UPCOMING HIV/AIDS EVENTS (MAY 2022) The Basics of Medicare Eligibility for Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) Clients (Webinar) After this webinar, participants will be able to: describe who is eligible for Medicare and how people can enroll, describe the different Medicare parts, and discuss the role of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program in supporting clients with Medicare costs. Sponsor: Access, Care, and Engagement Technical Assistance (ACE TA) Center/TargetHIV May 3rd, 2022 – 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM (Eastern Time) REGISTER HERE: https://jsi.zoom.us/webinar/register/5016439951215/WN_FirMLywVROC2mCJckRQFSQ
Medication Adherence and Advancing the Agenda of Getting to Zero (GTZ) Illinois (Webinar) The learning objectives are to: review the core principles of Getting to Zero (GTZ) Illinois; review the results of the 2019 Midwest HIV Provider U = U Survey; review factors that promote HIV medication adherence; describe optimal HIV medication adherence; review barriers to HIV medication adherence; discuss barriers to HIV medication resistance; and discuss newer HIV medications and rapid ART strategies. Sponsor: Midwest AIDS Education and Training Center May 4th, 2022 10:00 AM to 12 Noon (Central Time) REGISTER HERE: https://matec.caspio.com/dp/BA50700090280c9da9194a3daf9c?ER_ID=38589&l=
Overcoming Implicit Bias When Working with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Communities This webinar will center on transgender and gender-nonconforming people in a discussion of stigma, implicit bias, and how it can influence HIV care outcomes. Panelists will discuss how stigma and implicit bias can cause and perpetuate harm and identify strategies to mitigate these factors. Explore the Tip Sheet developed for this area of expertise here. Sponsor: NASTAD May 4th, 2022 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) REGISTER HERE: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1115104223321712397
ACTHIV 2022: The American Conference for the Treatment of HIV (Virtual & In Person Event) The American Conference for the Treatment of HIV (ACTHIV) is the premier conference in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the frontline care team and its members who are caring for persons living with or at risk of acquiring HIV. The conference delivers information on new developments and research findings that can be rapidly translated and directly applied to the clinical setting. This conference is in-person, but the main conference sessions will be offered online to virtual attendees in real time. All attendees will be able to access all the main conference sessions online for three weeks after the conference. Registration is now open. Sponsor: American Academy of CME, Inc. May 5th - May 7th 2022 Hyatt Regencu Denver, Denver, Colorado 80202 REGISTER HERE: https://mm.swoogo.com/ACTHIV2022
Live with Leadership: HIV Among Women & Girls On Tuesday, May 10th, the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is hosting a Live with Leadership: HIV Among Women and Girls. This conversation gives participants an opportunity to hear a discussion from federal leaders and PACHA members about the ongoing work to address HIV among women and girls, particularly in Black and African American and American Indian and Alaska Native populations. It also acknowledges May as Mental Health Month and addresses the need to address mental health alongside HIV prevention and care. Sponsor: OIDP May 10th 2022 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM Virtual REGISTER HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cB8WwyEYR5io2gIbpsMU6A
Find this article and more at: https://marksking.com/my-fabulous-disease
Buckle up! The ‘Staley vs Gilead’ lawsuit could cost Big Pharma billions. This is big news indeed. Pay attention. The latest twist in the Staley vs. Gilead lawsuit could signal very bad things for Gilead Sciences and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. As the case barrels forward (a jury date is set for March 2023), it could eventually cost Big Pharma billions of dollars in profits that the lawsuit contends has been the result of illegally shaking down people living with HIV and our insurers. In this new, exclusive interview with My Fabulous Disease, lead plaintiff and HIV activist Peter Staley breaks down the latest legal developments, and he doesn’t hold back on the juicy details – including why the proposed removal of one of the pharmaceutical defendants actually helps the activists’ lawsuit. The case is a thrilling example of what happens when HIV activism takes its ferocious ingenuity from the streets and into the courtroom. The ramifications could even extend beyond HIV and apply to people taking high-priced medications for other illnesses. Let’s walk through the basics of the lawsuit and get Staley’s take on what it all means. This can be wonky stuff but it’s worth it. We all have skin, and dollars, in this game. The basics of the “Staley et al vs. Gilead Sciences” lawsuit The private agreements between Gilead, Janssen, and Bristol Myers Squibb, hidden until recently from prying eyes, allegedly sought to keep the cost of HIV medications at about $40,000 per year, per patient, even after ingredients in
“combo” medications (pills containing more than one drug, sometimes made by different pharma companies) became generic, which typically makes the medication far less expensive.
