Giorgio Moroder @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 4 Apr
It's not clear what role Giorgio Moroder plays in tonight's proceedings but it’s hard not to respect the massive contribution he's made to popular music and impossible to begrudge him a victory lap
Fresh on the heels of Nile Rodgers' latest UK tour comes another disco legend with a banging back catalogue, a career-resurrecting Daft Punk co-sign and his very own revue-style show.
At 78 years old, Giorgio Moroder has never taken to the road before, so this is new territory for the septuagenarian. At times, it’s not clear what role he actually plays in the night’s proceedings, hidden behind gigantic silver sunglasses and twiddling at dials as his large touring band crank out the hits.
Nevertheless the crowd of musicians onstage – including a string quartet and four vocalists – work hard to replicate a set of songs that defined the sound and aesthetic of huge swathes of the late 70s and 80s from Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone to David Bowie’s Cat People.
Tonight’s crowd spans the generations, from parents and their children who have bonded over Moroder’s work on a succession of classic 80s movies, to the hipster audience whose introduction came with his appearance on Daft Punk’s history of electronic music, Random Access Memories.
Fortunately the sheer breadth of Moroder’s career means that there is something for everyone; the mums a few wines deep whoop along to Irene Cara’s What a Feeling, Blondie’s Call Me continues to be a huge anthem and the tracks like Hot Stuff that Moroder made alongside Donna Summer remain massively influential (and catchy) party starters.
A couple of tracks fall flat; his band can’t quite capture the robotic cascading synths of the original on a rather meta version of Daft Punk’s Giorgio By Moroder while a version of Limahl’s The NeverEnding Story nods to the fact that the German producer has had his hand in almost as much irredeemable kitsch as he has stone cold classics.
Still, when Moroder tees up Summer’s irrepressible I Feel Love with a brief music lesson – click track, Moog synth, kick drum – it’s hard not to respect the massive contribution he's made to popular music and impossible to begrudge him a victory lap.