Watch: I went to see football legend Eric Cantona sing at The Halls and was surprised by his performance

This and other chants greeted former Manchester United star Eric Cantona just before he came out on stage – it was clear many in the audience followed the team and him.

A pretty much full Wulfrun Hall gave his entertaining concert a warm and enthusiastic welcome . It was entertaining because Cantona – whose mood seemed to slip from sombre when talking about the war – to contemplative and poetic, is a man who can't be ignored easily.

Cantona was a surprise newcomer to the music scene and performed a sold out tour in October last year. This Wolverhampton date included songs from the album based on those concerts and the EP he recorded earlier this year 'The Friends We Lost.'

In truth the songs were a bit hit and miss, the ones that did impress including Where Love is Hanging Out, were notable for the playing of his pianist and double bassist, both of whom carried Cantona through the 90 minute performance.

He sang in English, French and Spanish and made a number of anti war references both during and after the songs.

There were very few football references though Cantona – who also played for Leeds United and 45 times for his native France – did say he once used to strive for perfection. If this performance certainly wasn't perfect, the crowd still lapped it up as though they were back at Old Trafford watching him doing what he was really famous for.

Support was from impressive Gornal singer-songwriter Alex Ohm who will be performing there again on Saturday with his band Little Juke supporting the Antartic Monkeys.

Paul Jenkins