It's been some time since Colin Vearncombe, aka Black, graced us with his velvet smooth vocals. Back in the early '80s he emerged slowly from a vibrant Liverpool music scene before hitting the charts across the world with the bittersweet classic Wonderful Life in 1987. Subsequent releases faired less well and Vearncombe drifted into relative obscurity until last September when, after a seven year gap, he dropped the Black moniker and returned with what is arguably his finest collection of songs to date.
'It'd be nice to say that I'd had severe mental problems or writer's block or travelled the world or something, but none of those things are true,' Vearncombe says of his respite. 'I actually carried on working but I became increasingly aware that there wasn't a place in the conventional (music) business for me, or anyone like me. I was neither young, nor hip.'
A turning point in Vearncombe's voluntary exile was the birth of his two children, events which forced him to reassess his own life and aims. 'They are the most unfathomable creatures, and also very simple and direct in other ways,' he says of his children. 'If you pay attention to what they're doing they can reveal your weaknesses in a way you can't possibly ignore. That was part of the kick in the ass I got.'
The album recorded, Vearncombe soon realised he'd have to release and promote it without the aid of a major label. 'Someone told me: if you were ten years younger, you could get a deal with any record label in the country with that record. And I asked myself what I really wanted and it all became simple and obvious from that point.' The Accused marks a conscious return to what Vearncombe refers to as 'the old approach' - a song-based format played without the aid of drum loops and banks of computers, one which he is finding has many supporters.
'There is a real hunger for everything in the world at the moment. Dance music only goes so far and what all these oldies stations are going to find in five years time is that they won't have any old records from this period to play. 'At the end of last year I started off with a radio tour. I took a guitar with me and, wherever they would let me, I'd play rather than speak. And I realised some of these DJs were in their early 20s and hadn't ever actually seen anyone sit down in front of them and play a song! It was like you were doing a magic trick. You could make friends that way.'
For his latest tour, which kicks off at Birmingham's Ronnie Scott's on Sunday, Vearncombe will be continuing to pursue this stripped down approach with a simple guitar/percussion format. 'We got rid of the bass drum and got rid of the bass, and there's a whole new area where my voice sits really nicely. This had hitherto been a problem because I've got such a deep voice that doesn't work in rock clubs. This is why most rock singing goes up a few octaves - you can hear that over the top of a drummer trashing away. So I got rid of all the frequencies that clashed with my voice and - bingo.
'It's something I'm happy doing and people seem to like. People are even laughing at some of the jokes in the songs now they can hear the lyrics. It's like the fog clearing, it makes a big difference when you're up there and feeling good.'
The Accused is out now on Nero Schwarz. A new single, Number One, is released on April 25. Colin Vearncombe, plus Boo Hewerdine and Gary Clark, will be appearing at Ronnie Scott's, Birmingham on Sunday