Musicians 70 per cent likelier to die prematurely, study finds

Here are a couple of career tips for anyone who wants to be a rock star yet also avoid the price of fame - fatal overdoses, binge boozing, car wrecks, suicide - that goes with it.

Try to survive beyond the first five years after your first big hit.

Oh, and try to be a Brit, too.

That way, the chances of joining Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Elton John in qualifying for seniors' benefits rise hugely.In an innovative study published in Britain's Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers at Liverpool John Moores University charted the survival rates of 1,064 musicians and compared this to mortality among the general population in North America and Europe.

The musicians were picked from a chart called the All Time Top 1,000 Albums that was selected in 2000, and covered rock, pop, New Age, punk, rap, R&B and electronica.

In all, exactly 100 stars died between 1956 and 2005 (a death rate of 7.3 per cent among women and 9.6 per cent among men), including such luminaries as Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain.