Liverpool gigs announced to celebrate 60th anniversary of Moog synthesiser

Liverpool’s Capstone Theatre is set to host a series of concerts to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Moog synthesiser next month – buy tickets here.

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‘The Moog at 60: A Celebration’ will run from November 21 to November 24 and will include a sound installation and a show from Will Gregory Moog Ensemble. The events will conclude with a tribute to Kraftwerk in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the electronic pioneers’ classic album ‘Autobahn‘, which was released on November 1, 1974, while there’s also an afterparty on November 23 and a sound installation each day.

The official anniversary of Robert Moog’s modular voltage-controlled synth is October 12 – 60 years to the day when the engineer first demonstrated it at the Audio Engineering Society’s New York convention.

The Moog was the first commercial synthesiser and hit the mainstream with ‘Switched-On Bach’, an album of Bach compositions arranged for the synth by Wendy Carlos in 1968. It was also used to soundtrack the Apollo 11 moonwalk the following year, while artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors and the Grateful Dead were all early adopters.

You can buy tickets for the individual concerts separately, or find tickets for all four evening concerts at a reduced rate here.

‘The Moog at 60: A Celebration‘ dates are:

NOVEMBER
21 – Will Gregory Moog Ensemble
22 – Lydia Kavina and The Twelve Hour Foundation (double bill)
23 – Tension & Fusion: Exploring Synthesis In Modern Media (free admission)
23 – Dave Bessell and Polypores (double bill)
24 – A Tribute To Kraftwerk: 50 Years Of ‘Autobahn’ And Far Beyond

Last month, a new book showcasing the story and influence of the Minimoog was released. The Minimoog Book features interviews with the likes of Dr. Dre, Anne Dudley and Mac Demarco.

This year, Moog has released a number of new products, including the analogue polyphonic synth Muse, the semi-modular synth Labyrinth, and the semi-modular filter bank Spectravox. The company was acquired by InMusic in June 2023, and since then some of its manufacturing has moved to Taiwan.

And recently, Modest Mouse were selling vintage music gear from frontman Isaac Brock’s collection on Reverb – a Moog Mother-32 and Voyager XL among them.