In Liverpool, England, the art rock outfit Deaf School rejected punk in favor of a Tin Pan Alley approach that stood apart from the era’s dominant commercial sounds. The group assembled in 1976 around Steve Allen on vocals, Bette Bright on vocals, Clive Langer on guitar and piano, Max Ripple on keyboards and accordion, Steve Lindsey on bass, piano, and vocals, Timothy Whittaker on drums, Ian Ritchie on sax, Eric Shark on vocals, and Paul Pilnick on guitar, accordion, bass, and banjo. Their first release arrived as the double album 2nd Honeymoon. Shaped by the songwriting of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Kurt Weill, that ambitious set offered a striking contrast to the punk-driven U.K. pop climate of the late 1970s. Two further LPs of defiant stylistic range followed—1977’s Don’t Stop the World and 1978’s English Boys/Working Girls—before the band dissolved. Allen, who performed as Enrico Cadillac during his time with Deaf School, went on to form Original Mirrors alongside Ian Broudie of Care and the Lightning Seeds, while Langer, supported by the Boxes, pursued a solo path and Bright issued an album with the Illuminations, which also included Langer and Broudie. Lindsey, meanwhile, launched the Planets. Langer later gained wider recognition as a producer in tandem with Alan Winstanley, shaping releases for Madness, Elvis Costello, China Crisis, Tim Finn, and Morrissey.
