THREE days of live music got underway in Dalby Forest last night with singer-songwriter Tom Odell, followed by Paloma Faith tonight and Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott on Saturday.

This week’s three Forest Live concerts are run as ever by the Forestry Commission, in aid of woodland conservation and development, and both Faith and Heaton will be making a second appearance at Dalby, having performed there in 2013 and 2005 respectively.

Flamboyant Hackney soul queen Paloma Faith will be playing Dalby for the second time in three years on Friday night. “I’m so excited to do the forest tour,” said Paloma, who has signed up for seven Forestry Commission al fresco shows this summer. “I did it before and had such a wonderful time. We’re very lucky in Britain to have such a beautiful and diverse landscape and I’m excited to play for you there again.”

Since her Dalby debut, Paloma has released her third album, 2014’s platinum-selling A Perfect Contradiction, and chalked up hit singles with Only Love Can Hurt Like This, Can’t Rely On You and a number one with Changing, a side project with British drum and bass duo Sigma.

Last year, Paloma sang on The Band Aid 30 charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas, in aid of Ebola relief, and duetted with Dame Shirley Bassey on Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend on the Tiger Bay diva’s album Hello Like Before. This year, Paloma won the Best British Solo Female gong in the 2015 BRIT Awards and made her Leeds First Direct Arena debut in March. Tomorrow, she will be on stage at 9pm, supported by Nottingham singer-songwriter Liam Bailey at 7.50pm.

Saturday’s 9pm headliners, the former Beautiful South vocalists Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, will perform material from last year’s top three album What Have We Become, as well as songs from Heaton’s days in The Beautiful South and The Housemartins.

Heaton first appeared at Dalby Forest with The Beautiful South, amid giant bouncing balloons, in a June 2005 concert released on DVD in November that year under the title of The Beautiful South, Live In The Forest.

The Hull band played another outdoor North Yorkshire concert at Castle Howard in August 2006 and disbanded in 2007, Heaton going on to pursue a solo career while his former colleagues regrouped in 2009 as The South.

Heaton and Abbott reunited to record What Have We Become, whose May 2014 release marked the 20th anniversary of their first album together, The Beautiful South’s Miaow. The Heaton/Abbott vocal chemistry is embedded in such Beautiful South hits as Rotterdam, Don’t Marry Her and Perfect 10 and is now recaptured on the duo’s singles D.I.Y, Moulding Of A Fool and When It Was Ours.

Heaton says working with Abbott again is “like going into your garage and discovering a beautiful, covered-up Rolls Royce that hasn’t been started in years”.

Saturday’s support slots go to Hull country singer Mike Greaves at 7pm and Nick Hemming’s smart Brighton band The Leisure Society at 7.50pm.

The car park opens each day at 5pm; the arena opens at 6pm; the shows finish at 10.30pm. Please note, running times are approximate and subject to change.