Deaf Havana - The Venue, Derby

 I seem to have been caught up in one of those periods of life when there's so much happening that there isn't time to blog about it - which is basically an excuse for not having posted pics of a Deaf Havana gig at Derby's The Venue from about a fortnight ago. Here they are ...

If you've not heard of Deaf Havana, they're a rock band from King's Lynn in Norfolk, which somehow doesn't seem like the obvious place to form a rock band but apparently there's little else to do in Norfolk. Anyway, I've been listening to them for a long time, originally due to my youngest daughter discovering them, and in a roundabout way it was because of them that we first visited King's Lynn and Hunstanton while holidaying in Norfolk.

It's taking some time for me to get back to 'normal' after this last year, and it's been ages since I went out to a gig (Skinny Lister back in April). We'd bought tickets in advance and to be honest if we hadn't I might have bailed on going out. Deaf Havana are loud and noisy, but with a lot of angst and anguish in their lyrics - maybe not the kind of songs I want to hear at the moment. But ... all sorts of people say going out, listening to music, hanging out in a crowd are good for lifting your mood, and after all the tickets were already paid for, so I went along - and, guess what? All those people are right. 

I've seen them play once before at Nottingham's Rough Trade, but this was their first appearance in Derby for (I think they said) seven years. I remember the Rough Trade gig as packed solid, and hot. The Venue's a bigger venue (sorry), and, although there was probably a bigger crowd, it didn't feel as full. Unlike Rough Trade where a lot of punters seemed there out of curiosity, this was definitely a room full of fans ready to sing along all night. As you'd possibly expect, these were mainly youngsters but I wasn't the only 'oldie' there. 

It was a good night, and in retrospect I'm glad I went. I need to get back into the habit of going back out to gigs but for now I'm off to Norfolk soon, and I'll no doubt be heading round by Hunstanton to visit Boston Square and the pier.