Activist and lawsuit plaintiff Peter Staley “This whole case is about the contracts between the pharmaceuticals about these generics,” Staley explained. “Deep in those contracts is language that keeps generics out of the combo pills. If one of the drugs in the combo goes generic, the companies agreed not to use the generic version in the combo. That’s what the whole case is about.” The lawsuit accuses the drug companies of colluding to keep generic ingredients out of the combo pills, thereby maintaining a cost of HIV medications of around $40,000 per year, per patient. I won’t bother adding “allegedly” every time I tell you about Big Pharma’s sleazy behavior. When dealing with Big Pharma, it’s a given.
There are two mirror-image lawsuits happening, by the way, the second being a “copycat” lawsuit with different plaintiffs involved. For simplicity, we’re going to focus on Staley vs Gilead, the lead suit in this fight. Among the plaintiffs alongside Staley are fellow HIV activists Gregg Gonsalves, Brenda Goodrow, Andrew Spieldenner, Robert Vázquez and Jason Walker, along with other consumers. What the proposed Bristol Myers Squibb settlement really means Last week it was announced that one of the defendants, Bristol Myers Squibb, has proposed settling its portion of the lawsuit for $10 million. Media reports left the impression that this was the beginning of the end of the lawsuit, and for a cheap price tag at that. Nothing could be further from the truth. First, Bristol’s settlement has to be approved by the judge of the antitrust case. That hasn’t happened yet. But more importantly, the proposed settlement plays right into the hands of Staley and crew by isolating the remaining defendants, Gilead and Janssen, who have far more financial exposure. And get this. The proposed settlement wasn’t even Bristol’s idea. “We went to Bristol to suggest a settlement,” Staley revealed. “There was very little liability left on the line for them” Why? Because Evotaz, the Bristol drug involved in this, is an older HIV medication that very few patients use anymore. The $10 million settlement would reimburse co-pays spent on the Bristol drug that would have cost much less if the generic component had been used. (The lawsuit can only seek damages for the last five years, because of the statute of limitations for antitrust cases, Staley noted.) But Staley isn’t nearly as interested in money as much as the other terms of the proposed settlement. And those terms are much more ominous for Janssen and Gilead, the remaining defendants. Of all the patients newly diagnosed with HIV, 90% will begin a treatment regimen that includes a Gilead drug. Their exposure in this lawsuit cannot be underestimated. As part of their settlement agreement, Bristol would walk away from their secret agreement with Gilead, allowing a generic to be used in their combo medication. Even though Bristol released a boilerplate statement denying any wrongdoing, blah blah blah, their proposed settlement breaks the former, secretive agreement and
repays the people who suffered financially as a result. Actions speak louder than words, and these actions say quite a lot. “We never launched this case for money,” Staley said. “We launched this case because we exposed this illegal pharma practice. By getting Bristol to walk away, it’s telling the world and the judge that one of the big defendants knows that this agreement between them wasn’t kosher.” “Bristol just threw Gilead and Janssen under the bus,” Staley added, “and they said to them, ‘you’re on your own.’” How the lawsuit could play out from here “Big Pharma conspired to keep low-cost medications out of the hands of patients whose lives depended on them and bled them for tens of thousands of dollars when cheaper drugs could have been used in their combination pills.” That’s how the case might be explained to a jury, in one simple sentence. Just try to justify that behavior, Big Pharma. Almost every antitrust case is settled the week before trial and usually after every strategy on behalf of defendants to end the case has been attempted. The pharma lawyers have already tried to have this case dismissed more than once but the judge has allowed it to move forward. This is real, folks. The most delicious part of any proposed settlement from Janssen and Gilead is that they can’t settle without the approval of Peter Staley and the other activist plaintiffs. Big Pharma must go through the activists if and when they want to settle. That fact alone gives me warm tingles all over. A potential settlement from HIV pharma giant Gilead, for instance, might cover reimbursing the co-pays for the last five years on some of the most widely used drugs in the HIV arena, not to mention future profit they might have otherwise collected. That’s not millions of dollars, or even hundreds of millions. That’s billions of dollars in patient savings. “All those contracts will have to be rewritten,” Staley said. “The new contracts should allow that, whenever a drug involved in a combo pill goes generic, a combo
