Lead singer Chris Martin of the band Coldplay poses at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles June 1, 2008. [Agencies]

Chris Martin says the new Coldplay album was influenced by ghosts. The 31-year-old frontman - whose group release 'Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends' tomorrow (12.06.08) - had a spooky encounter while recording their fourth LP.

He said: "I have had one experience in Wales. I woke up and there was this sort of hot air moving around the end of the bed. And it wasn't Jonny Buckland breaking wind!" Chris - who is married to Hollywood beauty Gwyneth Paltrow - has a fascination with the supernatural and the part they play in people's destiny.

He added to Clash magazine: "Ghosts are supposed to be people who haven't found their final place, right? And we just thought it would be funny to spend your whole life trying to get to heaven and then you get to the gates and they say, 'You didn't quite make it.' "And that kept popping up in my head, the idea of not being on the guest list." Father-of-two Chris isn't the only rocker to have claimed he has seen a ghost. Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher believes he saw the apparition of his idol late Beatle John Lennon, while Sir Paul McCartney also claims his former bandmate Lennon appeared to him as a peacock.