PAUL Heaton has revealed the guest singer set to join him at Neighbourhood Weekender.

The news follows St Helens singer Jacqui Abbott’s health scare which led to their withdrawal from the festival.

Rianne Downey’s promotion to co-headliner of Weekender comes after Jacqui Abbott announced last month, they would be pulling out of not only the headline performance at Victoria Park, but all their upcoming performances.

This was due to an ongoing health situation which has ruled them out of performing.

Jacqui, from Sutton Heath, played a gig alongside Paul at the Totally Wicked Stadium last year to a sold out crowd. 

After Paul and Jacqui's latest album 'N.K. Pop' went to Number One in October, they planned a highly anticipated arena tour last year, followed by plans for further headline slots and festival appearances this summer.

Announcing the news on social media, Paul Heaton revealed that Rianne Downey would be the guest singer for his headline set at Neighbourhood Weekender on the Sunday night, May 28.

The singer, who grew up in Glasgow before moving to Liverpool, is an up-and-coming artist whose performance with Paul Heaton will be to the biggest crowd of her career to date.

Paul Heaton announced the news on Twitter saying “Paul and the band are delighted to announce that the brilliant Rianne Downey will be joining them onstage as their guest singer for their headline show at Neighbourhood Weekender Festival, Warrington on Sat 27th May.”

In her announcement Rianne said she was ‘honoured’, calling Paul Heaton “one of the greatest songwriters of all time.”