Gerry Cinnamon

[Keebleman]

Anyone know this guy?  I had never heard of him until two days ago when I was booked to work at his gig at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena tonight (well, last night now).  Asked two or three dozen of my colleagues: only one had heard the name before.

Yet the gig was sold out: 7,500 people.  And this wasn't some niche crowd like we had last week when JoJo Siwa played: we hadn't heard of her either, but that was because none of us was a seven-year-old girl, her target audience.  Mr Cinnamon's crowd had an average age of 30 and seemed to fit no particular demographic other than white working-class.  And they loved him, knew his songs, bellowed and swayed along, set off flares, etc.   We were told that everywhere he has played on this tour the house record for beer sales has been broken.   Last time I was at a gig this rowdy it was The Pogues.

As for the concert, it was just Cinnamon, an acoustic guitar and some effects pedals.  (Oh, and an harmonica.)  Seems that Ed Sheerhan is not a one-off.  Unlike Sheerhan, though, Cinnamon doesn't seem interested in making his music sound contemporary, the songs were very much in the traditional singer-songwriter style, but put over in a way that energised the room in a way that would make AC/DC envious.  I'm not at all musical so I'm no good at discerning quality on one listen, but his melodies do seem to be strong and distinctive.

But my main takeaway from the gig is bewilderment at how somebody could get this popular with hardly any of the dozens of staff - aged from teens to 60s - having even been aware of him.

[BlodwynPig]

The corbyn of music apparently

[ajsmith2]

Huge dedicated fanbase here in Scotland's central belt where he's from.

As for how he can be so popular without the wide demographic representation of the staff having heard of him, it's just another manifestation of the compartmentalised way we experience music (among most other media) these days, innit? A bit like a smaller version of George Ezra-gate a while back on here, when the 'Shotgun' singer appeared on Vic and Bob's show to bewilderment from many viewers who'd never heard of him before. Back in the day where there were only so many radio stations and only Top Of The Pops on TV, you'd have heard/seen Ezra and Cinnamon whether you wanted to or not, now it's easy to avoid both by pursuing your own self curated path.

[DJ Bob Hoskins]

The Stone Roses consider rewrite

[a duncandisorderly]

>ginger spice skulks out of thread<

[Rizla]

He came into my local earlier in the year with a large entourage, all lads in their mid to late 30s with Weller hair and breton caps.  He ended up spilling an entire table full of drinks, drenching an old man. Then him and his crew all buggered off. THE END (this anecdote was originally much longer, filled with detailed description and narrative flourish. I fucked all that off just to give you guys the facts.) 

[Blinder Data]

He's been quite big in Scotland for 2-3 years and now his big-hearted acoustic rock schtick is translating across the UK. I don't think he has any major label backing (or at least didn't at the start) which is why you might not have heard of him.

Music for Oasis fans and people who love Scottish Twitter, basically

I've just seen he's going to play Hampden Park in April? FFS

[The Culture Bunker]

I know zero of his songs, but am aware he's been popular for a while with the aforementioned demographic - sort of lads who would have been in the Stone Roses in 1989, Oasis/Weller in 1995 etc etc - that is still pretty prominent in Manchester. His choice of stagename shows he knew what audience he was aiming for.

[Captain Z]

Gerry's list of possible stage names:

Lord Music
Ace Music
The Cinnamons
Large Songs
Gerry Ace
Gerry Cinnamon

[PaulTMA]

"You've got to admire his achievements though"