Taking It All Too Hard
Many Genesis fans will recall Phil Collins’ opening monologues at latter-day Genesis shows, wherein he’d relate that the band would later be playing “some old songs”–cue massive cheers from the massed throng–as well as “some new songs”–less enthusiastic cries from the audience. Ever the showman, Collins would pick up on this, working the crowd, who needless to say always came down on the side of the older material, but now, suitably buzzing, were also in the palm of the singer and drummer’s hand.
My own recollection of this goes back to July 1987 when the band played four nights at Wembley Stadium on the massively successful Invisible Touch tour. And even if, on the nights in question, those “old songs” amounted to a three-song medley featuring In The Cage, …In That Quiet Earth and Afterglow, in acknowledging the age-old dichotomy for any live band in getting the balance of their live set right, Collins’ work was done. Crowd on side. Great live show.
As Dave Everley points out in his interview with the newly reunited Genesis on page 30,
