AN alcohol advice group dealing with East Lancashire children as young as eight with drink problems has slammed a pop record which it claims encourages youngsters to drink.

Burnley group Chumbawamba has shot into the charts at number two with Tubthumping after its record was backed by Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo.

But the Alcohol Information Centre at Burnley, which deals with people from Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, has criticised the drinking song.

Lyrics include: 'He drinks a whisky drink, he drinks a vodka drink, he drinks a lager drink, he drinks a cider drink."

But a spokeswoman for EMI, the band's record label, said it was not a drinking song. She said: "The band wrote it about when life gets you down, pick yourself up and get back going again. They wrote the song so they should know what it is all about."

Counsellor Carol Mallett said: "Anything that encourages going out and getting drunk and binge drinking is irresponsible.

"Pop bands have an influence on the young people who buy their music and we already have enough problems with Alcopops.

"We are regularly being asked by schools to go in and talk to children and we have even been asked to go into junior schools. Teachers are telling us they have found Alcopops in their school bags of children. "We have had problems with children as young as eight, nine and 10 and if that is only the ones that have come to our attention and has been acknowledged so the problem must be more widespread.

"Alcohol is a drug and East Lancashire has one of the worst problems in Lancashire.

"We have two full-time counsellors dealing with five or six people in one-to-one sessions each day and a waiting list of up to 80.

"We are struggling at the moment and are continually setting up groups so we can move people on to allow more people to have counselling.

"It doesn't take long for the body to become tolerant to alcohol and so many parents don't realise their children have a problem.

"Records like this just glorify alcohol."

Anyone who needs help can contact the centre in confidence on 01282 416655.

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