Reading 2012: Deaf Havana, Main Stage

It’s a much coveted slot, opening the main stage on the first day of Reading Festival. And as such, there’s quite a lot of competition. Some of the people watching you there will want you to fail, more than anything just so they can give you a bit of grief, but of course the vast majority will be there in support. And when it’s the vast majority of potentially the biggest crowd ever pulled by a Reading main stage opener, that’s no laughing matter.

Deaf Havana have a particularly poignant predicament when it comes to the aforementioned slot. Writing a song entirely based on the fact that your mates (Young Guns) get to do it and you don’t because you’re still playing the Purple Turtle on New Year’s Eve leaves you in an awkward position when it comes to how to go about closing your opening slot. Do you: a) go in all guns blazing and celebrate how far you’ve come in the hope that the crowd are on your side; or b) shuffle around the whole thing and pretend it never happened?

Luckily, Deaf Havana opt for the former, closing a gorgeously humble set with complete self-depreciation that leaves their ever expanding audience with no choice but to show them just why they’d bothered to get up, out of bed and over to see them.