Stevens belongs to a small, and rare, group of singer-songwriters who made the transition from 1960s teen pop (Matthew & Son, The First Cut Is the Deepest) to "hippie pop", where the concerns of spirituality, peace, love, children, family and the environment produced a peerless daisy chain of easy-to-sing-along, and easy-to-listen-to, hits.

In Stevens' case his first two careers produced a body of work so substantial he could have filled the two hours (with half-hour interval) just with songs people know and love.

He started with Moonshadow (and the audience joyfully sang along), reached back to his first career with The First Cut Is the Deepest, was joined by his longtime sidekick Alun Davies on Where Do the Children Play?, added some classy bouzouki on Rubylove and, of course, sang Peace Train, Wild World and Father and Son.

On balance, it was an amazing performance. Stevens' voice has not aged. His band was impressive. He sang 27 songs. The audience sang along at every opportunity. And the story of his remarkable life – particularly his spiritual journey from Christianity through Buddhism and Numerology to Islam – is a tale worth telling.

Oh yes, and there was a real problem. The echo in the Arena was so bad it sounded that while Yusuf was singing on stage, the ghost of Cat Stevens was up in the gods singing back … in half-second delay.