Publican popstar Paul Heaton is playing in Glasgow tonight, and has once again made a special effort to support the on-trade by putting money behind a number of local bars so fans in the know can go in and have a drink on him.
Heaton – who rose to fame with The Housemartins, then cemented his status as one of the UK’s best singer-songwriters as frontman of the Beautiful South – is part of the Friday (July 7) line up at the TRNSMT festival on Glasgow Green, so a range of pubs within walking distance of that site have received cash and instructions to dispense drinks to customers who mention him by name.
The pubs involved will be 226 Gallowgate; The Old Burnt Barns, Lynch’s Bar at 179 London Road; The Braemar Bar at 147 London Road; The Tolbooth Bar at 11 Saltmarket; and Whistler on the Green, at 5 Greendyke Street.
Heaton first bought the public a round in this way on the occasion of his 60th birthday in May 2022, when Covid saw a planned cycling tour of pub venues scrapped, and he opted instead to put £1000 each behind the bars of 60 small venues around the UK, so fans could mark the occasion with a drink on him.
The Birkenhead-born musician, who was for several years leaseholder of The Kings Arms in Salford, has since made a habit of spreading a portion of his gig fees around the pubs of each town he visits, and he has carried on that tradition during his current UK tour.
A statement released yesterday on his social media accounts read: “Glasgow, 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 near to TRNSMT festival so that some of you can have a drink on him tomorrow afternoon (until the money runs out, or the bar runs dry!).”
