PRIDE SPECIAL
MEET THE KINGS AND QUEENS REIGNING OVER THE EAST ANGLIAN DRAG SCENE THEIR MAJESTY
INTRODUCING ADZ QUEENIE BOND, CAMBRIDGE WHERE TO SEE THEM: THE BLUE MOON, GLITTERBOMB, DRAGTIME, THE SIX SIX “In Cambridge, there are two sets of drag: your classic RuPaul-style, lip-sync look, and then you also have the more artsy, gender-bending drag – a bit DIY. I wasn’t getting as many gig bookings as I wanted, so I decided to put my own nights on. The scene is just so loving; every time I do a show, I always meet one new person. It has brought me closer to the LGBTQ+ community.”
INTRODUCING ARIA THE QUEEN, CAMBRIDGE WHERE TO SEE THEM: GLITTERBOMB
INTRODUCING SIR EVERVAYNE, CAMBRIDGE WHERE TO SEE THEM: DRAGTIME, THE BLUE MOON “I recently hosted a bar night which was my first time back on stage after top surgery. I started out as just a drag king, but as I’ve transitioned, what I want to do, and am comfortable doing, has expanded. Dragtime is a very welcoming space to develop ideas. You’ve got a big array of performers with all amounts of experience. I’ve seen spoken word, poetry, stand-up… all kinds of things.”
“The scene in Cambridge was non-existent when I started. Now, at Glitterbomb, there’s such a mix of people and everyone wears flamboyant clothes, happy to be themselves. Cheryl Hole, off RuPaul’s Drag Race , is one of the first drag queens I ever saw. Alaska at Glitterbomb was my first drag show and Cheryl was walking up the line saying hello to everyone. It gives you something to aspire to.”
INTRODUCING VELMA VON MESS, ESSEX WHERE TO SEE THEM: GRAIN & HOP STORE “With a full-time day job I sometimes don’t have much time to prepare my shows. I’ll still do them – and just be messy. I count myself as a thrifty queen. Drag has so many facets. It’s important for people to see queens not stuck in one genre. Growing up in Essex, in an immigrant household, you were blended in-between two cultures. In Cambridge, I can merge them and make people laugh – there’s a large Polish-English population who share my humour. In Cambridge, it’s the queens putting on shows, rather than the fans.”
INTRODUCING KNUCKLE SANDWICH, NORWICH WHERE TO SEE THEM: NOW! THAT’S WHAT I CALL... DRAG, THE BLUE MOON “I have done a lot of theatre work and, not realising at the time, used lots of elements of drag. I had a real difficulty accepting my own sexuality and who I am. To be able to take on something so absolutely queer, I needed to accept myself first. It can be a closed-off scene for people that want to get in. Drag started off as underground, and Cambridge has an exciting up-and-coming scene that’s really true to drag’s roots.”
INTRODUCING WILL POWER, NORWICH WHERE TO SEE THEM: NOW! THAT’S WHAT I CALL... DRAG
“There are fewer kings than queens, so I often feel I have something to prove – people go to shows expecting to see queens, because that’s what they’re inundated with. Will Power is like a washed-up 80s popstar dropped into The Wizard of Oz . Being honest onstage as a woman is political enough that I just try to have fun with drag. Me and Knuckle Sandwich are trying to take drag to places where people might not get queer representation”
38 JULY 2022 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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