When most music fans hear the name Baby Bird, they immediately think of a one-hit wonder with the massive hit You're Gorgeous in 1996.

But for frontman Stephen Jones, Baby Bird is just one of many projects he has been involved with since he started writing music in Nottingham.

"I lived on Forest Road West and my memories are of being poor and stealing 50 pences from the gas meter just to get by," he says.

"It was unemployment with a four-track recorder – just writing to kill the time. I'll be glad to come back as I've not been for years, though I do know there's trams now!"

The success of You're Gorgeous was very much a double-edged sword for Jones.

"You've got to see it as a good thing. It's something that people know me by and in the world we live in, people don't really look beyond that but that song was completely different to everything else we did. It was just a nanosecond of my life – I lived in Nottingham for 14 years and even though it was written, I didn't think You're Gorgeous was good enough to be included in the early records.

"I rediscovered the song later and was pushed to release it, but at least people do have something to know me for."

Another Baby Bird song that many people will be aware of without realising it is a song that was released in 2000, but that had little impact at the time. The song was called The F Word and it was later used as the theme to the Gordon Ramsay show of the same name.

"It was a no-brainer, since we already had the song and they were going with that name for the show. I didn't know anything about Gordon Ramsay but I did know that it would be a good way to get the song heard."

Since splitting in around 2000, the band were on hiatus. There was a brief reformation in 2006, but it seems that the current resurrection is much more of a long-term plan. Jones is already thinking beyond the recently released Ex-Maniac album. Despite having been writing for a few years, it was a call from a long-time fan that saw Baby Bird reactivated – but it was a very special fan.

"I was in a cottage in Pembrokeshire when Johnny Depp gave me a call. Johnny's been a fan for seven years and I went to see him and he put me in touch with Bruce Witkin, who played on and produced the new album. So Johnny really kickstarted the 'new' Baby Bird. I think if he'd got in touch seven years ago, I'd have been nervous, but he's just a human being and I'm one of them, so we had something in common," he laughs.

As well as kickstarting the Baby Bird project, Depp also directs the video for recent single Unloveable, a song that he also plays guitar on. But Jones has had A-list interest before, but this time Jones finds it different because Depp is a fan who is in for the long-haul.

"I've had interest from Robbie Williams and Elton John in the past, but I've never been a fan of their work. But the support from Johnny and Bruce Witkin has been amazing. We'll do the festivals then work on another album. The beauty of Johnny and Bruce being fans is even if this album doesn't do so well, they'll want to do another and another just through a love of the music. I've never had that sort of support from a label!"

The current tour showcases the current album, but there will be space for a certain old classic.

"Yeah, You're Gorgeous will be in there, as we try to do different versions of it. But the focus is very much on the new stuff."

Baby Bird play the Rescue Rooms, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham tonight, 7pm. Tickets are £9, call 0871 310 0000.

Steve Haines