Phil Collins and the rise of mid-lifers drinking their way to oblivion

By For Phil Collins it started at home in the long afternoons, drinking a glass of two or wine in front of the England versus West Indies Test match. In 2011 the former Genesis frontman had decided to retire from music and move to Switzerland to devote himself to his family.

"I stopped work because I wanted to be a dad at home," he said in a press conference on Monday in which he announced a comeback tour. "As bad luck would have it, as soon as I retired, my family split up. I didn't have anyone to go home to. That's why I started drinking."

Instead he found himself bored and kicking his heels alone on the shores of Lake Geneva. Collins never previously suffered from a reliance on alcohol - even in the heady decades where he revelled in the intemperate world of showbusiness. But after divorcing his third wife Orianne (with whom he has two sons aged 15 and 11 and has since been reunited) he started drinking in earnest.