Paul Gascoigne made a welcome return to St James's Park last night as he attended the official opening of Shearer's Bar.
 Gascoigne put his recent pneumonia scare behind him to show up for the red carpet event in honour of Newcastle's local hero. Players past and present joined Gascoigne and more than 1,000 guests at the opening of the city's largest pub named after home town hero Alan Shearer. And Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler, who like Shearer attended Gosforth High School in Newcastle, played his hit song and the club's unofficial theme tune - Local Hero - in honour of the former England captain.
 As he cut the ribbon to officially open the bar, Shearer said: "It is a great honour. Sir John Hall and Jackie Milburn have stands named after them and I have got a pub named after me. Are they trying to tell me something? "I had no doubt whatsoever when they asked me. I am very proud that part of St James's Park will bear my name. Hopefully when you come in May you will have something to celebrate. "The bar is under the stand where I used to come, week in week out, when I was 12 or 13. When you are that age you never expect this sort of thing to happen.
 Current players Jermaine Jenas and Nicky Butt joined the celebrations, as did Shearer's former team mates Rob Lee and Warren Barton, and Newcastle legend Terry McDermott. Gascoigne, looking happy and healthy, said he was pleased to be out of hospital and attending the opening. He said: "I think the pub is brilliant. Alan deserves it. He is a credit to himself. I remember playing against him when I was at Newcastle and he was at Southampton. "I told him to hang in there and he would be a great player, and he has proved himself to be more than that." As the guests gathered for the opening of the bar underneath the Newcastle Brown Stand at St James's they were entertained by flame throwers and clowns on stilts Chairman Freddie Shepherd led the tributes to the Shearer last night. He said: "There was no doubt about what to call it. The whole project was called Shearer. He deserves it. It is what we have needed in Newcastle for a long time." | 
