LEGENDARY American singer songwriter Paul Simon is to play the BIC later this year.

The 74-year-old star is coming to Bournemouth on November 3 as part of a short tour, which includes just four other UK dates.

Tickets are on sale now.

The singer is half of the legendary sixties duo Simon and Garfunkel, who went on to a major solo career and became one of the world’s biggest selling artists of all time.

The November concert will see Paul Simon play a two-hour set featuring classic songs spanning his illustrious career, as well as a selection of tracks from his eagerly anticipated forthcoming album, Stranger to Stranger.

Fans will have their fingers crossed that the concert goes ahead, as Simon previously cancelled a sell-out performance at the BIC in 2011 due to a throat infection.

Released next month, Paul’s 13th solo album is set to reinforce his well-established reputation as an iconic singer and songwriter.

The record, his first since 2011’s acclaimed So Beautiful or So What, has drawn musical parallels to his 1986 masterwork, Graceland.

In an interview with the Press Association this week, Paul Simon discussed the five-year gap since his last album.

He said:“It’s not as long as people think, or how it may look. My cycle is usually about three years, but this was a little longer because it was more difficult than the last couple have been. Why is that? It just is, and I suspect it will be like that from now on, if there is a now on.”

Paul Simon has won 12 Grammy awards in a career that has lasted more than 50 years.

As half of folk-pop duo Simon and Garfunkel he scored international hits such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, Sounds of Silence and Mrs Robinson.

His solo work is equally well known through songs like Mother and Child Reunion, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover and You Can Call Me Al from his award-winning 1986 album Graceland.

The latter in which he controversially worked with South African musicians such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo during the height of the cultural embargo.

n For more information please contact the BIC on 0844 576 3000, BIC.co.uk or visit the box office in person.