version will come out that’s cheaper than the fully branded one. Now, if you were Blue Cross, which version of the combo pill would you pay for?” What this all means to HIV treatment progress in the future Soaking Big Pharma for damages due to their shameless greed and contractual shenanigans would be satisfying, but there is an even better outcome that speaks to the future of HIV treatment itself. “Monopolies kill innovation,” Staley warned. “We had massive innovation in the 1990s, including the advent of multi-drug therapies, which started saving lives, and new drug categories like protease inhibitors were developed. By 2005, we had more than 30 HIV drugs on the market, plus a new class called integrase inhibitors.” The problem was that Big Pharma got fat and happy and sat on its corporate research butt while they held the patent to these new treatments, changing formulations here and there to extend the patents but otherwise inventing nothing new. Then, when the drugs faced going generic at the end of the patents, the defendants started combining the pills and signing these shady contracts to keep out the generic formulations and keep profits high. “What innovation,” Staley asked, “has happened since 2005? Nothing. Except this year we finally got a one- or two-month long-acting treatment, but that technology has existed for years.” In other words, should this lawsuit wreck the gravy train Big Pharma has ridden all these years, they’re going to have to get truly innovative if they want to make that kind of money in the HIV market again. “Economics 101 says innovation is the only way to get a higher price,” Staley said. Just imagine what Big Pharma might come up with if they were forced to innovate again. Perhaps they would develop much longer acting medications or, God forbid, an actual cure for HIV. Our capitalist system would reward them handsomely for that. Case in point: the treatment regimen for Hepatitis C went generic a decade ago, ending huge pharma profits and forcing them to come up with something better. Gilead’s answer was Sovaldi in 2014, an actual cure for Hepatitis C that eclipsed
previous sales records. Sovaldi raked in $2.27 billion in sales in the first three months it was available. 2.27 BILLION DOLLARS. If Big Pharma wants to make money in the HIV arena again, maybe they should stop trying to illegally corner the market and actually invent something new. The fallout of this lawsuit beyond HIV It would be naive to presume that the kind of backroom agreement Big Pharma cooked up for their HIV combo pills is limited to their HIV portfolio, don’t you think? You can bet your bottom dollar that, once this lawsuit is settled, Staley & Company will begin to examine other agreements pharmaceuticals have with one another. Heavens knows what might turn up. Meanwhile, coming in March of 2023, a jury could be weighing whether Gilead and Janssen were so monumentally vile as to deliberately keep affordable medications out of the hands of people who depend upon them for their very lives. “We welcome a jury,” Staley said. “We feel very confident about explaining this case to them.” Stay tuned. Mark
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-red-dress-ball-5th-anniversary-tickets-310823851507
You know…one of the voices we don’t hear enough from are women living with HIV. So, this month I invited a very special friend to share her story. This is one of the bravest young out activists that I know…meet Miss Ashley Rose Murphy. AK: Ashley…it is so great that you have taken time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today. I am familiar with your story, but our POZPLANET readers are not. Would you mind introduce yourself and please tell us when you were diagnosed with HIV? ARM: Hey Alphonso! Firstly I wanted to say thank you for inviting me to chat today and allowing me to share my story. My name is Ashley Murphy and I am a 24 year old HIV activist living in Toronto, and I have been living with HIV my entire life. I was born in Scarborough to a mother who although loved me, her addictions to drugs and alcohol made it too much for her to be able to give me the care I needed. My mother was also HIV positive. I was first diagnosed at 6 weeks old, after I went into cardiac arrest where I then stayed in a comatose-like state for 3 and a half months at Sick Kids in Toronto. When I got out of the coma Children's Aid started calling, looking for someone to take me in which 200 people in a morning said no, but my mom Kari murphy said yes. She rushed to Sick Kids, brought me home and although she was told by my doctors I had about a month to live- that I wouldn’t see my first birthday, that made my parents determined to see me thrive and most importantly healthy. I was 7 when I found out about my HIV diagnosis, before that I assumed it was normal to go the doctors and take all the medications I had been taking at the time.
