Deaf School
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Deaf School were a late 1970s English band from Liverpool. Their style was somewhere in between pub rock, punk, glam rock and art rock. They disbanded after their third album. The journalist, author and founder of 'Mojo' Paul Du Noyer described them thus: " 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 city's 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. Their impact on the city is with us to this day." Their members carried on in music business; singer Bette Bright went solo, Clive Langer became one of the foremost producers of the 80's/90's producing Madness, Morrissey, David Bowie, Dexies Midnight Runners and Bush amongst others, Steve Lindsey formed the hit band The Planets scoring a Top Of The Pops appearance with his song 'Lines', Enrico Cadillac (real name: Steve Allen) joined Ian Broudie (former member of Big in Japan) to form the Original Mirrors who released two albums. Allen later formed The Perils Of Plastic with former Attraction's keyboard player Steve Nieve before going onto a successful pan european solo career, later taking on the management of Espiritu as well as an A&R post helming WEA UK's dance-pop imprint Eternal Records until from 1993 to 2004.
In 1988, almost all former Deaf School members reunited for a live date in Liverpool, the performance released as a live album, "2nd Coming", produced by Clive Langer and Julian Wheatley, featuring live versions of their best songs from the 70's albums with guests including Tin Machine's Reeves Gabrels, Nick Lowe and Lee Thompson from Madness. Legendary Beatles publicist and the man who signed Deaf school to Warner Bros Derek Taylor made the trip up to Liverpool.
In May 2006, Deaf School re-formed for a couple of live-gigs, culminating in an extremely oversubsribed concert at the The Picket venue in Liverpool for it's grand re-opening in the newly formed Independent District on May 27th.
In September 2007 Deaf School reunited again and played several live shows including a warm up at The Dublin Castle pub in Camden Town, London followed by The Carling Academy Manchester, an intimate show for 80 people at a venue in Chester and The Carling Academy Liverpool. In December they played again at the Indigo2 venue at The O2 in London for Madness's aftershow party.
Contents |
[edit] Band members
- Bette Bright: vocals
- Enrico Cadillac: vocals
- Eric Shark: vocals
- Ian Ritchie: woodwind instruments
- Max Ripple: keyboards
- Clive Langer: guitar
- Steve 'Average' Lindsey: bass guitar
- Tim Whittaker: drums
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- 1976: 2nd Honeymoon
- 1977: Don't Stop the World
- 1978: English Boys/Working Girls
- 1988: 2nd Coming: Liverpool '88
- 2003: What a Way to End It All: The Anthology
[edit] Singles
- 1976: What a Way to End It All / Nearly Moonlit Night Motel
- 1977: Taxi / Last Night
- 1978: All Queued Up // Golden Showers / Working Girls
- 1978: Thunder & Lightning / Working Girls
