Former Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable choked to death on his own vomit at the end of a three-day bender.

An inquest in his home town of Aberdare recorded a verdict of accidental death Tuesday.

It revealed that the former hell- raiser effectively drunk himself to death.

Mr Cable, 40, a much-loved character in the world of rock, was found to have so much alcohol in his system it was regarded as toxic.

He had eaten a Chinese takeaway meal at home after another heavy drinking session at a local pub on June 6 this year.

He continued drinking afterwards and was left downstairs asleep on the carpet by his partner and a friend when they went to bed.

Mr Cable was found unconscious on the floor of his luxury home in Llwydcoed, Aberdare, south Wales, in the early hours of the following morning.

Partner Rachel Jones, 33, who had come downstairs to check on him at about 5.30 a.m., ran hysterically into the street in her dressing gown.

In a bizarre twist, she flagged down the first car she saw to find Aaron Cable at the wheel, a cousin of the drummer’s on the way to work in Pembrokeshire.

Detective Sergeant Richie Jones, giving evidence at the inquest, said Aaron Cable went into the house and saw his famous relative unconscious on the floor.

He went over to him and said “come on Stu wake up it’s Aaron,” Detective Jones said.

“He pushed him on to his back, wiped the vomit from his mouth with a cloth and started CPR,” he added.

He said an ambulance was called but when paramedics arrived they were no more successful at reviving him than his relative.

The drummer was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Detective Jones began giving evidence yesterday by telling the inquest about Mr Cable’s movements over the three days before his death.

On June 4, Mr Cable had gone to a local rugby club with his partner and had sung there publicly with her.

“He had been drinking large amounts of vodka and did not appear to be his usual outgoing self,” he said.

He returned home at 2 a.m. where he continued drinking, he said.

The following day he hosted his BBC Wales radio show but immediately went to local pub the Welsh Harp afterwards.

His partner was woken to the loud strains of AC/DC early that morning and discovered he had returned home with friends, he said.

They continued drinking vodka and Jack Daniel’s, a Tennessee whiskey, into the early hours of the morning.

Mr Cable awoke in the late afternoon and after trying and failing to arrange a visit to his son with his first wife, went to the Welsh Harp pub again.

He stayed there until late, returning home with a friend by taxi carrying a takeaway meal which he, the friend and his partner shared.

“He was extremely drunk at that point but despite this he proceeded to get a bottle of vodka out of the fridge and drink it neat,” the detective said.

He added that later he would also begin drinking Jack Daniel’s.

Aberdare coroner Peter Maddox said post mortem results on Mr Cable found the high level of alcohol in his body was in the toxic range.

Large amounts of food debris found in his respiratory system were the result of vomiting triggered by acute alcohol poisoning.

The death of Mr Cable was greeted by an outpouring of grief in the community where he grew up and went on to fame.

Up to 5,000 fans brought Aberdare to a standstill at the start of a public funeral service for the much-loved drummer.

Tearful fans thronged the streets and applauded as his coffin was taken to church by horse-drawn carriage.

They were then treated to the raucous sounds of a heavy metal band relayed into the street live as they played inside the church.

Mr Cable was an acknowledged fan of the rock and roll life-style and once predicted he would never live to see the age of 40.

Stars who suffered same fate

• Last month fans were marking the 40th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix. The left-handed guitar guru was found in his flat in London’s Lansdowne Crescent after choking on his vomit after a barbiturate overdose.

• Scottish-born AC/DC singer Bon Scott was renowned for an enormous appetite for drink. In February 1980, the 33-year-old passed out after a night of boozing at the north London venue Music Machine, now renamed Koko. He was left to sleep in a car and was discovered dead the next morning. He was said to have inhaled his vomit although the official cause was listed as acute alcohol poisoning.

• Little over seven months later, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was heading to rehearsals for the band’s tour. En route he drank 16 shots of vodka and carried on drinking as he practised with the band. Mr Bonham fell asleep at guitarist Jimmy Page’s house near Windsor and was put to bed where he choked on his vomit. The inquest found he had consumed 40 shots in total.

• The cause of death is by no means restricted to rock music. US bandleader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey was a leading figure in the big band era who played alongside cornet legend Bix Beiderbecke. He choked after being heavily dosed on sleeping pills which meant he did not wake when he was sick after a heavy meal.

• The ubiquity of vomit-choking in the rock world was not lost on the team behind the music spoof This Is Spinal Tap. One of the band’s drummers, Eric “Stumpy Joe” Childs, choked on vomit after performing on four of the band’s albums. The twist was that it was someone else’s vomit, although whose precisely was never established. As guitarist Nigel Tufnel said: “You can’t really dust for vomit.”