CANFAR Luncheon, September 2021
AK: Your HIV journey is not one that is talked about enough. Thank you for sharing that. It must have been very difficult growing up with this disease. Were you scared? Did you have any other illnesses that complicated things? ARM: When I was first told about my diagonals, like I said before I was so young at the time so when my mom told me the field thing. I asked her was “what’s for dinner”, I hadn’t quite taken in the severity of the situation until I was advised to not share this information with anyone. Which I thought to be weird, because growing up my parents taught me the importance of telling the truth, and to me keeping my HIV diagnosis to myself felt weird. However, I want to say my feelings changed soon after as sort of went through the stages of grief with my diagnosis during my formative years and it made me have to figure out who I was at a young age. I questioned a lot of things and I was very curious, I wasn’t sure what the future for me an HIV positive kid could possibly hold. I would ask my mom some days “do you think I’ll be able to have kids?” “Will someone love me enough to want to marry me?” I definitely questioned my self-worth a lot, as I knew I wasn’t the healthiest kid, I had my fair share of issues. I was always very underweight- and even with all that medication I couldn’t swallow it son from ages 5-9 I had a gastric tube put in my stomach and it caused me a great deal of pain. I would fall asleep as medicine was pumped through a machine, along with protein shakes to help with my weight. Some of the medications I have been on have cause horrible side effects in the past such as hair loss and osteoporosis, which I was diagnosed with at 16. Despite all that , I always knew my worth and in high school as a teenage girl that was difficult. I had guys I like judge me based on my HIV status, but now as a 24-year-old I am in a long-term healthy relationship with a guy who found out about my status the day we met. He has been the most supportive who accompanies me to speaking engagements. I am truly lucky. You can be HIV positive and be loved for who you are. That was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. AK: So, you and I met when I became an ambassador for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR). When did you become an ambassador and what made you decide to be an activist? ARM: I became an ambassador of CANFAR in 2015, I was in grade 11 and at the time I had also been travelling a lot with WE Day as one of their keynote speakers. My first event with CANFAR was in April of 2015, it was an event called Can you Do Lunch In Ottawa, which was also the year I attended and spoke at my first Bloor Street Entertains. Throughout those experiences I became close with those at the organisation and now it has been 7 years and I have been able to do so many incredible things. One of my highlights being able to walk in the pride parade alongside my friends in June of 2019. It has been a pleasure getting to work with each ambassador, we’ve all become great friends and they’re all incredibly inspiring. I am so happy we have all connected on so much more than just a status. AK: Besides CANFAR what other groups and organizations do you work with? ARM: I have been an ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation since 2015 as well. I am a youth ambassador for a non-profit called InvisiYouth, for Children with invisible disabilities. As of last year, through an application process. I was chosen out of over 200 youth to become one of 10 youth apart of the International AIDS Society (IAS). I have been a part of the program since last spring, I took part in various workshops, and I will be in attendance at the international AIDS conference in Montreal This July on behalf of IAS.
Scarborough Rising Star Award, October 2016
AK: If I remember correctly, you graduated last year. What are your goals now? ARM: Well lot has changed since we last spoke, thank you for asking for updates! Last year I graduated in from York University with a theatre degree during the pandemic on 2021. I have got to tell you Alphonso, Graduating during a pandemic was probably one of the toughest things I’ve had to face as a young adult thus far. I had absolutely NO idea of what I was going to do. However, I am grateful with how things turned out because I landed my first job out of University 2 months after I graduated. I have been working for a Jewish Non-Profit since August and I am absolutely loving it, but I have also been doing some activism on the side. It’s all about balance, ha-ha. In my spare time though you could catch me singing, I am a music lover first always. AK: I am so proud of you for using your story to educate and uplift women living with HIV. What advice would you give to anyone who would like to fight stigma or become an activist? ARM: I would say it takes so much inner strength to be okay with who you are, and trust me I still struggle with that daily. It has been easier though with the help of the amazing people I surround myself with who uplift me. You need to love yourself and be okay with who you are first and of course be honest about who you are. I became a speaker at 10 years old by sharing my story once to a room full of doctors and it changed a lot for me, I realised I had something I wanted to share with people and that was I wanted to make others feel okay in their skin and own what makes you unique. Own who you are, especially women today have a harder time being accepted for who they are, which makes it all the more important for us not give up fighting. The more we have these tough conversations, the more people have come to realise HIV is not scary and that you can be a woman with HIV and give birth to HIV negative children. I have friends who have changed the narrative, it is amazing to see the generations to come are healthy and we are seeing change happening right in front of us. AK: Well, thank you again. I am very honoured to be alongside you as a CANFAR ambassador. You are inspiring so many people with your voice and experience. I look forward to seeing what you will continue to do in the future.
