and West and in San Francisco; Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Bob Dylan among many others aspired to a better world where peace and love would be realized.
The great concerts of this era were accompanied by special effects projected on screen at the back of the stage.
According to different sources, the practice of illuminating gigs started around 1966 in the US as well as in England. In America the shows were done mainly with overhead projectors while in England and Europe mostly slide projectors were used. The “light men and women”, even when they produced amazing moving pictures with light, stayed in the shadow of the stars they were illuminating. It went so far that they even went on strike to ensure a better payment of their art.