Al Pillay Information & Al Pillay Links at HealthHaven.com

Al Pillay
Born	August 22, 1959 (age 50); Grimsby, United Kingdom
Other name(s)	Alana Pellay, Alan Pellay, Lanah Pellay, Lana Pellay
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973 - present

Alan "Al" Pellay also known as "Al Pillay" (born 22 August, 1959), the star of Eat the Rich is a person of many names and two genders, starring in The Comic Strip Presents as Alan Pellay playing Himself in Gino (Episode 10) as Alana Pellay playing Herself in the The Bullshitters (Episode 13) and, finally, as Lana Pellay playing Mary in the feature movie The Supergrass…

[edit] Early life

He was born behind the docks of Grimsby where he was the youngest of six children, his mother a white cleaning lady, his father a black engineer on the fishing trawlers.

[edit] Career

[edit] Working men's clubs

He left school at fifteen to head for the bright lights of Manchester where he hooked up with Northern drag legends Bunny Lewis and Frank Foo Foo Lammar. He did spot on impersonations of Shirley Bassey, Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Cleo Laine and Dorothy Squires in full drag and no mike and was booked into the working men’s clubs all over the North as well as the cabaret club circuit, such as the Poka A Poka in Stockport, the Golden Garter in Salford and the Sheffield Fiesta.

[edit] Disco Diva

During a lull in his drag career while he was managing the Black Market Café in Levenshulme and renting a room from Coronation Street actor, Alan Rothwell he was introduced to Kay Carroll and Mark E Smith of The Fall (band). He formed his own band the I Scream Pleasures which would appear as guest support at many a The Fall gig with an original repertoire of songs including Parasitic Machines, Surrender Your Gender, Closet Queen, Do You Like Labels, Spirit Souls and You Aint Nothing But A Phoney F-cking Hetero Queen

He metamorphosed into a disco diva as the hormone popping transsexual Lana Pellay, dressed in costumes by his close friend Leigh Bowery^[1] and with a number one world wide dance floor hit Pistol In My Pocket and accompanying Gary Clail in his 1991 hit "Human Nature" with the repeating couplet "Let the carnival begin... Every pleasure, every sin!"

[edit] TV and movie star

While squatting in Notting Hill he met Keith Allen who invited him to appear in the newly born Channel 4’s first ever “yoof program”. There he met his champion, Peter Richardson, actor, comedian, writer and director of The Comic Strip Presents who wrote parts for him in the episodes Susie, Gino, The Bullshitters and The Supergrass. He also wrote the lead part for him in the feature film Eat the Rich.^[2]

[edit] Theatre and cabaret

Now as Al Pillay he is starring in a one man play Glitter & Twisted based on his life, written by Tim Fountain, which had its premiere at the Beckett Theatre^[3] on 42nd Street as part of the first Manhattan Musical Theatre Festival and is appearing in his own cabaret A Life in Song at the Pizza on the Park and the Café De Paris. His cabaret performance has also been released as a double CD.^[4]

[edit] References

^ Positive Nation Interview with Pillay “Leigh Bowery and I were enormously close. I still have all the big Liberace coats and shirts he made me”.
^ Time Out Movie Review “In this second feature from the Comic Strip team, genderless black waiter Pellay takes to the road to lead a People's Revolution… True to Comic Strip form, the film lampoons the lunacy of every social group it touches and Pellay's transformation of a swank London restaurant into an eatery on the lines of a pie shop is not to be missed”.
^ Playbill.com 2 August 2004 “A two-act British import about two sides of Old England: Black against White, Poor against Posh, Crude against Smooth, Town against Gown. Starring Alan Pillay as the black vulgar Northern English drag queen reminiscing on his shabby life in a new musical play Glitter & Twisted, specially written for the occasion by award winning author Tim Fountain." The Beckett Theatre in Theater Row”
^ The Sunday Times 12 August 2007 “A Life in Song is a double CD of Pillay’s cabaret act, in which showbiz standards, including a genuinely affecting Both Sides Now, are peppered with camp northern stories, equal parts Alan Bennett and Larry Grayson”

[edit] External links

[0] Positive Nation Interview with Pillay “Leigh Bowery and I were enormously close. I still have all the big Liberace coats and shirts he made me”.

[1] Time Out Movie Review “In this second feature from the Comic Strip team, genderless black waiter Pellay takes to the road to lead a People's Revolution… True to Comic Strip form, the film lampoons the lunacy of every social group it touches and Pellay's transformation of a swank London restaurant into an eatery on the lines of a pie shop is not to be missed”.

[2] Playbill.com 2 August 2004 “A two-act British import about two sides of Old England: Black against White, Poor against Posh, Crude against Smooth, Town against Gown. Starring Alan Pillay as the black vulgar Northern English drag queen reminiscing on his shabby life in a new musical play Glitter & Twisted, specially written for the occasion by award winning author Tim Fountain." The Beckett Theatre in Theater Row”

[3] The Sunday Times 12 August 2007 “A Life in Song is a double CD of Pillay’s cabaret act, in which showbiz standards, including a genuinely affecting Both Sides Now, are peppered with camp northern stories, equal parts Alan Bennett and Larry Grayson”

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