Indie singer battles back after stroke

LONDON, England (CNN) -- It takes a certain guts for all artists to take to the stage but imagine how it feels when after suffering two massive strokes you can barely remember the songs that the audience has paid to come and hear.

This is the terrible situation that the former singer of 1980s Scottish indie band Orange Juice Edwyn Collins finds himself in as he patiently fends off requests from hecklers as he performs at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire.

"I can't do that song because I can't remember it," he replies in faltering speech as he sits at the front of the stage looking physically frail but obviously emotionally overwhelmed. He adds that he is recovering slowly but it is hard work.

The honest, but heart-rending admission prompts a huge cheer from the loyal crowd, and a wry quip from lead guitarist and fellow Scot Roddy Frame, "That told you, you callous b*****d!"

Amazingly, Collins, who had a major cerebral hemorrhage in 2005, can still sing so well it's hard to believe just how close he came to death.

But in an interview with The Observer at the weekend, the 48-year-old explained that his performance is the result of much hard work: "After my stroke I'd lost all the songs I ever write. I could recognize them as mine when I heard them on stereo but I couldn't remember any lyrics. That took ages, writing them out and relearning all the phrasing."

Collins described how hard it was to cope with dysphasia, which means he struggles to find words. "I'm fighting to get language back," he said, adding that, "I used to have all the beautiful words but they've gone now."

His evident determination to perform again means the concert is truly inspirational. Frame, former lead singer of Aztec Camera and widely regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, plays as if possessed, and exchanges looks with the singer that speak of total admiration.

On Orange Juice favorites "Falling and Laughing" and the now-poignant "Rip it Up," as well as his big 1995 hit "A Girl Like You," close your eyes and it could still be the rich-voiced Edwyn Collins who inspired many of the jangly guitar indie bands from Primal Scream to the Thrills.

But after a blistering encore of post-punk classic "Blue Boy," it is clear, as Collins is gently guided from the stage by a carer, how lucky we are to have him with us at all. E-mail to a friend