MARTIN TURNS TO McCULLOCH FOR SONGWRITING HELP.

COLDPLAY's CHRIS MARTIN has found a secret songwriting mentor in ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN star IAN McCULLOCH - and often texts the KILLING MOON singer when he's run out of ideas. McCulloch reveals Martin quizzes him about songwriting techniques and even steals Echo & The Bunnymen samples for Coldplay hits.

He says, "When Coldplay was doing their second album I walked into the studio in Liverpool, where they recorded it, and Chris said, 'Hey Mac! We're sampling The Cutter intro, but we're having some difficulty making it not sound like the Bunnymen. I said, 'Just f**king use it.' "I think Chris is great. We text each other, like, 'Hello Mac-o! How do you write lyrics that are good?' I say, 'Either you've got it or you haven't. Do some crosswords, watch pornography.'"