Ben Folds Five are re-uniting and have now released dates for the UK in November and December this year. Could we be more excited?

Not only do we have dates but their as yet untitled new album will be out in August AND one of the live shows is going to be a Christmas one.

This winter, original members of Ben Folds Five (Ben Folds, Darren Jessee, Robert Sledge) will return to the United Kingdom for the first time since Christmas 1999. They will be playing at least 9 shows across the UK and Ireland over November and December starting in Bournemouth on November 23.

Ben, Robert and Darren first got back together last summer to record three new songs for a career retrospective 3-CD set ’The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospective‘ that was released in October of last year. After enjoying being together again so much they thought, ‘What the hell, lets just make a whole new album’ and they did. three original members decided to go the distance and record a full new album at Ben’s Nashville studio earlier this year. The new album will be  first since  1999′s ‘The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner’,

The reunited band will debut this summer in the States playing just 4 major gigs in June at Mountain Jam in upstate New York, Chastain Park in Atlanta, the Bonnaroo festival, and wrapping up at Milwaukee SummerFest. Following the upcoming August release of the album, Ben Folds Five will play a full North American tour in September-October, drop down to Australia and then begin the UK/Ireland run of dates.

Ben Folds Five dates

November

23 Bristol  O2 Academy

24 Nottingham Rock City

26 Dublin Vicar Street

29 Apollo Manchester

30 Glasgow Academy

December

01 Leeds O2 Academy

02 Birmingham  O2 Academy

04 Brixton O2 Academy