****

The Ben Folds sound has grown up a lot since his early days singing about fanny packs and girls who look like Axl Rose and now, for his latest album and tour at least, he has a six-piece orchestra in yMusic.

The New York instrumentalists certainly add a few more layers to the classic Folds sound. Their presence in creating buoyant rhythms on Capable Of Anything and extending what could have been a three-minute pop song in So There to something more are prime examples of their positive influence.

But traditional Folds fans will still find much of what they’ve always loved; it's all still hummable as hell and on So There, from the new album of the same name, he is still mining that great tradition of bitter break-up songs.

Only on Not A Fan does the new combination not work for me, over-complicating what Folds would have traditionally done stripped back in the vein of Boxing, also beautifully performed on the night, or The Luckiest.

The presence of yMusic brings a freshness to Folds’ classics, Song For The Dumped gets a Hitchcockian soundtrack makeover while Steven’s Last Night In Town is gloriously indulgent and extended.

The night finishes with a joyous Army. Ben Folds may have grown up but he’s still a lot of fun.