Al Pillay

Lanah P (born 22 August 1959), previously known as Alan Pillay, is an LGBT English entertainer.[1]

Lanah P
Born
Alan Pillay

(1959-08-22) 22 August 1959
Grimsby, England
Other namesAlan Pillay, Al-ana Pellay, Lana Pellay, Lanah Pellay, Lanah P
OccupationActor, comedian, singer
Years active1983 – present

Previously billed as Alan Pellay, Al Pillay, Al-ana Pellay, and Lana Pellay, Pillay starred in The Comic Strip Presents, playing Ray in "Susie" (episode 8), "Himself" (as Alan Pellay) in "Gino: Full Story and Pics" (episode 10), as "Herself" (as Alana Pellay) in The Bullshitters (episode 13), as Mary (as Lana Pellay) in the film The Supergrass, Women's Clothing Shop Employee in "Consuela (Or 'The New Mrs Saunders')" (episode 14), and as Alex in the film Eat the Rich.

Early life

Pillay was born near the docks of Grimsby and was the youngest of six children; her mother was a cleaner of Bajan descent, while her father was an engineer on the fishing trawlers, and was of Indian descent.[1]

Career

Working men's clubs

Pillay left school at fifteen and went to Manchester, where she befriended the Northern drag performers Bunny Lewis and Frank "Foo Foo" Lammar. Pillay impersonated Shirley Bassey, Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, Cleo Laine and Dorothy Squires in full drag, with no microphone, and was booked into the Working men's clubs throughout the North of England, as well as the cabaret club circuit.

Disco diva

During a lull in Pillay's drag career, while managing the Black Market Café in Levenshulme and renting a room from Coronation Street actor Alan Rothwell, Pillay was introduced to Kay Carroll and Mark E Smith of The Fall. Pillay formed her own band, the I Scream Pleasures, who subsequently appeared as guest support at Fall gigs.

Pillay metamorphosed into a disco diva as the hormone-popping transsexual Lana Pellay, dressed in costumes by her close friend Leigh Bowery,[2] enjoying a top 40 single in Australia and New Zealand with "Pistol in My Pocket".[3][4] She also accompanied Gary Clail on his 1991 hit "Human Nature", singing the couplet "Let the carnival begin... Every pleasure, every sin!"

TV and movie career

While living in London's Notting Hill, Pillay met Keith Allen, who invited Pillay to appear on the first programme aimed at a youth audience on the recently launched Channel 4 network. There she met her champion, Peter Richardson. He was an actor, comedian, writer and director for The Comic Strip Presents who wrote parts for her in the episodes Susie, Gino, The Bullshitters and The Supergrass.

He also wrote the lead part for her in the feature film Eat the Rich.[5] Following The Comic Strip, Pillay became a film critic on the ITV late night chat show Funky Bunker, alongside Craig Charles.

Theatre and cabaret

As Al Pillay, she performed in a one-person play, Glitter & Twisted, based on her life and written by Tim Fountain, which had its premiere at the Beckett Theater[6] on 42nd Street as part of the first Manhattan Musical Theatre Festival. She also appeared in her own cabaret show, A Life in Song, at Pizza on the Park and the Café De Paris in London. Her cabaret performance has been released as a double CD.[7] In 2012, she played the title role of the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires on stage in Mrs Roger Moore.[8]

Discography (as Lana Pellay)

Singles
  • "Pistol in My Pocket" (1986) – UK No. 96,[9] AUS No. 17,[3] NZ No. 40[4]
  • "I Can Make a Man Out of You" (1986)

References
  1. i-D Staff (7 July 2017). "The Untold Story of LGBT Pioneer Lanah P". Vice.
  2. Positive Nation Interview with Pillay Archived 10 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine "Leigh Bowery and I were enormously close. I still have all the big Liberace coats and shirts he made me".
  3. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 231. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid 1983 and 19 June 1988.
  4. "charts.nz > Lana Pellay – Pistol in My Pocket (song)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. 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".
  6. Playbill.com 2 August 2004 Archived 13 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine "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 her 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”
  7. 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"
  8. "Dorothy Squires: Mrs Roger Moore – One4ReviewOne4Review". One4review.co.uk. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  9. "Official Charts > Lana Pellay". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
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