“Take care,” offers Gerry Cinnamon to a lairy Reading Friday night crowd – his second headline slot in these hallowed fields. “That’s what it’s all about. Get home in one piece, with all your clothes and shoes on.”

That’s not gonna happen. Not only is this audience built for taking this party as far it can go, but the sweet sing-along of “shoo-la-la-la” during ‘Fortune Favours The Bold’ sees a shitload of footwear flying through the air. There’s gonna be a lot of kids hopping back to their tents tonight.

It’s a sight to behold: the size of the audience the Scottish troubadour has pulled, the fervour with which they holler back every word, and the vibe of being on the winning team at the footie – and Cinnamon’s done it all without pandering to the industry, the attention of the media at large or the mainstream trying to make him a thing. His rabble-rousing Britpop and Merseybeat-tinged campfire folk has found a place in the hearts of so many – particularly the young buckethatted masses. Classist naysayers may snarl at him as ‘The Dark Fruits Dylan’, but there’s a lot more going on here.

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He’s beckoned on stage by ABBA’s ‘Waterloo’, John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, KC And The Sunshine Bands’ ‘Give It Up’ and the inevitable ‘Sweet Caroline’, before his backdrop of a giant 1970s TV welcomes us to The Gerry Cinnamon Show. From the opening foot stomps and chats of “G’WAN GERRY”, his set feels like that familiar Saturday night around the telly, that breakout sing-song down the pub, that wedding disco.

From the rock’n’roll cowboy face-off of ‘Lullaby’ and the indie dancefloor romp of ‘Sometimes’ to the bittersweet ‘Dark Days’ and the campfire politics of ‘War TV’, Cinnamon holds Reading in the palm of his hand with his straight-up charm and no-frills ditties. It’s often basic and skipping down a well-trodden path in a parka, but it takes something to grab so many by the heart with that everyman appeal.

He sticks two fingers up to the power at the top of the chain that “can’t think their way out of a paper bag” and smiles at the youngsters in the front rows as he offers, “Don’t let them tell you what to do – this is your time, don’t let them take it away from you”.

Lowkey hit ‘Belter’ does what it says on the tin, new song ‘Sacred’ finds a home easily, and there are echoes of ABBA in the closing sing-along of ‘Roll The Credits’. As ‘Discoland’ sings of nights lost to getting high and getting loose, his following oblige. You may not get it, you may want a little edge, but you can’t deny what Gerry Cinnamon does with a few essential ingredients. His songs are for the people, and the people have spoken. Hats off to the man. And shoes, too, while you’re at it.

Follow all of the action as it happens on the NME Reading & Leeds liveblog here.

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