Listen to the mix here: https://www.mixcloud.com/djrelentlessny/ear-candy-may-2022 Download the video of this mix here: https://krakenfiles.com/view/9ZjkncTyzU/file.html Check out DJ Relentless’ Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/djrelentlessny Check out DJ Relentless’ HearThis page: https://hearthis.at/djrelentlesstoronto It's May and we are sliding into Pride Month soon. So, I decided to start with a few alternative selections for this month's EAR CANDY mix. Oh...I still got some House and Club tracks for ya! Don't worry. I just wanna make sure I introduce you to what I have been listening to and hopefully expand your musical horizon as well. We’ve got twenty-two selections to talk about. So, let’s get to it, shall we… Our first track to start the mix is from Young M.A.. I have to be honest, I haven’t really kept up with her like I should. Her first big hit, “Ooouuu” made quite a splash but the whole Gangsta Rap thing is just not my cup of tea. In this time of violence and war going on in the world, lyrics about being strapped and being hard just seem unproductive for people of colour. But my husband pointed out her new video for “Tip The Surgeon” and I had to include it in this month’s mix. It’s a short song but I love that she is so unapologetic about being a lesbian rapper. Kudos to you, M.A. There seems to be a trend of angry but lost twenty somethings releasing songs about “not givin’ a fuck”. I guess with Elon Musk buying Twitter, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the exhaustion of Covid the future seems bleek right now. It’s easy to feel insignificant and these next few songs kinda are the soundtrack of the youth today. So, a few months back I reviewed “abcdefu” by GAYLE. Well, she’s the feature on Justus Bennetts’ new single, “Don’t Trip”. In the music video they come across as two disgruntled diner employees. I see this being a minor hit.
The third song in our mix is a 60s Pop and Rock hybrid called “Been This Way B4” by Olivia Rox. I think this has more of a potential of crossing over on the charts. And with the magic of a Club remix it definitely could make her the next Meghan Trainor. Okay…from his beef with Eminem to talking about drinking his fiancé Megan Fox’s blood after their engagement announcement to his weirdly gay photo shoot with Pete Davidson, Machine Gun Kelly has definitely kept a high profile in these past few years. And he’s back with a new single featuring Bring Me The Horizon called “Maybe”. I hate to say it but most of his songs sound exactly the same to me. At this point it’s just background noise that would be great for a soundtrack to any teen movie.
So, the subject of Harry Styles is and can be very frustrating. Is he using sexual ambiguity to sell records? Is he the next wave of non-binary? It’s exhausting! I feel like we have already been here with artists like Frank Ocean and Azealia Banks. But perhaps borrowing a page from Sandra Bernhard who has never come right out and said she’s a lesbian is what today’s celebrities are trying to recreate. At the end of the day, I don’t care! I’m not gonna be bumpin’ pocketbooks with him. I don’t care that he sang “Man I Feel Like A Woman” at Coachella! My focus is on his music and for his latest single, “As It Was” …it’s okay. I think the hype of him being bisexual is driving its popularity. I used the original version in this mix but if you want something for a dancefloor, try the Promenade People Remix. Now our sixth selection is right to the point. “Keep Riding Me” by UR Pretty has lyrics like “your mustache tickles my nut sack, baby” and “he’s my number one daddy, gotta make him cream
inside me”. There’s only a lyric video available. So, I have no idea if this is a band or just one guy but this is definitely a Gay Pop Rock song! Love it! After her single “Have Mercy”, I wondered what would be the follow up to her debut solo. Well, I got my answer with “Treat Me”. The sample from “Miss New Booty” by Bubba Sparxxx is clever. Is it memorable as her first solo single? I don’t think so. But she seems to be having a great time discovering her vagina through Pop R&B. Now, on our eighth song is a downtempo Pop song from The Weeknd called “Out Of Time”. For some reason, I can’t get this one out of my head. There’s moments in it where his vocals remind me of Michael Jackson. As usual he is singing about a breakup. I guess he must be unlucky in love. But this is a cute song. Again, I used the original version but if you want a more Club friendly version, try the Jordi Rivera Remix.
Why Anderson.Paak and Bruno Mars insist on putting their names first before the group, Silk Sonic I’ll never know. From now on in my reviews, I will just be calling them by the group’s name. I was happy for their wins at the Grammys this year. I’m sure it upset many but I kinda knew that their 70s throwback sound was gonna win. Plus…Bruno Mars has won a Grammy every year that he has been nominated for. This ninth song is called “Smokin’ Out The Window”. I speed it up a bit to make it work with the last song but I think it sounds better this way. It’s giving me that old Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes and The Floaters vibe of 70s Soul. I’m diggin’ it!
