A BASS player, who has performed with Mick Jagger, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Seal and Elton John, but found himself addicted to drugs, spoke at a charity football tournament today.

Phil Spalding, 55, who is now a Hepatitis C adviser with Swindon & Wiltshire Alcohol and Drug Service, and lives in a Salvation Army Housing Association flat in Swindon, attended the charity’s annual five-a-side football tournament, The Partnership Trophy, to talk to those from the Army’s Lifehouses and centres about his own experiences as a former drug user.

Phil became addicted to narcotics including heroin, cocaine, valium, cannabis, as well as alcohol. It was a long journey back to a clean life, he said.

The realisation he needed to break his addiction came when he was in court for drug-related offences. His mother, a member of The Salvation Army, persuaded him to stay at its Gloucester House facility in 2005.

When Phil arrived, he went on a 21-day detox and on October 21 he will have been clean for eight years.

He said: “I want to let people, who have gone through similar situations to what I did, know that you can come out of it. You can have a fulfilling life afterwards and do something worthwhile.”

Hundreds of people from The Salvation Army’s homeless centres attended the tournament at the Power League Stadium, Birmingham, including a team from Booth House Lifehouse in Spring Close, Swindon.

The Partnership Trophy is an annual event for homeless men and women living in Salvation Army Lifehouses and other supported housing units run by The Salvation Army Housing Association.