Ben Folds Lonely Avenue Tour

In support of the his new album, Lonely Avenue, the ridiculously talented and basically loved-by-all Ben Folds and his band will be touring Australia in May 2011.

Lonely Avenue is yet another tragically beautiful collaboration between Ben Folds and novelist Nick Hornby; they worked together previously on Has Been, Folds’ 2004 solo album. The album received rave reviews, setting the bar for the Lonely Avenue, which was released in September of this year.

Of course there was a time when Ben wasn’t the celebrated solo artist he is today. Fans will remember a time in 1996 when the original Ben Folds Five landed number three in Triple J’s Hottest 100 with Underground from their debut album. In 1997 their second album Whatever and Ever, Amen spawned the smash hit Brick, as well as Song For the Dumped and Battle for Who Could Care Less.

Of course is hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Ben, who famously threw a stool at Geoff Harvey’s piano on The Midday Show and suffered head injuries falling into the crowd at a show in Japan. Despite this and the break up of Ben Folds Five, Folds has maintained a consistent level of popularity for over a decade now.

His work has included an impressive list of Aussie collaborators, including Kate Miller Heidke, Ben Lee and the lovely Missy Higgins. The amazing Lonely Avenue kicks off in Canberra in May and follows with performances in five other cities around Australia.

He recently had some fun on Chatroulette (shit! Remember Chatroulette?) with Ode To Merton and went all Youtube viral on us. He’s currently a judge on NBC’s Sing Off, which is like American Idol for acapella groups,

He’ll be playing at The Palais on Friday May 20. Tickets for the Ben Folds Fanclub go on sale Wednesday December 8 2pm – Thursday December 9 2pm. Frontier members can grab tickets on the same dates but from 3pm Wednesday. General on sale is Tuesday December 13, 9am. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster online and at 136 246.