The Deaf School reunion in the summer of 1988 was one of those occasions that felt like, well, an occasion. But if you’re not from Liverpool you might be forgiven for not knowing about them. They were very much a cult band, and massive in their home city. (If you don’t know them, please scroll down for videos.)
Here’s my Melody Maker review and, for a bit of background on the group, an interview from the Liverpool Daily Post. Re-reading this, I had to laugh at the claim that there wouldn’t be another reunion for ten years. They were back the following year, and they’re still at it: there are gigs lined up for August and December 2023.
DEAF SCHOOL
Hardman House, Liverpool/Red Lion, Eaton
MELODY MAKER, July 23, 1988
DEAF School's second honeymoon was enough to make you forget about nostalgia. Ten years after the group split up, there were faces in the audience young enough to have not possibly been there first time around. And still fighting to get to resident sex symbol Enrico Cadillac Jr. You could love a group for giving a singer a name like that. I never loved them before (not seeing them in their prime was to do with time and place) but this three days affair has put an end to impartiality.
Love not money got these people back together. After all, Clive Langer (guitar) is doing alright producing and the rest are doing alright doing other things. No pressure but a lot of professionalism meant that the Deaf School unleashed on home ground after London warm-ups were better than most new, eyes-on-career, genuine 1988 groups.
Suddenly there they are, singing with joyous irony "What A Way To End It All" and the 10 years don't show at all. Enrico is still street elegant, suave and sweat together. Bette Bright still shimmies with style, and Eric Shark is still killingly cool (betrayed only by a grin). Rev Max Ripple still wears a dog collar. And bondage suit. And deadpans the first Liverpool gig with, "It's good to I see so many young people here tonight".
And the audience are still doing the actions for the mini-drama "Taxi" and still applauding Bette as she reaches the high note on "Final Act". And really nostalgia is quite irrelevant because this is just a good group.
Somewhere between Roxy Music and The Clash, with one step forward and two steps back to, say, The Coasters, they also add a bit of Mersey film noir, a little camp, a bit of torch singing, and much imagination. In the set, everything happens, and in the microcosmic songs, musical and narrative episodes jostle for space. There's dance and drama and the sort of music that has you high on melody for days after.
The icing on the cake: Henry Priestman reliving Bette Bright And The Illuminations on "My Boyfriend's Back". Clive Langer with "Shipbuilding", Steve Lindsey on the Planets' "Lines". Suggs singing "My Girl". Nick Lowe supporting with fine songs and joining the band at the end for "Peace Love And Understanding" (and forgetting to come back on the last night). Nutty sax from Lee Thompson and Gary Barnacle. The audience. Keeping the party going acappella during the first night's power failure (a star is born). Being one of the family.
Let's hear it for a pop reunion
Liverpool Daily Post, June 21, 1988
WHEN the pop band Deaf School sang What a Way to End it All at their final gig (Liverpool Empire, April 1, 1978), it was indeed the end of an era.
But it was also a new beginning. As forerunners of Liverpool's vibrant punk movement, Deaf School saw their influence in a new generation of musicians. And for the group members - Enrico Cadillac Jnr, Eric Shark, Bette Bright, Clive Langer, Frankie Average, the Rev. Max Ripple, Tim Whittaker and Ian Ritchie - there were new careers and new successes.
Originally based at the art college, they are all still working in music, art or both ... and now they are back together for a flurry of special gigs.
The catalyst for this reunion was Ken Testi, originally the group's road manager and co-founder of the legendary Eric's club in Mathew Street.
Ken now runs a pub in rural Cheshire - the ideal place for a midsummer party. Once the band members were persuaded to play, Liverpool dates promoted by Probe Records were slotted in, and three warm-up dates in London were also arranged.
Tickets for the first Liverpool show sold out almost immediately and the London listings magazine Time Out highlighted last week's London show as a gig of the week.
And there was something special about those early days. Deaf School's stylish ideas, imaginative pseudonyms and musical experiments were refreshingly different in the pre-punk era. Singer Eric Shark (now a band manager, promoter and Liverpool art teacher) remembers a Melody Maker pop contest in 1975.
"Nearly all the other bands were in tight jeans and leather jackets playing very heavy music quite badly." In this climate, Deaf School's eclectic exuberance had to win.
Ken Testi says: "They were all artists and they were full of bright fresh ideas." He remembers the day he saw them at O'Connors in Hardman Street. "I was playing my last ever gig, in a group called Great Day, and Deaf School were playing their very first. I went to hear them rehearse and was absolutely delighted. Every song was a cameo performance."
Singer Bette Bright recalls the early art college shows. "We used to have themes. Tim Whittaker would paint a backdrop and we'd dress up.
"Once we had a wedding theme and I went out and hired a wedding dress. With a foot of beer on the art college floor I was almost too scared to take it back. They must have wondered what sort of wedding it was."
Bette has left behind what she calls her "garish" image (fans will remember slinky dresses and frequent changes of hair colour). Bringing up two daughters took precedence over her solo singing career, and she now works as a make-up artist on pop videos. But she is planning a suitably stylish look for the reunion in an orange halter neck suit.
All but two of the original group will be taking part. Drummer Tim Whittaker, now working as an artist in Liverpool, is unable to play following a car accident, while sax player Ian Ritchie, a music producer in California, could not be contacted.
The other six will be joined by Martin Hughes (from Clive Langer's post-Deaf School band, the Boxes) on drums, and a brass section comprising Lee Thompson from Madness and top session player Gary Barnacle.
Guitarist Clive Langer, now an internationally-known record producer, was overseeing the London rehearsals last week, and Eric Shark was confident. "I think it will be better than before. Musically we're more competent, and the brass section is excellent."
Bette Bright's husband - Suggs from Madness - will be doing a song, there's a mystery support act, and surprise guests have been promised from among the group's many famous friends.
The climax of the reunion, a midsummer marquee at Ken Testi's Cheshire pub, promises to be quite a party.
"A reunion not just for the band but for old friends," says Ken. So will it inspire more to come? "No" says Clive Langer, "not for another 10 years!"
Before the reunion
Back before the reunion… A couple of videos from 1977.
https://youtu.be/KDe8x9zCpUY
This a link to Taxi from the first night at Hardman House. A further Bakers dozen available on a playlist but cannot work out how to share that link.
I read the post all the way to the end before realizing "Deaf School" was the name of the band, not an actual location for concerts. Then I found this on Wikipedia: "Deaf School were named after its rehearsal venue, a former school for the deaf that had become a college annexe." It does not appear any of the band members were actually deaf.