Dennis Taylor – whose Tuesday night karaoke dancing put The Chestergate pub on the map – has died. He was 72.
21:16, 19 Jun 2025Updated 21:16, 19 Jun 2025
Dennis Taylor enjoys himself at the Chestergate pub in Stockport(Image: YouTube)
Tributes have been paid to one of Stockport’s best-loved characters whose joyous toothless dancing on a pub karaoke night turned him into a world-wide hit.
In a clip that went viral, Dennis ‘Den’ Taylor, pint in hand and grinning from ear to ear, dances into view and cheekily lifts his top to reveal his belly while another regular sings I Can’t Help Myself by the Four Tops at The Chestergate pub’s now famous Tuesday karaoke nights. The video was quickly viewed more than two million times and helped bring the pub to a world-wide audience. It was dubbed by some ‘the best pub on Earth’.
Today (June 19, 2025) his family announced that Dennis has died, aged 72, in a care home following a battle with prostate cancer. His three children and other members of his family were at his bedside.
Manchester United fan Dennis, a sometime carer and odd-job-man who had a number of grandchildren, lived in Stockport town centre where he was well-known in The Chestergate and other pubs in the town.
The Chestergate, Stockport(Image: Vincent Cole – Manchester Evening News)
His daughter Lisa Taylor, 46, from Openshaw, said the video which made Dennis so well known was exactly how he was.
“He was funny, a character. He always loved a laugh and a joke. He loved a good pint and was very caring. He was dead good. He could be hard work sometimes but he would do anything for anybody,” Lisa told the Manchester Evening News.
“That’s how he was, like the class clown.”
At The Chestergate, he would regularly dance with another well known patron, Molly Webb. “He would be in there near enough three times a week,” said Lisa.
She said of the viral video: “It was a proud moment. It went all across the world. It was amazing.”
Stockport pub The Chestergate goes viral with classic pub scene
Dozens of others have paid tribute on the pub’s Facebook page. Dek wrote: “RIP Dennis, a character no doubt. He got in my taxi once for a short trip to the pub, tried to pay me with a badly forged £5. I just said get out Dennis have this on me.”
Danielle said: “RIP Dennis. Could never understand half of what you said after you had a few pints, but you could always give me a giggle! Daytime Edgy wouldn’t have been the same without you!”
Gill said: “RIP Dennis, you was my pain in the ass years ago, in the nicest possible way. Had a few laughs about it in later years. Sleep tight xx.”
A wake is to be held at another of Dennis’s Stockport pubs, The Egerton Arms, next month.