Gerry Cinnamon review – word-of-mouth wonder about to make waves

He may not yet be a household name but outside one of Gerry Cinnamon’s emphatically sold-out Glasgow gigs, an entrepreneur is selling tatty Santa hats branded with his thumping love song Belter for £4 a throw. Judging by the enthusiastic take-up, it seems as if everyone wants to have themselves a Gerry little Christmas.

Though absent from the Brits’ critics’ choice shortlist or any other industry attempts at pop palmistry, Cinnamon – AKA 33-year-old Glaswegian Gerry Crosbie – is gearing up for a wavecresting 2019. A singer-songwriter with no formal label or PR, he has spent the last three years building up a raucous local fanbase. Thanks to fanatical word of mouth on social media, he is now booking major shows in the rest of the UK, Ireland and beyond.

There is a sense that the wider media are belatedly catching up to Cinnamon’s giddy grassroots buzz. Radio X named his single Sometimes one of

their tracks of 2018 while new music bloodhound Huw Stephens is in the Academy audience to witness the overwhelming Gerry effect in person. (Even Boy George has tweeted support.)

So what is the Cinnamon shtick? An Adidas top, a Breton hat, an acoustic guitar, strident tunes and excellent patter. Like the Proclaimers, Cinnamon sings in his natural accent with such unvarnished passion that it could be mistaken by the unfamiliar ear for aggression. But with his ability to enchant huge crowds with only his acoustic, some well-timed thumps and a loop pedal, there are also shades of Ed Sheeran – although Cinnamon’s boisterous cover of the Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored is perhaps more of an indicator of influences and ambitions.

His own songs – primarily drawn from his 2017 album Erratic Cinematic and by now extensively road-tested – are passionate, hardscrabble tales that the crowd know word for word. They provide the sha-la-la chorus to Fortune Favours the Bold and freak out over the driving Kampfire Vampire. It is this passion that suggests even wider audiences, who don’t realise “in the scud” is Scottish for “naked”, might take this first-class warrior-poet to their hearts.

• At Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen, 18 December. Then touring until 23 December.