The stage was set with a huge Cantona shirt hanging behind the decks. The lights were low apart from a spotlight illuminating the Manchester legend’s name. Although the Newcastle O2 Academy wasn’t sold out, the noise in the room when Loyle Carner jumped on the stage with his opening track ‘BFG’ made the crowd go crazy. Holding his dad’s Cantona shirt, he waved it around like someone drowning and the crowd bopped along with him.

"His energy and confidence on stage created a buzz in the crowd that some artists performing live struggle to generate"

It is hard to believe that Ben Coyle Larner is only twenty-one. His energy and confidence on stage created a buzz in the crowd that some artists performing live struggle to generate. During ‘Stars and Shards’ the crowd were even louder. For the lyric ‘stars and shards of glass will harm if they meddle,’ in the chorus, Rebel Kleff stopped the music as Loyle Carner - held out the mic for the crowd to scream the lyric. I think the South London rapper was surprised at the loudness of the crowd as he exclaimed ‘what the fuck’ after the song.

"Oh, and he also broke up a fight in the crowd by telling two strangers to ‘hug it out’"

Perhaps what was most impressive about Loyle Carner’s set was his obvious versatility as an artist. He switched from ‘No CD,’ a heavy rap song about having no money, to tell the crowd a poem. This was then followed by ‘Ain’t Nothing Changed,’ a sentimental song about the passing of his dad and having to grow up quicker than he would have done otherwise. Oh, and he also broke up a fight in the crowd by telling two strangers to ‘hug it out.’ There are few artists that are as talented as the young Loyle Carner.

The Cantona tour heads next to Brighton, Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester before he heads to Europe. Don’t miss out on seeing this incredible artist perform before he leaves the UK!