The Randy Vicar – The Sage of Accrington

The idea behind Deaf School at the beginning was not about choosing people who could play the best. Music was in a frightening state, and normally the people who could play the best were playing bad rock music. So we wanted people who could play enough to get by, but who looked good or had something very interesting to offer. It was partly through our lack of musical ability that the sound of Deaf School was created.

At that time people's clothing was mainly very boring, it was flared loons and the girls wore dresses that were like curtains, skirts straight from the waist down to the floor, a bit bedraggled. And even glam was coming to an end, or was very commercial. The Kilburns were inspirational in the way they dressed, with old suits. I had a suit made at college with images from Exchange & Mart stamped on it, that Steve Hardstaff made for me. And seeing Ian Dury mixing and matching different clothes, I had a demob suit that cost nothing and it looked good with short hair.

The girls were allowed to do whatever they wanted; later the Bright Sisters became a bit more organised but initially there was four or five of them. They were just there because they were girls at college that we fancied or liked.