Popular music is a fickle arena, where performers can have a shorter sell-by date than an off-licence courgette. Some super groups, such as Pink Floyd, reform and pull in the crowds, while others like the Rolling Stones drag their weary bones on tour when they could qualify for bus passes. But to make a comeback and be acclaimed by a new generation is a rare feat.

This week the post-punk group Scritti Politti did just that, when it was shortlisted for the Mercury music album award. Up against the likes of Thom Yorke and the Arctic Monkeys, Scritti Politti may be better remembered by 40-somethings for their string of 1980s hits. The band is a vehicle for the singer-songwriter Green Gartside, whose plaintive vocals lit up songs such as Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin). Like their contemporaries Gang of Four, the group began in Leeds, after Gartside was inspired by a Sex Pistols gig in 1976. Discovery by John Peel and a recording contract with Rough Trade followed. But Gartside tired of music's demands and retreated to his native Wales.

This year Gartside performed his first public gig since 1980 and released a new album, White Bread, Black Beer, which caught the ears of the Mercury judges. As well as writing clever lyrics - Scritti Politti is a reference to the work of Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci - Gartside was a pioneer of sampling, an enthusiast for hip-hop, and sang a duet with Kylie Minogue. At the age of 51 he is winning new fans, bridging the years between punk and iPod.