Paul O’Grady has been remembered as “one of the greatest drag artists the UK has ever seen” at the LGBTQ+ cabaret club that helped him rise to fame as Lily Savage.
Instead of the typical minute’s silence, there was a minute of raucous applause from the audience at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT) in south London on Wednesday evening – a moment to cheer in memory of the “trailblazer and legend”.
His close friend Linda Thorson, an actress known for starring in The Avengers and Emmerdale, said in an interview with Good Morning Britain that he died in bed with his husband, Andre Portasio, beside him.
The TV presenter and comedian rose to fame on the nightclub circuit in the 1980s as the acerbic, platinum wig-wearing Lily Savage – a name believed to have been inspired by his late mother.
After touring the north of England, he settled into a solo residency at the RVT before the character went on to become a household name.
‘Silence is polite – but this is a moment to applaud’
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:07
Producer reveals how O’Grady was day before death
On Wednesday evening, RVT host Michael Twaits described O’Grady as “an absolute legend of the community” to a full-house audience paying tribute.
Advertisement
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Twaits said O’Grady had always stayed true to his roots, despite his rise to TV fame.
“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.”
Telling the audience that “a trailblazer and a legend has left us”, he then led the crowd in a round of applause.
“Obviously a moment of silence is polite… but I don’t think a moment of silence is right. I think this is a moment to applaud, a moment to love, a moment to cheer,” he said.
Deputy PM invited to cabaret club
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:38
Paul O’Grady – and Lily Savage – remembered by MPs
MPs also highlighted O’Grady’s time at the RVT in the House of Commons earlier on Wednesday.
Addressing Dominic Raab, Sir Chris Bryant said: “I don’t know whether the deputy prime minister ever met Lily Savage or has ever spent a night out at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, but… I can take him some time if he wants to go?”
As laughter broke out, the Labour MP added: “Her alter ego, Paul O’Grady, campaigned acerbically and hilariously for elderly people, for care workers, against oppression of every kind.
“Isn’t it time we in this country celebrated our naughty, hilarious drag queens and comics of every kind who inspire us to be a better and more generous nation?”
Mr Raab, who was filling in for Rishi Sunak during Prime Minister’s Questions, accidently referred to O’Grady as “Paul Grayson”, before correcting himself and describing the star as an “incredible comic”.
‘A true animal lover in every bone in his body’
Image: Flowers have been left at Battersea Cats & Dogs Home in south London
Among the many paying tribute to O’Grady was the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the charity for which the star had been an ambassador since 2012.
He filmed 11 series of his beloved show For The Love Of Dogs at the centre, and during the first series he rehomed Eddie, a Chihuahua Jack Russell-cross puppy.
Eddie was followed by shih-tzu Boycie in 2014, Conchita, a Maltese, in 2015, Arfur, a mongrel puppy, in 2017, Nancy, another mongrel puppy, in 2020, and Sausage, a wire-haired dachshund, in 2021.
Battersea chief executive Peter Laurie said O’Grady would have taken all of the charity’s dogs home “if he had his way”.
Mr Laurie said: “It’s hard to overstate Paul’s impact at Battersea over the last decade. He really helped put Battersea on the map.”
O’Grady’s “real legacy” is how he showed both the British public and an international audience how “lovable and incredible” rescue dogs are, Mr Laurie added.
“He could walk into a kennel with a dog he had never met before, sit on the floor and play with that dog and bond with that dog within minutes.
“He would fall in love with that dog and the dog would fall in love with him too and you can’t pretend, that was so authentic, that really was Paul – a true animal lover in every bone in his body.”
Stanley Tucci says he doesn’t understand why there has been a sudden rise in the “very far right”.
The 64-year-old actor, author and food connoisseur leads a new show aptly named Tucci In Italy, where he looks at the world-renowned cuisine and how its ingredients tell much more than just what is served on the plate.
Speaking to Sky News, he says painting the full picture of the Italian landscape was the driving force behind the show and that he made a conscious decision to include stories from all backgrounds.
Image: Stanley Tucci tries lampredotto while in Florence. Pic: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak
“I asked that we include a story about a gay couple and their children, whether it was adopted or surrogate or however, because I thought it was a really interesting story.
“I am confused as to the direction that so much of the world is heading now to the very far right and sort of vilifying the other, meaning people who aren’t like us, but I don’t quite know what that means because we are all so different.
“There is no us, right? We’re all different, so I don’t know what the problem is there.”
Image: Canci checi, a Ladin staple consisting of fried ravioli. Pic: National Geographic
Image: Tucci cooks at BBQ joint ristoro mucciante in Abruzzo with one of the owners, Rodolfo Mucciante, right. Pic: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak
Tucci adds that he wants to “look at what’s happening in Italy politically and how it’s affecting people but, of course, all through the prism of food”.
More on Italy
Related Topics:
“Those people are sitting there having a traditional Sunday lunch with the grandparents, with the grandkid, and they’re a family and yet the government says they’re not a family.
“I think that’s really interesting because Italy puts so much emphasis on family and for all practical purposes, Italy has a negative birth rate so why wouldn’t you want to welcome more children into your society who are Italian?”
Image: Chef and owner Matilde Pettini opened Dalla Lola in 2021 and discusses their dishes with Tucci. Pic: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak
Image: Ramadan El Sabawy hands Tucci a plate with his son’s crispy margherita pizza. Pic: National Geographic
In 2016, Italy passed a law that now recognises civil unions for same-sex couples in the country.
It grants couples many of the same rights and financial protections as married heterosexual couples, however, it doesn’t give LGBT+ couples the right to joint adoption or in vitro fertilisation.
