Alan “Al” Pillay 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 Bullshitters (Episode 13) and, finally, as Lana Pellay playing Mary in the feature movie The Supergrass.

Early life

He was born behind the docks of Grimsby where he was the youngest of six children, his mother a cleaning lady of Irish and Jamaican descent, his father an engineer on the fishing trawlers originally from South Africa of Indian and Spanish descent.

Career

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.

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 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!”

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.

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 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.