While adventurous fin de siècle rock acts forayed into musical domains far afield from the conventional rock idiom (country, polka, various third world traditions, even liturgical, to name a few), the sounds of the Tin Pan Alley and Weimar Cabaret still appear to be viewed by the rock generation with suspicion. However, way back in 1976 a group of Liverpool art students got together and set out to make an album that was totally fresh and current, yet also smack in the tradition of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and especially Brecht/Weill. The band rehearsed in a former school for the deaf, and ended up calling itself Deaf School. 

Deaf School were a bizarre anomaly. Pre-Pistols England may have been looking for something new to latch on to, but it was unlikely to embrace a nine-member ensemble offering conceptual takes on urban pseudo-sophisticates, set in accordion-driven mock-schmaltz. The complete disregard for the market that Deaf School displayed, of course, makes them all the more endearing and wonderful. Their debut album, with the brilliantly evocative title 2nd Honeymoon, contains track after track of stunningly executed tear-jerking melodrama. 

Welcome to the 2nd Honeymoon hotel, where heartbreak and deceit lurk behind every "do not disturb" sign, where secret rendezvouses in the lobby end in despair (from the ultra-Weillian "Cocktails at 8"), where a slick executive hopes his business trip with a female associate will turn into something more: "Five and six are on the second floor/Two singles with an adjoining door" ("Nearly Moonlit Night Motel"), where our jilted hero sits heartbroken in his room, and calls room service to "Cancel the dry martini/And call the theatre would you/Tell them.../Tell them.../ We won't be arriving.../Tonight" over the helpless plucks of acoustic guitar (from the gorgeously melodic "Room Service"). 

Both lyrically and musically, 2nd Honeymoon echoes the high sophistication of the Broadway and Tin Pan Alley greats, while simultaneously injecting into its mix of urbanity and chic knowing nods to the sleaze and base instincts that motivate the bourgeois in their upward climb. In "Knock Knock Knocking," over the Music Hall oompah-oompah of the rhythm section, our male protagonist complains bitterly to his girlfriend that he has no use for her: "I'd hit hit hit hit hit you if you weren't small." In the end though, it transpires that that's exactly what they both want anyway, and life goes on... 

In the album closer, "Final Act," vocalist Bette Bright sings a ballad to her reflection in her dressing room mirror, having just finished the last performance of the evening. Yet as she's singing of curtain calls and bouquets of flowers with a Weltschmerz worthy of Lotte Lenya, after an album of dreams gone sour, broken hearts, and suicide threats, the listener can't help but suspect that it's far from Broadway where she's been performing. 

Deaf School released two more albums before calling it quits (1977's Don't Stop the World, and 1978's English Boys/Working Girls). While neither achieves the dizzying conceptual and musical heights of the debut, both occasionally come close (most notably on DSTW's "Taxi" and EB/WG's "Morning After"). Deaf School's Clive Langer went on to release a solo LP with support from The Boxes, and became a star go-to producer with partner Alan Winstanley, producing Madness and Elvis Costello, among many others. Much later, in 2015/16, Langer released a few more sides of fine Kinks-ish front-room pop, though to little commercial end, alas. Bette Bright took a temp position with Gruppo Sportivo before releasing a lovely solo album with The Illuminations, featuring Langer, former Yacht Henry Priestman, and future Lightning Seed Ian Broudie (an early Langer/Winstanley production). Vocalist Steve Allen formed Original Mirrors with Broudie, former Honeybus drummer Pete Kircher, and bassist extraordinaire Phil Spalding, releasing two albums of exciting and theatrical dance-rock, scoring no hits. Allen went on to release a series of singles in a slick eurodisco vein to little fanfare. Bassist Steve Lindsey, whose Planets released a very spiffy debut shortly after Deaf School's demise, went into retrograde after the Planets second album, Spot, stiffed. In 2010, Lindsey quietly released a delightful rummage-sale collection of tracks called Swinging Suburbia, the highlight of which is a breathtaking return to the spotlight for Bette Bright on the stunning walking ballad "The Rain Song"; sheer magnificence!

Most notably, like a bolt from heaven, a re-assembled Deaf School released a 2010 single, The Survivor Song, quickly followed by a magnificent 2011 EP, Enrique + Bette xx, that merged the high theatricality of 2nd Honeymoon and Don't Stop the World with the bracing rock muscle of English Boys/Working Girls; a remarkable achievement. Two more projects have thus far followed: 2015's Launderette lp (a mix of new studio and live recordings), and the all-new lp Let's Do This Again Next Week, from 2017. Parigi My Dear (2021) recaps their recent studio material, along with a few bonus goodies.

DEAF SCHOOL

Graphical Discography

Bette Bright (Ann Martin) - vocals
Enrico Cadillac (Steve Allen) - vocals
Eric Shark (Sam Davis)- vocals
 Cliff Hanger (Clive Langer)- guitar
Steve "Mr. Average" Lindsey - bass
The Reverend Max Ripple (John Wood) - keyboards
Ian Ritchie - sax
Tim Whittaker - drums 

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What a Way to End It All / Nearly Moonlit Night Motel
(Warner Bros. K 16812 7)

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1977

DON'T STOP THE WORLD
1. Don’t Stop the World
2. What a Jerk
3. Darling
4. Everything for the Dancer
5. Capaldi’s Café
6. Hypertension Yeah Yeah Yeah
7. It’s a Boy’s World
8. Rock Ferry
9. Taxi
10. Operator

(Warner Bros. K 56364)

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Taxi / Last Night
(WarnerBros. K 16870)

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1978

ENGLISH BOYS / WORKING GIRLS
1. Working Girls
2. Golden Showers
3. Thunder and Lightning
4. What a Week
5. Refugee
6. Ronnie Zamora (My Friend Ron)
7. English Boys (with Guns)
8. All Queued Up
9. I Wanna Be Your Boy
10. Morning After
11. Fire
12. O. Blow

(Warner Bros. K 56450)

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All Queued Up / Golden Showers / Working Girls
(Warner Bros. K 17087) 

Thunder and Lightning / Working Girls
(Warner Bros. K 17100) 

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1988

2nd COMING
1. What a Way to End It All
2. Shake Some Action
3. Ho Jo Hi
4. Nearly Moonlit Night Motel
5. Taxi!
6. Ronnie Zamora
7. Thunder & Lightning
8. Blue Velvet
9. Princess Princess
10. I Wanna Be Your Boy
11. Lines
12. Capaldi’s Café
13. 2nd Honeymoon
14. Final Act

(Live in Liverpool, Demon Fiend 135)

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2010

The Survivor Song / Knock Knock Knocking / Capaldi's Cafe

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2011

ENRICO + BETTE xx
1. You Turn Away
2. The Enrico Song
3. I Know I Know
4. Goodbye to All That
5. Scary Girlfriend

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2015

Launderette
1. Last Night
2. Broken Down Aristocrats
3. Launderette
4. Get Set Ready Go
5. Geraldine
6. Where's The Weekend
7. Don't Open The Door Bette
8. Liverpool 8
9. Darling
10. Places & Things
11. All Queued Up
12. Falkner & Hop
13. It Should've Been Me  (1988)

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2017

Let's Do This Again Next Week
1. Tap to Snooze
2. The Fabulous Miss Susan Jones
3. Top Man Top
4. Bed & Breakfast
5. Bob the Lodger
6. The 4th of September Street
7. Come on Archie!
8. Skylon
9. Fantastic Fish
10. Loving You
11. Doctor Vodker