JAMES Blunt will play Dalby Forest, near Pickering, on Thursday, June 26 as part of the Forestry Commission’s Forest Live annual concert series.

The 39-year-old English singer-songwriter and former army captain is the second act to be announced for Dalby this summer, in the wake of Paul Weller signing up for a return visit on June 27.

Tickets for Blunt’s woodland show go on sale at 9am on Friday, available from the Forestry Commission box office on 03000 680400 or online at forestry.gov.uk/music

Blunt, who was born James Hillier Blount in Tidworth on February 22 1974, was propelled to pop stardom in 2004 with the release of debut album Back To Bedlam and its global hit single You’re Beautiful.

Back To Bedlam became not only the biggest-selling British album of that year but also of the Noughties and now stands in the top 20 best-selling albums of all time.

Blunt has clocked up the equivalent of seven whole years on the road from his prolific gigging and has issued the albums All The Lost Souls in 2007, Some Kind Of Trouble in 2010 and Moon Landing in 2013, when it entered the charts at number two. Since 2005, he has sold nearly 17 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide.

His Dalby date with his band will be part of his Moon Landing 2014 world tour, bringing him to a Yorkshire outdoor stage for the first time since July 2006 at Harewood House.

Proceeds will go towards the Forestry Commission’s improvement of woodland for people and wildlife alike.