‘I’ve pretty much worked at every bar on Canal Street’: How Danny Beard cut their teeth as a drag queen in Manchester’s Gay Village

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

On a Tuesday night ten years ago in a misty basement on Bloom Street, the likes of Lady Gaga, Blondie, David Bowie and Steps were all booming out to a packed and sweaty crowd of students, city dwellers and drag queens at club night Poptastic.

At the front of the crowd, leading the charge behind the DJ decks, stood drag performer Danny Beard. When not hurling sarcastic retorts at the crowd in a thick scouse accent midway through a Spice Girls megamix, Danny would be lip-syncing, dancing and posing for photos until 5am each week.

While those days are now long gone - thanks to Danny’s recent win on BBC Three’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK - they look back on that time as a pinnacle moment for their drag career. READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community “Manchester’s gay scene really has played a massive part in my life,” the 31-year-old, originally from Liverpool, tells the M.E.N. “It was really where I learnt the craft of performing in drag.” At the time, Danny was studying Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Salford - “it sounds just as arty-farty as it was,” they say - and while the late nights in clubs and early mornings in lectures didn’t always see eye-to-eye, it was an opportunity to earn money and hone in on their performance skills at the same time. “I was looking to make a bit of money on the side so I started DJing,” Danny, who now lives in Ancoats, explains. “That then led me to drag when then led towards the shows and cabarets. “The Gay Village birthed me.

It helped shape my drag as I was able to take inspiration from the matriarchs of the scene, like Belinda Scandal, Nana and Misty Chance. "Since then, I've pretty much performed in every bar on Canal Street.