Heaton once held the lease of the Kings Arms in Salford
© Alamy
Heaton’s known for his fondness for pubs, something evident in his social media as well as his birthday cycling tours. Several songs on The Mighty Several are set in such establishments – he even co-owned one for a while – while he also pens many of his lyrics with a pint or two in Dutch hostelries. “If I’ve paid for myself to go away,” he says, “and I’m staying in a hotel and going out to a bar, I automatically work. I don’t just sit there and get pickled. I might work for six, seven hours non-stop, trying to write. And I always went to Holland because it was cold and a bit lonely, but also not too far from Hull. I could catch a ferry over.”
He’s aware of the dangers of such practises, however, and on a couple of occasions, he’s chosen to quit drinking altogether. “It’s something that’s easy to get out of control,” he admits, though he’s never had a reputation as a bad drunk. “It has to be in moderation. I stopped for a couple of years, but couldn’t manage to write. I went away with my partner, now my wife, and we sat in a pub in Harlem for hours without a drink, and I couldn’t do it. As soon as the beer arrived, I got in the flow. I have to assess my relationship with alcohol once in a while, to make sure I’m wearing the trousers, so to speak.”