Dave headlined Reading Festival on August 29, taking the main stage, now named The Grid, at Little John's Farm for the first time since 2022. The South London rapper filled a 16 song set with three guests, a string section and a run of the songs that made him the youngest solo artist ever to headline the festival four years ago, when he was 24.
James Blake came out first, for a version of Both Sides Of A Smile from Dave's 2021 album We're All Alone In This Together. Later, the extended guitar riff from The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army was used as the way into Thiago Silva. Kano then joined for the 2023 freestyle Three P's and for Chapter 16, and the two embraced onstage at the end of it.
Central Cee arrived to lift the tempo with Sprinter, their 2023 single, before fireworks went up over Starlight and Raindance to finish. The strings were on stage repeatedly through the night, including for the title track of The Boy Who Played The Harp.
The set was the penultimate date of the world tour behind that album, which was due to wrap at Leeds Festival the following day. Dave released the record last October with Blake on History and Kano on Chapter 16, along with Jim Legxacy, Tems and Nicole Blakk, and it has since been nominated for this year's Mercury Prize.
NME gave the album four stars, calling it vivid and thought-provoking while questioning whether the writing had drifted from the generation it set out to speak for. The Reading set answered part of that by leaning on the older material, with Verdansk, Clash, Location, Screwface Capital, Professor X and Funky Friday all in the running order.
His 2022 headline slot brought out AJ Tracey for Thiago Silva and Stormzy for Clash and earned a five star review. This one was the harder shift: a Saturday co-headline with RAYE, on a weekend where the festival was running Spotify playlist tie-ins and pulling in secret sets, on a bill where UK hip-hop took both of the weekend's biggest slots. More of the weekend's rock and rap news is on the festival tracker.
The facts
- Dave headlined Reading's main stage on August 29.
- James Blake joined him for Both Sides Of A Smile.
- Kano appeared for Three P's and Chapter 16.
- Central Cee came out for Sprinter.
- It was his first Reading headline slot since 2022.
- The show was the second to last date of The Boy Who Played The Harp world tour.
- The album is nominated for this year's Mercury Prize.
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