It's easier now to go back to the battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war, the eight-year war, the "imposed war" (as the Iranians like to call it), the Gulf war as we called it then before America's little spat with Saddam over Kuwait. We'd fly into the desert air base at dawn, see the oil fires burning, hear that heavy rumbling of the Somme-like guns, and fear for the next 36 hours - a night in an underground bunker with the dust rising from the floor when mortars landed outside the door, a day of driving through battle lines with shells cracking overhead, corpses stinking by the roadside, young men without helmets holding Korans to their chest. THEY USED to take us to the war in a Hercules C130, barrelling through the night down to Ahwaz or Dezful, we passengers sitting in our bucket seats, sweating, notebooks and cameras on our laps, praying that the Iraqi air force didn't sniff the engine exhausts in the dank night. "It breaks my heart - but what can I do? I've done the best I can."As for adulation, he's got it. People queue up to see him; they stop him in the street and tell him they watched him on the telly, and he saved them.

"I think, Jesus, just with a few words," he says, awestruck by his power. Beechy Colclough never made it as a drummer; but in his own way, he's a rock 'n' roll superstar !. People die around me." For a lesser man this could be terrifying - enough to send him straight back to the bottle - but, no, Beechy Colclough is concerned, kind, yet ultimately detached. "With some people that I see, I get this awful sense that they're not going to make it," he admits "And some of them don't. But they also need that adulation as a constant feed." You'd think that, occasionally, insecurity might get the better of him.

It's not as though the therapy he offers is guaranteed to work Not everyone gets better. It's the same with Elton - the same with all of them."IT'S hard being creative, says Beechy, and he should know (so much music in his life; so many performances) "Creative people have this big strain of insecurity Alcohol and drugs make them feel fine. He's immensely creative, he's lovely, lovely."Still, I say, it must be difficult, having everyone know that you treated him "It makes things harder for me," admits Beechy "If Michael Jackson is a fuck-up, I'm a fuck-up. He's clean and well, he's got a new album out, he looks good, he's married...

They're not the hairy hunters!"He is equally enthusiastic about his work with Michael Jackson "He responded to me wonderfully," says Beechy "We were together for about 31 days We just went through a whole process together We got on incredibly well. So he was just a person to me."And the results? "It worked out all right Just look at him. It was the maleness thing, because so many men are suffering. And men have to come out and own up to their feelings and insecurity. "To have a man with an eating disorder to do the foreword is great," he says, "and especially him But it wasn't so much to sell the book.

Elton has followed up this endorsement with a second one, for Beechy's new book on eating disorders Beechy is suitably grateful. They think, if he can do it, so can I."Elton John not only came out on GMTV, but also wrote the preface to Colclough's first book, about how to stop drinking ("I am now convinced that those of us too proud, too arrogant or too frightened to ask for help need people like Beechy to nourish us and help us claw our way back into existence."). He tells me that Elton John "suffered from cross-addiction" (this is Beechy's big theory: it means that addicts often abuse lots of different things - food, sex, alcohol). I remark on how open Elton John has been about his shameful past (the mountains of cocaine and doughnuts), and about his recovery."We worked on the shame," says Beechy "We worked on the guilt We worked on the darker side of him And we also worked on the point that you're OK And he is so OK Look at him! He's come out and helped people. Beechy himself seems to feel no embarrassment in talking about his famous clients (who appear to have recommended him to each other, in the same way as they might pass on a reliable hairdresser or accountant). Indeed, there have been any number of high profile members of Alcoholics Anonymous indulging in what Lefever calls "the American breast-beating theatrical confessional", as if it were as fashionable as drugs were earlier in their careers.