You could argue that it was barely a blip on the musical radar: two brilliant singles, ‘Yes’ and ‘You Do’ and an admittedly unsatisfactory album, The Sound Of... McAlmont & Butler, back in 1995. “We never even regarded that first record as an album,” admits Bernard Butler, “but there was so much expectation, it got completely out of hand.”

More on that later. The good news is that Butler and vocalist David McAlmont have, after seven years of mutual estrangement, released their second collaboration, Bring It Back. Recorded largely in Butler’s ‘primitive’ home studio, the album – which the duo consider their “true debut” – is the fruit of interpersonal tension, creative frustration and ultimate reconciliation, and it sounds magnificent.

“I learned a lot through making [Bring It Back],” continues Butler. “When we started, I didn’t have a manager, record company, money, group or anything. All I had was my simple [recording] set-up at home.” Nor did he have a collaborator: by the time Butler was putting the finishing touches on his new material, he and McAlmont hadn’t spoken in seven years.

“There was a lot of water under the bridge, although the press took it a bit out of hand. People were saying we hated each other’s guts, and we never did. We were both young and off our heads back then. I’d been through a lot of craziness. I’d just come out of Suede. It was a strange thing I did, leaving a successful group, and under very strange circumstances.

“We were being offered front covers by music magazines if I agreed to talk about Suede. I said no, so they said, ‘Well, fuck you. We’re not interested in this little record with, let’s face it, this black guy,’ and that’s the way it was. Then David’s record company got pissed off with me, because they saw it as a wasted promo opportunity. It was totally out of control.” This, and the fact that they “couldn’t get it together” to make a full album they were happy with, led to the two musicians finally falling out in late ’95.

Flash forward to early 2002. “I’d been sitting in my bedroom for the past two years, without anybody hearing a note I was making,” recalls Butler. “I thought about who’d be the best drummer, the best pianist. And the more I thought, the more I felt that David McAlmont would once again be the best vocalist. I wanted to make something great, and the only thing standing in my way was that I hadn’t spoken to the guy in seven years! But If I really want to be a purist about music, that should be a pathetic excuse.

“So I phoned him up. The next day, we met for 15 minutes. I gave him a CD and said, ‘Here’s some songs. If you like them, you can have them.’ The day after he called me back and said, ‘I love the songs. Let’s do it’.” A few months later, Bring It Back was done.

Two artists suppress their egos and swallow their pride in order to work together again after years of silence, and the result is a resounding success. It’s that rarest of things: a heartwarming tale in the music business.