Let's hear it for *Deaf School*

[editor]

Let's hear it for 70s wrong-place/wrong time, Brecht music hall meets punk meets Roxy Music arty Liverpudlians, Deaf School!

With an eight strong line-up that featured names like Enrico Cadillac Jnr, Betty Bright, Eric Shark, Rev Max Ripple, Cliff Hanger and Mr Average, I saw this band do a blinding set in Cardiff before obscurity beckoned.

Anyone else see them?

In the whole history of Liverpool music, two bands matter most one is The Beatles and the other is Deaf School.

If that seems like a sweeping statement then consider this after the pop revolution of the 1960s led by The Beatles and other Merseyside groups, it looked as if the citys music scene had dried up forever.

But in 1975 there came a motley band of Liverpool art students called Deaf School. And they were the catalyst for the most dramatic revival since Lazarus....

Deaf School were an inspired, chaotic live act who never numbered less than eight and sometimes well into double figures. They played a wild amalgam of cabaret and pop; they were camp and theatrical but rocked like crazy too. They were supreme entertainers.

Paul Du Noyer 2006

http://www.myspace.com/whatawaytoenditall

 

[dogmatique]

Never saw them, but one of their former drummers works in my office.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

My art history teacher was in them, or nearly in them, or something like that.

 

[two sheds]

Didn't see them but had one of their albums at the time which i loved - Cocktails at 8 and Bigger Splash off it are fine tracks.

 

[nino_savatte]

Hey, I missed this thread. Hats off to Deaf School!

 

[butchersapron]

Let's not hear it for deaf school surely?

 

[The_Reverend_M]

According to that Myspaz they're playing at the Madness after show party at the O2 in December.

 

[soulman]

http://www.deafschool.co.uk/

 

[editor]

I just played 'English Boys/Working Girls' again. It still sounds great!

How many bands - past or present - could be described thus:

The focal points were a suave young crooner with a moustache, one Enrico Cadillac, and a sexy, upbeat girl in 60s styles called Bette Bright. A guitarist, Clive Langer, looked serious and bespectacled, so you assumed he was the musical genius. There was a comedy vicar called The Reverend Max Ripple, and another lounge lizard named Eric Shark. In fact there was a pile-up of competing looks to accommodate, and a corresponding jumble of musical elements, from Tin Pan Alley to Brecht/Weill cabaret to rock’n’roll satire.
http://deafschoolmusic.com/#/paul-du-noyer/4533621272

 

[editor]

Ooh, I found some vids!

 

[The39thStep]

I saw them a couple of times but even though I tried to like them I just thought they were lightweight.
Anyone up for an Audience revival ? Never got them either.

 

[editor]

I'm going to see them in Brighton this week.

 

[editor]

They were fucking ace live!

70s new wave art-rockers Deaf School turn up the volume in Brighton

 

[butchersapron]

I've just came across a Liverpool University Press published book Deaf School: The Non-Stop Pop Art Punk Rock Party