A few years back I proclaimed that Pitbull was the whore of the industry. He would feature on any and everybody’s record. But then Nicki Minaj took that crown to another level. Well, I think Ed Sheeran is about to give them both a run for their money! He is the featured artist on the new J Balvin single “Sigue”. And guess what? Ed sings in Spanish…and not badly either. Smart on his part. He’s opening the door to a whole new audience. As the lines between Moombahton and Reggae are getting further blurred, the tenth track in our mix, “Shatta Style” by Jula Fatstash fills the void of both. I believe this is more of a Reggae song but it definitely could be dropped in a Moomba set. Have you noticed that DJ/Producers like David Guetta & Afrojack have shifted gears towards Hip Hop? Well, their new track is “Trampoline” featuring Missy Elliott. BIA & Doechii and she ‘s kinda FY-AH! Just wish the video would have actually had Missy, BIA and Doechii in it. The dancers are hot but I think their appearances would have sold it even more. Unlike Dirty Disco x Zedd, DJ/Producer ACRAZE chose to give credit where it was due by listing and featuring the R&B group Cherish when he remixed and sampled their vocals on “Do It To It”. This is what is supposed to happen when you sample someone’s voacls. Thank you, sir.
Our fourteenth track is the David Guetta Remix of “Super Gremlin” by Kodak Black. Whenever a remixer takes a Hip Hop artist out of that Trap mode, I am there for it! So sick of that style of Hip Hop. And there is too much male toxic energy tied up in that sound. People…we gotta get back to some party Hip Hop! This 70 BPMs shit is just boring! So, I was very happy to get this Club remix. Still not a fan of the lyrics but hey…the remix is a step in the right direction! And since there aren’t enough party Hip Hop records coming out these days, remixers are reaching back to the good ol’ days for classics like “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent featuring Olivia. The FOMO Remix has breathed some Club life into this one. I’m planning on rockin’ this at my VIDEODROME Dance Party on May 7th at Buddies In Bead Times Theatre in Toronto.
Lizzo is back with our sixteenth selection. I love the original but was inspired to do my own remix when I heard it. Borrowed some production from Frankie Knuckles and bumped that gyrl on up to 126 BPMs. Another Relentlessly Touched Vocal for “About Damn Time” was born! The seventeenth track in our mix is a tip of the hat to that classic Chicago House back in the day if it was made today. The Jiggi Remix of “Jack” by Breach references when House Music used to “Jack Your Body” but has that Club sensibility of the dancefloor today. I’m gonna be playing this one N&R (nightly and regardless if they dance…this one is for me!) The eighteenth track in our mix is the Andy J Bootleg of “LaLaLa” by Y2K & BBNO$. I have listened to this track a few times and still can’t decipher if it is in English or some other language. Their accents are so heavy that it is tough. But the song is catchy and probably will do well if the DJs program it right in their sets. Another trend I have notice with more of the Pop Club track coming out today is the use of riffs and samples from classic hits of the 80s or 90s. “Cry For You” by Faul & Wad x Dharia uses the melody of “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat. By having such a familiar sound that is very recognizable it gives the song a better chance of crossing over on the charts. And our twentieth track is a full on production of Robert Miles’ “Children” from the 90s. It literally sounds like they just wrote lyrics for this instrumental hit when producers sat down to make “Tell Me Why” by Cassette. But I believe the most blatant rip off is “Clap Your Hands” by Kungs. My friend Colin Balmer pointed out that this ain’t nothing but a remix of 1983’s Italo Disco hit “Happy Song” by Baby’s Gang. When producers do shit like this it is disgraceful…trying to pass it off as their own creation instead of saying they remixed an old song. Just tired! To close out our mix is the collaboration between British 80s sensations Soft Cell and the Pet Shop Boys. I have listened to the original of “Purple Zone”. And I even found the Betamax Disco Mix which I used in this set. Neither were my taste at all. Maybe I just haven’t found the right remix yet. Or maybe this is just a bad idea for a song. I love many of the Pet Shop Boys’ songs. And I revere Marc Almond for just being an out gay artist in his lyrics and presentation back in the 80s. But I just didn’t get “Purple Zone”.
To learn more and discuss U=U, please check the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UequalsU