I remember the first time hearing the 92 old medley. When they started to play Dance on a Volcano, I just about $hit myself thinking they are going to play the entire song, and then they went directly into TLLDOB after a few verses and I thought, what the heck is this?! Man they sounded great playing DOAV in 92. I just wish they would have played the entire thing. It could have been the highlight of the show!
I remember hearing the first notes of the Old Medley at Three Rivers Stadium and I was so surprised. I had just gotten into Genesis big time in 1991 just as We Can't Dance came out. I was already familiar with a lot of their music growing up because my parents loved them. I was 16 and finally could go to a concert (my second, Yes Union was first). My parents had told me that they really weren't playing much older material anymore and that the only thing they really play is the In The Cage Medley so I wasn't expecting a new medley. I loved it at the time and ever since as the performances of each of the songs sounded so fresh. I was very disappointed that they only played half of DOV and half of the Lamb. The rest didn't really bother me because I felt that The Musical Box ending into Firth into IKWIL flowed really well. I actually think that DOV may be the best or near the best they ever played it as the tempo and Mike and Daryl's guitars sound so good.
I just read Mario's The Phil Collins Years book and I must say I really enjoyed it. Between that book and the new unfiltered John Edington 2014 Interviews, I've learned a lot about the band that I didn't know and I've been a pretty hard core fan for over 30 years. One thing that I came to better understand is the reason for their use of medleys in later tours. Now obviously, as they more albums and had hits there wasn't going to be time for much of the longer songs from the past. They weren't really into that type of music as much at that time, especially it seemed in 1992 so hence the one 20 minutes medley and the rest of the show from the last three albums (not counting the encore TIOA). More than that though, I think that their self-criticism of their compositions really had more to do with it. Reading Mario's book and other interviews, each of them would say that they liked certain bits in certain songs but not other bits. Tony actually said that as time past they would take each opportunity to lose the bits within a song that they didn't feel was as strong. In addition, Phil didn't like singing many of the lyrics to the older material as he couldn't connect with it anymore and felt self-conscious. That, I think is what made them choose to do medleys instead of one or two whole songs. I mean, they even did it to Tonight, Tonight, Tonight. They didn't think the second half was nearly as good so they dropped it. They have said in a few interviews that they didn't think the second half of DOV was as strong as well. There are many examples of this which has been frustrating as a fan. Most of us generally love 90% of their output but it seems that it is difficult for the three of them to agree about the which older material to play.
I am so happy to see them playing as it really is a bonus and a way to wallow in nostalgia. I did hope that they would have been a little more adventurous with the older material this time, but I'm not surprised the setlist is what it is.