Ashes to ashes, dust to nose

Stones star 'snorted dad's ashes'

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has claimed he snorted the ashes of his late father during a drugs binge. "He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow," he told NME. Richards' father, Bert, died at the age of 84 in 2002.

Although Richards now says he was joking I think it's perfectly believable. I've snorted plenty of different substances in the past. Cigarette ash was a favourite when the coke had run out. Barrett's sherbet fountain, various white powders found in the kitchen and, my all time favourite this, a cruched up Nice biscuit. Now that really blocked me up but everything smelled of vanilla for several days afterwards. You do silly things under the influence, the silliest usually being running up a fucking huge bill for your night of indulgence. It was the prospect of financial ruin that made me give up in the end, not any moral arguments about dead Columbians, health warnings or the ''Frank' campaign .