Musical maestro Giorgio Moroder is coming to Scotland at last

MAKING your live debut at the age of 78 maybe feels as strange and as exciting to Giorgio Moroder as does the prospect of seeing him perform. A similar situation came last October, when John Carpenter made his first live appearance in Scotland. Rather than brood behind a tower of machines, the 70-year-old seemed to enjoy the experience, making dad shapes and addressing the Barrowland crowd with glee. It was close to Halloween, after all.

If the horror master can provoke visceral dread with one, stabbing chord, Moroder is a maestro of pure joy.

You’d hope too, that the motivation here is one of joy than financial considerations in an era where declining record sales means artists have to work harder on the live circuit. For this multi award-winning living legend has more than paid his dues.

To imagine a world without Moroder is to contemplate a place without disco, Donna Summer and modern dance music itself.

Speaking ahead of this tour he spoke about his dislike of terms such as “the godfather of disco and electronic music”.

“It’s better than being called the ‘grandfather’,” he said. “But I still don’t like it.” Still, ask any contemporary musician or music fan to whom those descriptors apply and who else will they say?

Moroder’s influence is wide too: as well as being name-checked and sampled by numerous hip hop artists, DJs and electronic musicians, in 2016 country artist Shooter Jennings – the son of Waylon – released a tribute album to the composer, stating that Moroder’s scores for films such as Midnight Express, Cat People and The Never Ending Story had “set the foundation for the music of my entire life”.

Beginning his career in the early 1960s at Aachen’s Scotch-Club, the first disco in Germany, Moroder first made his name with his own music. The title track of his first album, 1972’s Son Of My Father was a number one hit for bubblegum glam band Chicory Tip.

It was around this time Moroder met fellow musician-producer Pete Bellotte, the pair’s prolific collaborative relationship with Donna Summer going on to become the defining force of the disco era.

To this day, their sensual 1977 landmark I Feel Love sounds futuristic, otherworldly and exotic.

Summer will be present at these shows, performing in sync with Moroder and his band live on screen. Moroder says he wants these stage shows to create a “spontaneous, discotheque” feeling.

Over a year in the making, A Celebration Of The 80s may feature songs he wrote for films definitive of the era such as American Gigolo (Blondie’s Call Me), Scarface, Flashdance and Top Gun.

Moroder’s score for the latter included both Danger Zone for Kenny Loggins

and Berlin’s Oscar-winning Take My Breath Away, the song he says he most proud of.

Strictly speaking, this won’t be Moroder’s first time performing in front of an audience. In 2013 he made his DJ-ing debut at the Red Bull Music Academy in New York, the same year he contributed to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories.

The Daft Punk hook-up rebooted Moroder’s career; fitting for a duo whose robot personae began as a tribute to the cover of Moroder’s 1977 record Munich Machine.

Ahead of the tour, Moroder explained why he was hitting the road: “Fans kept reaching out to me, asking if I would ever do a real tour.

“Back in the day it was unthinkable for producers to ever leave their studios. That territory was reserved for the singers. Today, DJs and music producers have become the superstars of popular dance music, so the time feels right and I am so excited to be finally doing this.”