Bernard Fanning (born Bernard Joseph Fanning on 15 August 1969 in Brisbane, Australia) is an Australian musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the former lead singer and frontman of Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger from its formation in 1989 to its dissolution in 2010. In 2005 he released the solo album " Tea & Sympathy". Fanning was taught the piano by his mother at an early age. At the age of 12, while attending St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, Fanning began writing music, and upon graduating from St. Joseph's, moved on to the University of Queensland, where he studied journalism for a short time. He would go on to drop out to pursue a music career after meeting Ian Haug in an economics class. Fanning joined Haug, John Collins, and Steven Bishop, who had recently formed Powderfinger, and took the role of lead singer. Subsequently, Bishop left and guitarist Darren Middleton joined. From 1994 to 2004 Powderfinger released five albums, a double CD live album, and a Best Of, after which they decided to take a break. Fanning's solo album Tea & Sympathy was released in October 2005 and debuted at #1 on the Australian ARIA Albums chart. Singles released from this album were Wish You Well, Songbird and Watch Over Me. Fanning won three ARIA awards in 2006, Best Male Artist, Album of the Year for Tea and Sympathy, and Best Music Video for Wish You Well. In the same year Wish You Well was voted in at #1 on Australian youth radio station Triple J's 2005 Hottest 100 poll. Fanning also contributed songs to the 2003 film Ned Kelly including Shelter For My Soul and a cover of the traditional song Moreton Bay. Powderfinger released their 6th studio album, Dream Days At The Hotel Existence in June 2007 and toured with Silverchair that autumn. After the disbanding of Powderfinger in 2010, Fanning moved to Spain with his family where he began writing and recording demos for his next solo album. In January 2013 Fanning announced on his website blog that he had been recording the follow up to 2005's "Tea and Sympathy" in Los Angeles. In March 2013 he announced via his blog that recording had been completed and he had returned back to Australia. On 22nd April 2013 the first single Battleships was released. Fanning's second album, Departures, was released on 7th June 2013. Since the album release, two more singles have been released: Departures (Blue Toowong Skies) and Tell Me How It Ends. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.