At 13, sweet and innocent, she was only too happy to be known as the Voice of an Angel - and went on to sell millions of records.

But now at 18, high-living and hard- drinking, Charlotte Church has become devil-maycare - and says she no longer wants to be called by the name that won the hearts of her fans.

'I think it's pathetic after all this time,' said the singer as she knocked back the booze at an awards ceremony.

'I just wish people would come up with something a bit more original.

'I saw a headline the other day saying, "Choice of an Angel" and I just thought, "Can't people do any better?"

'I mean, come on! It has been nearly six years since I was first called Voice of an Angel and I really think it would have been dropped by now.

'But I suppose it is just one of those things. In an ideal world I would just sell millions of records and never be written about.'

And indeed there was little angelic about her as she took advantage of

the hospitality at the GQ Men of the Year Awards party, clearly becoming the worse for wear. Miss Church had been invited to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to present the magazine's solo artist of the year award to jazz star Jamie Cullum.

But no sooner had the ceremony ended than she and her new boyfriend Kyle Johnson, also 18, hit the bar.

'There was a lot of booze on her table, but she didn't go over the top,' said one partygoer. 'It was a different matter when she got to the bar. She was ordering drinks and getting brandy chasers, which she knocked back. She was drinking a lot, but it didn't seem to have that much of an effect on her. It was only much later that she even began to look drunk.'

The singer then joined other guests for the after-show party at the trendy Kabaret Club. As she arrived, she

smiled broadly and gave photographers a gesture that was definitely unladylike - a single-finger salute.

By now, she had started to slur her words and was chain- smoking, but continued ordering drinks. At one stage, she quaffed Dom Perignon champagne from the bottle and had several vodka and cranberry juices.

The singer talked about her first pop album, on which she is currently working. 'It is taking a bit longer than we'd planned because I wanted to write more of my own songs,' she said.

'I am concentrating all my efforts on that at the moment, it certainly wasn't shelved as it has been suggested because it was crap.'

She added: 'I suppose people are still interested in me because I was a child star and I'm at that age where former child stars go off the rails.

'They either go on drugs or become anorexic, well I'm not on drugs and anyone can see I haven't got an eating disorder.'

Only when the bar closed did she make her way to a waiting car, banging her head getting in. Comforted by Johnson, she was taken to the Ritz Hotel, where the two spent the night.