Mary Golds
Mary Golds, friend to celebrities and perennial Grand Dame of Cardiff’s gay scene is coming up on ten years in drag. She is celebrating by putting on a one-woman show: An Audience with Mary Golds’ Grindstones and Rhinestones.
Growing up in Newport, Golds went away to London to study Fashion at University – an apt degree for a future drag queen – but deferred studies due to the death of their grandfather. “I started working the bar in WOW and handing out leaflets, as London had left me with a lot of debt. I got to know the resident queens and an opportunity came up to help out on a dating night. They wanted a drag queen to take photos and stick numbers on people and I said I could do that. It absolutely snow-balled from there – within six months I had put a show together, got an agent and was doing gigs”.
Golds describes her style as “classic glamour with sassy quick camp wit” and names stars of yesteryear and classic Hollywood as influence for the character of Mary Golds. “I love Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Joan Crawford and Joan Collins – true stars and untouchable. They were classic and rebels, but always had decorum and style on their side… I have grown to love [Golds]. I like to think of her as that great aunt at a family party who drinks a bit too much and says what everyone else is thinking but they’re afraid to say.”
Being a drag queen for the last ten years, Golds has seen the changes in the LGBT scene, and Cardiff’s in particular: “I’ve seen clubs, pubs and bars come and go; I’ve seen queens come and go. I’ve seen students arrive on student nights, playing games, getting down to their underwear. They’re now in respectable jobs. One thing has stayed the same and grown from strength to strength and that’s community. ‘Love is love’. I’m proud to be part of our scene”.
One thing that’s definitely changed is the growing popularity of drag: “I think change is good. There’s all sorts of drag on our scene now and I try to support it where I can. It’s not all to my taste but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it any less. You can’t please everyone”. RuPaul’s Drag Race has played some part in drag’s upswinging popularity, though it isn’t all positive – “Drag Race has done wonders for drag, bringing it into mainstream and to the forefront of the media. However people need to realise that just because you watch Drag Race it does not make you a critic, and just because queens don’t death drop or click their fingers in the air it doesn’t make them any less of a drag queen. Respect your local queens that paved the way for us”. You can count Mary Golds as one of those local queens, still paving the way for new queens.
With this mainstream success comes one big misconception about drag: “I am constantly being asked ‘what’s my proper job?’ This is my job, it’s my career. I work hard at it – writing new material, getting new looks, jewellery, wigs, songs, bookings. I’m self employed and it’s hard work no matter how easy we make it look, it’s hard work!”
words Chris Williams
Grindstones and Rhonestones: An Evening With Mary Golds. Fri 5 Oct. Look Out Cafe Bay, Cardiff Bay. Tickets: £16. Info: www.eventbrite.co.uk