Paul Heaton to leave money behind the bar at pubs in Warrington for Neighbourhood Weekender

26 May, 2023

Paul Heaton performs during Sounds of the City 2021 on September 23, 2021 in Manchester, England. Credit: Shirlaine Forrest/ GETTY

Paul Heaton has announced that he will be leaving some money behind at a few local pubs during the Neighbourhood Weekender festival.

The Housemartins and Beautiful South legend took to social media to announce the free rounds of pints for those who will be in attendance of the festival.

The statement posted to Heaton’s official social media accounts read: “As a thank you, and a small amount of help during the cost of greed crisis, Paul is leaving some money behind the bar at a few local pubs in Warrington so that some of you attending @nbhdweekender this weekend can have a drink on him.”

According to the statement, the pubs that are involved are The Bull’s Head on 33rd Church Street, The King’s Head on 40 Winwick Street and The Cheshire Cheese on 654 Knutsford Road which are all near the festival’s site of Victoria Park.

The festival’s own pub, The Neighbourhood Inn, will also take part for any attendees who plan on heading in early to catch any acts. They will be offered a drink token for the pub on the way in the festival on a first come, first served basis.

The statement ended with a confirmation of a “Similar process” that “will be running local to the other Paul Heaton shows over the summer. ”

This is not the first time Heaton has been generous. To celebrate his 60th birthday last year, he got everyone a free round in at 60 pubs across the UK and Ireland.

“It was brilliant. I expected a few people to say, ‘Oh cheers!’ – but I got video after video of people drinking, stories about people meeting new friends and talking to people all day, and it was good for the pubs,” Heaton told NME. “At the time I thought, ‘This is a bit of a silly idea’, but as it got nearer the day I knew I really wanted to do something like that. I was shocked by how much coverage it got, but also by how much people loved it. I’m just expecting for other artists to start doing it now!”

Heaton also played a number of free gigs for NHS staff with Jacqui Abbott last year as a thank you for their efforts throughout the pandemic. “I did it for the nurses and we did one for care workers and they were mad,” Heaton recalls. “For the people who came, particularly the care workers in Sheffield, it just had this massive release. I was actually quite frightened on stage!”

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