Beautiful South singer Paul Heaton pays for festival drinks

Paul Heaton also paid for drinks at 60 pubs to mark his 60th birthday last year

Pop star Paul Heaton said he is putting money behind the bar of four pubs in Warrington so fans attending a festival can "have a drink on him".

The ex-Housemartins and Beautiful South singer is playing the Neighbourhood Festival in Victoria Park this weekend.

He also paid for drinks at 60 pubs to mark his 60th birthday last year.

In a Facebook post, Heaton said the gesture was a "thank you and a small amount of help" during the cost of living crisis.

The pubs involved will be the The Bull's Head on Church Street, The Kings Head on Winwick Street and The Cheshire Cheese on Knutsford Road, which are all within a couple of miles of the festival site.

The Facebook post said: "Money will also be left behind the bar of the festival's own pub, the Neighbourhood Inn for anyone heading into the festival early looking to catch any of the artists kicking off the different stages each day.

"A similar process will be running local to the other Paul Heaton shows over this summer."

Heaton shot to fame with the Hull-based Housemartins in the early 80s.

They had two successful albums and a number of hit singles, including a cover version of Caravan of Love which reached Number One in the UK charts in December 1986.

After the band split he formed the Beautiful South in 1988, which became one of the biggest-selling UK acts of all time, releasing 15 albums over nine years.

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