Alison Moyet reveals accidental Elivis Costello snub led caused agoraphobia

Alison Moyet has revealed that she suffered from years of agoraphobia after accidentally snubbing Elvis Costello.

Speaking on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs the 80s singer she described Costello as one of her "idols" and picked 'I'm Your Toy' as one of her eight discs. However, she began to have issues when she met him after an extended gig at Southend, ending up so bad that she struggled to even listen to his records.

"I'd gone to see him play in Southend and he'd been brilliant," she told the programme. "He'd sung this two-hour set and he was formidable. I absolutely loved it, and there was a party back at Dr Feelgood's house that he went to, and I'd been invited too, and there he was and he was lovely.

"He was charming and I wanted to say to him 'you were wonderful' and had all these wonderful descriptions of him. What came out of my mouth was, 'You dragged that out a bit, didn't you?' Once I did that, I just felt, I don't trust myself in polite society."

Following the experience, she began to suffer from agoraphobia and panic disorder, a condition that affects 1.5 million people in the UK, inflicting severe anxiety on the sufferer in certain environments. "It's outside that feels odd,' she said. "There were years I didn't go out beyond working."

The singer went on to reveal that she was always an "odd girl" and that a desert island would be a welcome escape as it would allow her ro "get away from any kind of mail, any kind of inbox, any kind of correspondence".

"A year ago I took my computer to be mended and just told them to wipe everything without saving anything," she added. "That's my whole life – everything, my contacts, everything, my diary, everything gone, my songs, my demos, the lot – because I was really excited about having an empty inbox."