THE Ordinary Boys have broken a ten-year hiatus with a self-titled comeback album this autumn, backed up by a 27-date tour that sets foot in York at The Duchess on Sunday.

Not that it has been all quiet on the Preston front. The band leader had his extra 15 minutes of Andy Warholian fame in Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 and his subsequent marriage to fellow contestant Chantelle Houghton, before settling into a steady day job as a songwriter to the stars.

He has penned a number one for Olly Murs, Heart Skips A Beat, written for Example and co-written John Newman's Goodnight Goodbye and the Kylie Minogue/Enrique Iglesias duet Beautiful. Cher covered his 2005 solo song Dressed To Kill on her Closer To The Truth album after he "wimped out of releasing it".

The Ordinary Boys had split in 2008, but Preston – his first name is Samuel – sensed there was unfinished Ordinary Boys business and so he linked up with two fellow founder members, bassist James Gregory and drummer Charlie ‘Chuck’ Stanley, plus new member Louis Jones, from the power-pop band Spectrals, on guitar.

Preston had met Louis stage-diving at a Cribs gig. "I knew immediately that I wanted him to be my new best friend/collaborator,” he says. He had contacted James and Charlie already. "I guess we've all got our own jobs and lives and we hadn't seen each other for so long, but I phoned our first drummer, Charlie, who only played on our first album, just to touch base really and we ended up deciding to get the band back together," he says.

"Then I thought, 'who's my ideal person to have playing guitar in the band?', and it was Louis. Spectrals was pretty much just him and he'd disbanded himself and he now works in a museum, not being able to find time for music, but we've managed to arrange to get this band together."

Times have changed for The Ordinary Boys from a decade ago. "It's been really good not to have to be accountable to anyone and just do it for fun, whereas it affected it negatively when you had to think about who you had to please," says Preston.

He has no regrets over his participation in Celebrity Big Brother and subsequent coverage in the tabloids. "It gave me fantastic opportunities and I owe it to that series for being where I am now," he says. "A life without risks is no life at all.

"It's a truth that everyone was paying attention to me when I didn't have the maturity that I do now. I can't believe we haven't alienated everybody, but the 'Ordinary Army' is still out there."

So much so that Preston would contemplate making another Ordinary Boys album."But it's costly to be in a band, so I'll have to make some more money first from my songwriting," he says.