In 2023, the Italian government extended its initial ban on surrogacy to include arrangements made by its citizens abroad.
Its legislation subjects any intended parent who breaks the law to jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to €1m (£846,000).
The law doesn’t include those children who were already registered before it came into effect.
Image: Tucci holding a cheese made in Lazio. Pic: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak
Image: Torcinello, a traditional sausage, served with scampi, sea asparagus, and sweet pepper sauce. Pic: National Geographic
The buzzword on social media over the last few weeks has been “conclave” following the death of Pope Francis and of course, the Oscar-winning film of the same name.
Our interview took place just before the real conclave took place, which resulted in Pope Leo XIV becoming the first American-born leader of the Catholic Church.
Starring in the film alongside Ralph Fiennes, Tucci became inadvertently connected to the news agenda when life began to imitate art.
“It’s fascinating. I mean, look, I don’t know anything about it, really, other than I made a movie about it. That’s all I know. But it is, the timing of it is unfortunate, but it’s also oddly coincidental.”
Tucci In Italy looks at traditional Italian cuisine but also explores the impact history, changing political landscapes, migration and culture can have on a dinner plate.
Image: Timballo being cut, revealing the intricate layers of crespelle and meatballs inside. Pic: National Geographic
Image: Mr Tucci fly fishes in a glacial river with locals in Trentino-Alto Adige. Pic: National Geographic/Matt Holyoak
Image: Hay soup in a loaf of homemade bread, served in the restaurant Gostner Schwaige. Pic: National Geographic
He visits the northern area of Trentino-Alto Adige, which borders Austria, to look at how Mussolini’s intense policies regarding German identity shaped the area and people today.
“It’s an incredibly beautiful region, but also it’s the way those two cultures have figured out a way to get along without violence, without blame, without hating each other, without divisiveness.
“I think it’s really wonderful. It’s a testament to… How easy it can be for us to get along.”
Tucci In Italy premieres 21 May at 8pm on National Geographic and all episodes stream from 19 May on Disney+.
He is the man behind the biggest-selling electronica record of all time, but the success of Moby’s album Play came with some unwanted side effects.
His fifth record, the album charted at 33 upon its release in the UK in May 1999, and fell out of the Top 40 after just a week. But despite the lacklustre initial response, Play started to pick up steam, slowly climbing the chart until it reached number one in April 2000.
It stayed there for five weeks and remained in the Top 40 until March 2001, re-entering the Top 100 several times over the next few years.
While Moby had experienced success with Go, the breakthrough 1991 single from his self-titled debut album, Play was next level. Even if you don’t know the album, you’ll know at least some of the songs – Porcelain, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?, Honey, and Natural Blues. The record was ubiquitous and fame hard to escape.
Image: Pic: Adam Warzawa/EPA/Shutterstock
“I think fame and fortune are, probably, empirically two of the most destructive forces on the planet,” he says, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. “I mean, if fame and fortune fixed things, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse would still be making records.
“I guess it’s a very easy system to buy into, especially in a place like… in New York, in Los Angeles, in these big cities that are driven by ostentation and consumption and the need for external validation. It’s hard to resist those temptations. But then… you look at the consequences of that.
“I’d rather try and live a rational life and not necessarily let other people’s concerns dictate what my concerns should be.”
Now sober and with a few years between him and those heady days of peak fame, in recent years Moby has been doing something few established stars in his position would do – giving his compositions away for free.
“I have a house, I have a car, I have some hoodies, I have food in the fridge, I don’t really need anything more,” he insists. “To live and work in a way where I’m not driven by money, why not use that as an opportunity?”
Selfless selfishness or selfish selflessness
Image: Pic: Wael Hamzeh/EPA/Shutterstock
Over a decade ago, the musician came up with the quietly radical idea of making a free music licensing platform, MobyGratis. The idea was simple and rather exciting, he admits – to allow anyone unrestricted access to hundreds of his compositions to use them however they wish. From film scores to remixes, whatever.
“It’s either selfless selfishness or selfish selflessness, meaning I’m giving these things away but the benefit to me is I get to see what people do with it,” he says.
“There are a lot of things about the current digital media climate that are terrifying and baffling and confusing, but one of the things I love is the egalitarian nature of it.”
The idea of giving his music away for free runs somewhat contrary to the AI copyright battle many artists are currently speaking out over, with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Damon Albarn calling for greater protections in law to prevent artificial intelligence software from scraping their work to learn from it.
Remix culture and creative processes
“I completely appreciate and respect the concerns that other people have,” says Moby. “I think they’re incredibly valid… but for me personally, I don’t know. Maybe it’s naive and stupid of me, but I kind of just ignore it.
“I put this music out there and you sort of hope for the best, which probably is completely dim-witted of me. Part of remix culture is seeing how people reinterpret your work; sometimes it’s mediocre, sometimes it is bad, but sometimes it is so inspired, and I can actually learn a lot from other creative processes.”
The dance artist also takes issue with how the act of giving and compassion more generally has come to be seen, and references Elon Musk‘s comments on Joe Rogan’s podcast in April, when the billionaire said: “We’ve got civilizational suicidal empathy going on.”
Moby says that while “we live in this world of fear, selfishness, desperation and viciousness”, he supports “anything that is a rejection of the manosphere… anything that rejects Elon and the idea that empathy is a weakness and reminds people that life can be simple and decent.”
He jokes: “I’m definitely becoming like the weird old guy that you’ll see in the mountains, sort of like not making eye contact and mumbling about chemtrails or something.”
This is a man who is aware his approach to fame, fortune and giving stuff away is somewhat out-of-keeping with the times we’re living in – but the thing is, Moby doesn’t seem to care.