It’s Pride season, so what better way to celebrate all things gay than with this cross-generational meeting of two queer icons?

If you don’t know who Alison Moyet is already, well, there’s not much I can do to help you (except to point you at this video, which may refresh your memory, and to assure you that this incredible vocalist has been a gay hero for 30 years now.) If you were paying attention to my Nu-Disco primer a few weeks back, you’ll be aware of Horse Meat Disco, the London-based club that has been instrumental in making disco music, and gay clubbing in general, cool again. 

Severino Panzetta, aka DJ Seve, is one of the integral members of this four-man dj/production unit, and with his remix of Moyet’s new track Changeling, brings together two different generations of queer heroes to deliver a slick, bouncing club mix that you don’t have to be a homo to enjoy.

This being a DM exclusive, I sent Seve some brief questions to fill our readers in on how this meeting of minds happened:

DM: How did this remix come about?

Seve: It was through her PR agency and the very talented DJ Andy Blake. I was thrilled to be asked! Alison has a super-legendary voice. Of course, I was already a fan of her music, particularly Yaz/Yazoo, but also her work as a solo singer. I still remember when I was living in Italy and I discovered her cover of “That Old Devil Called Love” for the first time. I love the fact that she can do jazz standards too. This remix was definitely a great experience, and she seems to like it…

DM: What’s coming up for Seve and/or Horse Meat Disco?

Seve: Well, there is definitely another HMD compilation in the pipeline. We’re really excited about that because the club is still doing so good, and we’re still having so much fun playing at The Eagle and all over the world. My solo remixes and projects are doing well too, with a track from me on Classic Recording coming up soon, and more remixes, including another legendary voice, Claudia Brucken (Propaganda.) Travelling is great, and I am so lucky to have so many friends all over the world. I have no real bad experiences on my travels, as far as I can remember anyway.

DM: Any last words of advice?

Seve: Just do what you love!
 

 
San Francisco disco diva Sylvester James’s appearance at a dance party in a subterranean SF Muni station in the Castro district in 1979 couldn’t have been more fraught. The neighborhood had just been shaken to the core the previous fall with the shooting death of Harvey Milk, SF’s first openly gay supervisor. Ahead lay the AIDS epidemic, which would eventually take Sylvester himself 22 years ago this week at age 41.

But on that night, Sylvester was at the peak of his success. He was just about to release his 5th album, Stars, the follow-up to 1978’s Step II, which had hit #7 on the American R&B charts and included one of gay America’s legendary anthems, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).” After his first taste of mainstream success, and after nine years of the official Gay Pride parade in San Francisco, after coming this far, perhaps it seemed fitting for the community to get back to its roots and and take the party underground again.
 
Thanks to Erica Green for bringing this to my attention…