London bar where Paul O’Grady became famous as Lily Savage pays touching tribute to late star
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, one of the gay bars where Paul O’Grady became famous performing as his drag persona Lily Savage, has paid tribute to the star, who died suddenly two days ago.
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a historic LGBT bar, where there are nightly live cabaret performances. O’Grady performed here in the 1980s when he was becoming famous as his alter ego, Lily Savage.
Wednesday night’s performance contained one minute of applause for O’Grady, rather than a minute’s silence.
And then in a touching tribute, drag queen Michael Twaits, who was hosting the evening at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, called O’Grady “an absolute legend of the community’,” and “a trailblazer” in a long-lasting tribute.
“Today we lost one of the greatest drag artists the UK has ever seen, and it is this building, this building was where it happened,” they continued.
“Eight years of doing solo shows… and also doing shows like tonight, introducing new talent to the LGBT+ scene. Paul O’Grady was an absolute legend of the community.”
“It was around raising up the community, and when you move from a stage like this into the mainstream, when you move into breakfast f****** television… and still stay true to yourself, stay true to your queer self, and stay true to your working class roots.”
O’Grady became famous for playing Lily Savage in an era before drag queens had become mainstream. Today, shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have made more of us aware of drag, but Savage rose in an era when more homophobia was present and drag artists faced more challenges.
At the RVT, he once was performing when the police performed a now infamous raid during the height of the AIDS crisis. Police never confirmed why they had raided the venue, wearing gloves, aggressively removing punters from the venue. But O’Grady continued performing anyway, asking the gloved policemen if they’d “come to do the washing up.”
He became much-loved for bringing the chaotic, upbeat energy of the drag queen to British morning TV in the 1990s. He once got drunk presenting a booze section of the Richard and Judy show, and the clip has been widely shared since O’Grady’s passing.
He was also a keen lover of animals, and a popular radio and television host, having won a Bafta, and presented his BBC Radio 2 show for almost 14 years.
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