Deaf School

Deaf School is a Liverpool art rock group active from 1973 to 1978. The band forms around students at Liverpool Art School and takes its name from the Hanneman Building, a former ear, nose and throat hospital that treats hearing problems.

Line-up

The group’s line-up includes Bette Bright on vocals, Thomas Sam Davis, Steve Lindsey, and Paul Pilnick. Other members associated with the band include Steve Allan, who performs as Enrico Cadillac, Clive Langer, Max Ripple, Timothy Whittaker, Ian Ritchie, and Erick Shark. Instruments and roles across the group include vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, accordion, bass, drums, saxophone, and banjo.

Style and recordings

Deaf School’s first album, 2nd Honey Moon, draws on music hall and 1950s musical influences alongside an affinity with Roxy Music. The second album, Don’t Stop The World, has a harder punk edge, with more emphasis on guitars and less of the vaudeville character of the first record. The third album, English Boys, Working Girls, moves further towards new wave and largely loses the group’s original sound.

Later activity and influence

After the band folds in 1978, members continue in music in different ways. Bette Bright records a solo album, and Clive Langer becomes a producer for artists including Elvis Costello and Dexys Midnight Runners. Deaf School reunites for a small tour in 1988, which leads to the live album 2nd Coming: Liverpool '88. The band also comes together occasionally in Liverpool, including for the opening of The Picket in 2006. Sanctuary Records releases a compilation of the three studio albums in 2004.

Mini-album

In 2011 the group releases the mini-album Enrico & Bette xx on Probe Records and through its website. It features five tracks recorded in 2010 at Briggs Warehouse in Hoxton, North London: “U Turn Away”, “Scary Girlfriend”, “Enrico’s Song”, “I Know I Know”, and “Goodbye to All That”. The songs are credited to combinations of Clive Langer, Steve Allen, and Steve “Average” Lindsey.

Legacy

Deaf School is associated with the Liverpool scene that develops in the late 1970s, and its influence is acknowledged by other artists, including Kevin Rowland, who says Dexys are strongly influenced by the band.