Giorgio Moroder, Eventim Apollo, review: Disco pioneer’s first concert - at 78 - was an extremely good karaoke party
In Love Saves the Day, Tim Lawrence’s excellent history of disco, Italian dance music pioneer Giorgio Moroder is described as an “anonymous alchemist who knew how to turn base vinyl into a gold record”.
The second half of this sentence remains true today: having practically invented disco in 1975 with Donna Summer’s Love To Love You Baby, Moroder went on to write or produce hundreds of pop hits and film soundtracks, earning three Oscars and four Grammys along the way.
But any notion that he remains an “anonymous alchemist” was blown out of the water by this, his first ever live tour. Aged 78, Moroder took to the Hammersmith stage in a silver bomber jacket and matching aviator shades, arms aloft, his white moustache taking on a blue phosphorescent hue under the 1980s strobe lighting.
Moroder’s role in shaping dance music has never been in doubt. However, a collaboration with Daft Punk in 2013 and his first solo album for 23 years in 2015 have given him a Johnny Cash-style late career boost.
But this was a curious gig. Moroder stood behind a waist-height screen front-of-stage, surrounded by a live band, string section and troupe of four singers. He was ostensibly playing keyboards but I’m not sure how much he actually did beyond provide the vibe, like a superannuated Bez.
It therefore felt more like an extremely good karaoke party than a concert. Amid neon graphics that alternated between Tron-style retro-futurism and pink flamingo-type Studio 64 excess, we were treated to banger after banger. Together in Electric Dreams and Flashdance ... What a Feeling were followed by the Top Gun double-whammy of Take My Breath Away and Danger Zone.
Moroder’s brilliance was in evidence beneath the glitzy fa?ade. The throbbing Chasefrom 1978’s Midnight Express must rank as one of the most evocative pieces of film music ever: it’s impossible to hear it and not see Billy Hayes legging it down Istanbul alleyways. And we may forever associate 1984’s The Never Ending Story with mullets and Muppets, but it’s doubtful that Gorillaz’ On Melancholy Hill– written 26 years later – would exist without it. The similarities were striking. Meanwhile, vocal tracks of Summer and David Bowie singing over live versions of MacArthur Park and Cat People, respectively, were used to great effect.
Moroder was tapping into a live music template that’s becoming increasingly popular as the original generation of pop stars and producers age. Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers has been doing it for a while: a catch-all career retrospective that combines the greatest hits (his own and those he worked on) with anecdotes about the stars involved. Even this summer’s Stevie Wonder concert in Hyde Park is being marketed as a ‘Song Party’, its poster bedecked with – you’ve guessed it – retro-futuristic neon lights.
But at least Rodgers and Wonder still play instruments. The person Moroder really reminded me of was veteran BBC DJ Tony Blackburn doing a nightclub PA. I can see his set working well on a balmy Hyde Park evening or perhaps in the headline slot of Glastonbury’s party-focused West Holts stage. But in this all-seated venue it at times felt more like a hen night than a show by one of music’s great innovators.
Until April 5. Tickets: www.giorgiomoroder.com