Kate Bush made headlines recently; after 35 years, she was finally back on stage with her Before The Dawn tour - but she wasn't the only artist to make a remarkable return this year.

Back in April, Ben Watt released his second solo album Hendra, 31 years after his debut, 1983's North Marine Drive.

Of course, that doesn't tell his full story - there's the small matter of forming Everything But The Girl in 1984 - but nevertheless, the two albums are a lifetime apart.

"Part of me perhaps wishes I'd done it a bit sooner," says Watt. "It's not easy making a record and getting it widely accepted when you're 51. Certain doors are closed, which I should have second guessed."

While certain doors may be closed, many more opened when Watt announced he was returning to songwriting. He's performed all over the UK this year, appeared on many radio stations to talk about the album and his return, and silenced crowds at Japanese festivals during the summer.

"I had no idea the first album had so many fans over there, but there was this reverent crowd mouthing every word," he says.

North Marine Drive was released when Watt was 19. He says while he remains proud of the album, he was wounded by some of the criticism it received at the time, with a couple of negative reviews saying his open-hearted, adolescent songs, full of heartache and teenage angst lapsed into self-pity.

"I can hear that now I'm older, but I was just trying to be honest at the time, and that was how I felt. I forgive the record in retrospect. There are songs on there I still love and play live; the title track for one, I play it at every gig."

After the album's release, Watt formed Everything But The Girl (EBTG) with Tracey Thorn, who he'd met at university in 1981. They went on to release 10 albums and worldwide hits such as Missing, as well as get married and have three children together. Understandably, Watt might wish he'd made another album, but he wouldn't change his story for the world.

When EBTG went on their hiatus in 2000, dance music became Watt's next diversion, throwing himself into electronic music and DJing for the next decade or so. However, he increasingly felt something was missing, and that his creative side had been stifled.

The nagging feeling that he should start writing songs again was coupled with the love of words he rediscovered while writing the biography of his parents, called Romany And Tom, which has since been nominated for a string of awards.

"I finished Romany And Tom in autumn 2012, and the person I most wanted to read it was my half-sister, Jenny," he says. "She was very much the family heartbeat, we were a disparate, dysfunctional bunch, but she was the one that always plugged us back together for Christmas and birthdays and all of that.

"Just as I was finishing the book, she was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer and within three weeks of hospital admission she was dead, never got to read the book, and I went into that Christmas in a complete daze."

Stunned, as were the rest of his family, Watt was unsure what to do next. He found himself in his studio, picking up a guitar, and songs began flowing out of him, something that hadn't happened for more than a decade.

As you might expect, the songs deal with getting older, the blows that knock us all and what tools we have to fend them off. In Watt's case, he found humour, anger and disdain were the most abundant feelings, and within a short space of time, he'd written 12 songs, 10 of which made it onto Hendra.

"I think everything needs a trigger, and I felt I didn't want to go back to DJing. I started to love words again and wanted to do something musical, but I'm not sure the songs would've come out in the way they did at the beginning of last year, had Jenny not passed away like that."

As it is, the album, written in such sad circumstances and a reflection on a life that has also taken in serious illness - Watt was diagnosed with rare, life-threatening auto-immune disease Churg-Strauss syndrome in 1992 - and the death of a parent, serves as a perfect bookend to North Marine Drive all those years ago.

It makes perfect sense that the same person who wrote Some Things Don't Matter or Empty Bottles all those years ago, would grow up to write Golden Ration or Nathaniel. Where the debut was innocent and naive, Hendra is worldly and wise, although never bitter, despite its subject matter. Both albums, in their own ways, are hopeful.

Hendra is also bolstered by a number of other musicians, namely former Suede guitarist and producer Bernard Butler, whose distinctive playing can be heard all over the album.

The pair first met at a mutual friend's house party and "had a grumpy old man chat in the garden about football", without really delving into music. Watt had no idea at the time that he was going to make another album, although they did meet up to jam.

"It was uncomfortable and didn't go very well," he recalls, grinning. "It was a bit like an awkward first date, although I definitely fancied him."

When Watt finally wrote the songs for Hendra, Butler was the first person he called, and within minutes of talking, it was clear they were on the same page.

"We've travelled all over the world together since, touring, and even now we rarely talk about music," he says. "I think we met at a very key time, though. I wanted to change what I was doing, and Bernard had done so much production, and so many co-writes that hadn't really gone anywhere, he just wanted to get out and play again. It worked perfectly."

Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd also makes an appearance - on The Levels - after a fortuitous meeting at a book publishing party. They'd exchanged texts and, within a week of Watt asking Gilmour to appear on the song, they'd finished recording it.

With his upcoming tour about to start, more travelling and touring planned after and more song ideas in his head, Watt is happy to keep moving forwards, which means his next solo album won't take another 31 years to appear.

It does, however, mean the chances of Everything But The Girl making music again are increasingly unlikely, especially with Thorn's own solo career going so well.

"At the moment, it's a no, but never say never," says Watt. "Tracey never thought she'd make another solo record, I never thought I'd make another solo record, things change.

"At the moment, it would be a big backwards step. Imagine if we announced gigs? The stuff we would be expected to play... it'd bring so much of the past with it, and expectation. I am happier playing new stuff to smaller crowds, than all the old stuff to a bigger one," Watt adds.

"We're not great nostalgists and we never have been."

EXTRA TIME - BEN WATT

:: Ben Watt was born in London on December 6, 1962.

:: His dad was late Scottish jazz musician Tommy Watt. His mum, Romany Bain, is a writer and journalist.

:: His maternal grandfather was George Bramwell Evens, whose Out With Romany programme was broadcast on the BBC from 1933 onwards.

:: He met Tracey Thorn at Hull University. They formed Everything But The Girl and released their debut album in 1984, and married in 2008 after 27 years together.

:: Their twin daughters, Jean and Alfie, were born in 1998, and their son Blake in 2001.

:: Ben Watt's second album Hendra is out now. He begins a UK tour on October 23. For dates and locations visit benwatt.com