A POPULAR RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star has told how he met his celebrity hero Glenn Close at a historic Glasgow music hall.

Brighton drag legend Joe Black bumped into the Hollywood actress, best known for her lead role in 1987 blockbuster Fatal Attraction, at Trongate’s Britannia Panopticon while he was touring in 2016.

He told the Glasgow Times: “One of the guys that ran the Panopticon had worked with her [for 2017 film The Wife] doing costumes and she was having a tour of the venue.

“It was a kind of weird, fate thing that the two nights I was at the Panopticon, Glenn Close was there.”

 

Joe added: “I got to look after her dog while she went upstairs, too. It wasn’t safe to take the dog up there as the building is very old.”

The performer, who is a self-proclaimed ‘accidental Glenn Close impersonator’, is set to return to the city next week with his own show for the first time in almost five years.

Joe will play a dark cabaret headline gig at Renfrew Street’s popular Glee Club on Wednesday night.

The East Sussex artist said that Glasgow is one of his favourite cities in the UK.

“I love it. It’s the only place other than Brighton that I’d live in the UK. It’s such a pleasure to be there," he said.

“It looks gorgeous, there are always lovely people and I’ve never had a bad time there – be it for work or pleasure. It’s just got really good vibes."

He added: “I’ve got really distinct memories of my first time there, about 15 years ago, coming out of the station and hearing bagpipes.

“It was my first time ever in Scotland and the first thing I heard was bagpipes.”

The upcoming Decopunk show, which is part of a 14-date UK tour, will showcase Joe’s dark cabaret humour and musical reinventions paired with his 1930’s Hollywood style. 

The performer was the first contestant to be eliminated from last year’s Drag Race UK competition that later saw Glasgow-based Lawrence Chaney snatch the crown.

Joe said: “Of course, the city has the current reigning winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, but there’s such a big [drag] scene there.

“It’s what I’ve always liked about it; everyone’s grafting and working hard. Everyone just makes things happen. They’re not waiting around for other people to do it – they’re just doing it.

“I haven’t been there for my own show for a good couple of years now, so I’m excited to see the people who come to The Glee Club and watch the madness unfold."

He added: “They’re always very enthusiastic audiences as well. I’ve been to see the local shows when I was up there and the audiences are really, really supportive of everyone.

“I’ve never been there when it’s not been a packed out, wonderful audience – whether I’m in the audience or on stage. People just turn up and show their love, don’t they?”

The star revealed that fans can expect to see plenty of “drag cabaret chaos and vaudevillian shenanigans” next week at The Glee Club gig.

Joe has already performed a string of live shows across the country on his Decopunk tour and says it has been “incredible” so far – for both himself and his audiences.

He said: “Every night has been so, so fun and it’s nice after the year and a half we all had. People keep saying to me, ‘I’ve been waiting for this for so long’, and I’m like, ‘Me too’.

“For a while, nothing felt like it was going to happen – and then suddenly it did. Occasionally, in the moment, I get taken aback and think, ‘I’m actually in a room full of bloody people and we’re having a lovely time’.

“It almost feels too good to be true.”

Tickets for Joe Black’s Glasgow tour date are on sale HERE.