THE Scots pop singer Edwyn Collins has returned to the studio for the first time since suffering a near-fatal double brain haemorrhage last year.

The former Orange Juice musician, best known for the hit singles Rip it Up and A Girl Like You, is finishing his latest album just months after his friends and family had said they believed that he would never play again.

Collins, 47, who contracted the superbug MRSA while recovering in hospital in London, suffered brain damage and has had to relearn how to walk, talk, read and write.

The Edinburgh-born singer had hoped to put the finishing touches to his album last year but was forced to concentrate on his battle back to health. As he struggled to recover from his illness, Collins considered selling the London-based studio that he has owned since the 1990s.

Grace Maxwell, his wife, described his return to work as a huge step forward.

“Last week he went back to work and he’ll now be cramming two days a week into his schedule on top of all the therapy,” she said.

“He’s got unfinished business. He had finished recording the album tracks before all of this and he has been mixing them with the engineer. He’s now really able to engage with the process.”

However, Maxwell said that her husband was in no hurry to finish the record and was taking one day at a time. “We don’t have any date for the record — really any commercial concerns have been well and truly put in perspective,” she added.

“He doesn’t care when it’s ready. What’s great is that this is Edwyn’s record — it’s for him to feel happy about. It’s just wonderful to see him back in the studio.”

Collins has also been filming with a television crew from BBC Scotland, who will be documenting his recovery over the next 10 months.

As well as following him through hours of gruelling speech and language therapy, acupuncture, palliates and other physical therapy, the camera crew accompanied him on a “moving” visit to the doctors who saved his life.

“There are other people going through this who know what it’s like to be constantly fearful,” said Maxwell. “If Edwyn’s story can give them a light at the end of the tunnel then it’s worth doing.”

Russell Warby, Collins’s agent, said that he was delighted he had returned to the studio.

“About six months ago it looked doubtful if he would ever go back to the music,” he said. “It was a very difficult time and he couldn’t envisage starting again.

“But before you know it, everything has changed and he’s back in the studio refamiliarising himself with the instruments.

“His body is recovering from a huge shock but his mind — and his imagination — is still so sharp.”

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