Paul Heaton is a musician renowned for his soundness, but he definitely won over a few more fans yesterday with his latest good deed.
The Beautiful South frontman turned 60 yesterday, and to mark the occasion he put money behind the bars of 60 pubs across the UK and Ireland.
The Irish bars participating included Kehoe's in Dublin, Robinson's in Belfast, Tig Coili in Galway, The Sky on the Ground in Wexford and Eddie Murphy's in Thomastown.
Heaton, who wrote the Housemartins' hit 'Happy Hour', said that he had originally intended to do another bicycle tour (as he did for his 50th birthday) to visit and play at 60 pubs - but recording delays caused by Covid had scuppered that plan. Instead, he chose to allow fans and regulars of those pubs to have a drink on him.
"The hope is to bring people together on the day, whilst recognising that many folk who bought my records or showed me support over the years could do with a wee party as we come out of Covid and hit potential financial struggles," he said.
Fans were clearly delighted by the musician standing them a drink in their local, and many shared photos of themselves raising a toast to Heaton.
Heaton, who owns The King's Arms pub in Manchester, has made generous gestures in the past - including donating what was described as a 'large sum' to help out staff of Q magazine when the music mag closed in 2020.
He plays Dublin's St. Anne's Park with his Beautiful South bandmate Jacqui Abbot on June 4th.
Cheers to you, Paul!
