COLDPLAY - MCCULLOCH: 'MARTIN NEEDS TO GET DRUNK'

COLDPLAY frontman CHRIS MARTIN has been advised to stop sulking and start drinking by good friend IAN McCULLOCH - because it will lighten him up.

Martin was left devastated by the acid response of US critics to his third album X+Y, who labelled Coldplay "the most insufferable band of the decade".

And ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN star McCulloch urges his sensitive friend to join him on a drinking spree to toughen him up - a quality McCulloch believes is essential if Martin is to survive as a rock 'n' roll hero.

He says, "It might do Chris good if he did sort himself out with a few drinks to take the edge off.

"It would do him good to relax. Chris says he's baffled by me because he doesn't understand how I can be an out-and-out rockstar - drinking and smoking and still playing music.

"I think he knows you can't suddenly go off the rails. He's not a working-class lad so he'd have to become an actor to play the bevy (drinking) game."