School fund-raising concerts might usually evoke images of drafty halls, stage fright and lacklustre cheese sandwiches, rather than the glamorous world of pop music.

But that was what 45 parents and children at a £5 event at a Kingston special needs school experienced when Cat Stevens dropped in unannounced for an impromptu set.

The platinum-selling folk-pop singer-songwriter, known as Yusuf Islam since converting to Islam in 1977, visited Bedelsford school on Saturday, September 24.

Alun Davies, a father of a teacher at the school, has played the guitar with Mr Islam since the 1960s, and had joined him on stage at the O2 Arena for the Peace One Day concert three days earlier.

Damian Wilson, chair of the Bedelsford School Association, said: “I have asked for the past three years if there was any chance he could turn up, but I knew he is busy this year so I didn’t even bother asking.

“We were half way through the night announcing the raffle prizes and he walked in with his wife. I was like ‘bloody hell’.

“We finished what we were doing and sat back down again, and one of the guys in the audience stood up and said ‘I have got a request - would Yusuf sing for us’.

“They had a huddle and he said yes, on the condition people give more money to the school.”

As well as posing for photographs with pupils in their wheelchairs and signing autographs, he made a generous cash donation that helped double the evening’s takings to more than £350.

This year’s visit to Kingston was less controversial than a lecture at Kingston University in 1989, which led to inaccurate international reports he supported the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Mr Wilson said: “He was very approachable. He does have an aura with him. When he signs his autograph it’s ‘Peace, Yusuf’. He had time for everyone. There was no fanfare or entourage.

“Next year we probably won’t have any trouble selling tickets.”