Genesis "Spot The Pigeon"

Spot the Pigeon is an extended play (EP) from the English progressive rock band Genesis, released in May 1977 on Charisma Records. Its three songs were originally written for the group's eighth studio album Wind & Wuthering (1976), but were not included in the final track selection. It was the final studio release to feature guitarist Steve Hackett prior to his departure from Genesis.

Spot the Pigeon was not released in the United States as the market for EPs never took off, but a Canadian release was issued by Atlantic Records, the band's overseas distributor and was imported into the US and was easily available at shops that sold imports. Spot the Pigeon reached No. 14 in the UK Singles Chart. It was released on CD in 1988 but has not been reissued since; "Pigeons" and "Inside and Out" were included in the Genesis Archive 2: 1976-1992 (2000) and Turn It On Again: The Hits – The Tour Edition (2007) sets, and "Match of the Day" on Genesis 1976–1982 (2007) and on the label sampler "Refugees: A Charisma Records Anthology 1969-1978" (2009).

The title is a variation on the football-themed spot the ball (the cover resembles a spot the ball competition photo), replacing the word "ball" with "pigeon" so that the title links the themes of the first two songs.

Collins expressed his disdain for the song in 2004, saying "It was also not our finest hour looking back at it now!!! I wrote the embarrassing lyrics and the track featured an attempt to bring some of the hipper grooves of the day into Genesis, with very suspect results."

The lightweight "Pigeons" is driven by a one-note banjolele line that parodies English musician George Formby. Steve Hackett commented in 2009 that "the thing about ‘Pigeons’ was that it was possible for the band to play a whole note for a whole thing: ding-ding-ding-ding. And that was unvarying whilst the keyboard changed and [Banks] tried to do as many different chords as possible."

Closing song "Inside and Out" combines images of folk and progressive pop for what would be the last time in the band's career with Hackett as an active member. Since its 1977 release, Hackett remained adamant that the song exemplified the band’s multi-layered sound and should have been included on the Wind & Wuthering LP released in December 1976. “I think it is one of the stronger tracks that didn’t make it onto the album,” he told Vintage Rock in 2017. “I think it should have been because it has a very beautiful sound to it. Right from the word ‘go,’ it’s got that Genesis multi-jangle thing where it sounds like one guitar, but it’s a whole bunch of guitars all playing the same thing.” The song was performed live several times on the Wind and Wuthering tour in 1977. Hackett performed it with his band for the first time in 2017 ,crediting it as one of Collins' earliest successes, and speculated that perhaps it should have been included on Wind and Wuthering.