Deaf School emerged from Liverpool at the dawn of punk with a sound inspired by cabaret and classic songwriters of the past.

Here’s a funny* thing. I just tried to cue this song up on YouTube and instead of finding a video I got a message – “You’re Not Alone” – with the Samaritans’ number.

Deaf School emerged from Liverpool Art School at the outset of the punk era in 1976, with anything up to 13 members in the band, none of whom could play an instrument.

So far so punk. But while they were marketed as part of the emerging New Wave, their sound could not have been farther removed from the scene that spawned the Teardrops and Bunnymen and Big In Japan and Wah!

While their contemporaries were in thrall to The New York Dolls, Stooges and MC5, their influences were Cole Porter, the cabaret of Kurt Weill and the stage musicals of Rodgers & Hart.

The tongue-in-cheek Tin Pan Alley sound of their retro “art rock” never really took off, though they got a big contract with Warners, thanks to the support of their A&R man, former Beatles publicist Derek Taylor.

But some of the group fronted went on to bigger and better things. Front woman Bette Bright went on to form The Illuminations, and married Madness front man Suggs.

Bette’s fellow singer “Enrico Cadillac Jnr” reverted to his real name and founded Original Mirrors with Ian Broudie (of Lightning Seeds fame).

Meanwhile guitar/piano player Clive Langer teamed up with Alan Winstanley to become a hugely successful production duo for the likes of Madness, Dexys, Morrissey and Elvis Costello (with whom he co-wrote Shipbuilding).

A later incarnation of Deaf School, in the late 80s, included Reeves Gabrels (of Bowie/Tin Machine fame), and Gary Barnacle and Lee Thompson of Madness playing sax.

This was their first single, which I first heard on a Peel Session in the summer of 1976, and later appeared on their wildly eclectic first album (2nd Honeymoon) produced by Muff Winwood.

*Funny peculiar, obvs not funny haha