Chris Martin forces himself to drink vodka to remind himself “not to be an idiot.”

The Coldplay frontman abides by the bizarre ritual which stems from an incident in the group’s early days when his bandmates punished him for sacking their drummer Will Champion by making him get drunk.

“It started when I had to ask forgiveness for sacking our drummer Will about 10 years ago,” Chris explained. “Three days later the rest of us were feeling really miserable and we asked Will to meet me and out bassist Guy Berryman in Monkey Chews, a bar in Camden, London, where we asked him to come back. They made me have lots of vodka and cranberry juice in remembrance of what a nasty piece of work I was being. Now if I find myself making a big mistake, I have to force myself to drink that stuff to remind me not to be such an idiot!”

Meanwhile, Chris admits he got very nervous about the band embarking on the UK leg of their current tour when they played in Manchester. “It feels like we have been away for a long time. The four of us were feeling really nervous about coming back home, but we were given a better reception than we could possibly have asked for,” Martin said.

The group will conclude the tour with two dates at London’s Wembley Arena on September 18 and 19.