Most of those who turn up to see Colin Vearncombe - now dubbing himself the artist formerly known as Black - when he plays The Attic on Monday will have fond memories of his 80s top ten hit Wonderful Life. But not the singer himself, it seems, who declares: "I spent the last eight years trying to forget about that song." But Vearncombe, who's now dropped the band name and released a pleasantly familiar-sounding album on his own record label, hasn't been having much luck. As well as popping up on umpteen adverts for everything from chocolate to banking, the mournful song has taken on a new life elsewhere. Last month a Flemish cover version topped the Belgian charts, shortly after an English version by another artist made the Dutch top three and there's even been a hit techno version of the song in Hungary.
"The Vearncombe eyebrow arches when things like that happen, but it doesn't really matter that much to me," says the soft-voiced Liverpudlian singer. "The song seems to mean more to other people. I'm merely the humble and bewildered person who offered it out there. It keeps the wolf cubs a long way from the door. Sometimes I think I actually wrote a pension plan and not a song."
Still, the cash doubtless came in handy once the hits dried up. Disillusioned with the music business after a fall-out with his record company A&M, Vearncombe decided to have a bit of a think about what to do next - and it turned into a seven-year holiday. "I won't say I was always busy doing stuff," he admits. "I tinkered with a few things. I raised two children. Time flew by and then one day I woke up and realised the demos I had been working on were nearly an album. I sat on them for a year and then I decided, it had to be indie - I wasn't going to go back to the record companies so I had to release it myself.
"I don't anticipate ever being a pop star again. I very much discourage fame - but I very much encourage riches," he adds dryly. So how did Colin get his groove back? A bizarre musical masterclass run by Chris Difford of Squeeze for faded 80s stars helped. "Chris used to go to this hotel, Huntsham Hall in Devon, which has a sort of musical theme to the furnishings, and he invited a lot of people who did the same job to come for a weekend. I went because my mate Gary Clark, who used to be in the band Danny Wilson, was going. We all paid for our own rooms and Chris put us in groups of three after breakfast to write songs, then we played them to each other. I learned a lot."
But, Vearncombe admits, when he saw the quality of musical talent lined up, he almost walked out. "I nearly left when I saw Gary Kemp there. I had to tell him I really hated Spandau Ballet. But he was a really nice bloke and a much better musician than I'd expected. We started writing a song but didn't finish it." The mind, frankly, boggles at what that would have sounded like. Sadly, Gary won't be appearing with Vearncombe on his tour, since it's a purely solo effort. He refreshingly admits: "I was thrown back on my own devices because there isn't a promoter in the country who would pay for me to take a band on tour at the moment. It's a kind of exercise in reminding people that I'm alive." And having, by the sounds of it, a pretty wonderful life.