I’ve always been dimly aware of Deaf School. The story goes that between the dissolution of the Beatles and the post-punk scene that sprung up around Eric’s, they (as well as The Real Thing) should have taken the world by storm. Championed by legendary Beatles publicist Derek Taylor, Deaf School were born out of Liverpool Art College and they were not so much Art Rock as Pop Art set to music with brash graphics and a delightfully absurdist line that mixed musical theatre with groovy, sax-driven rock and roll. A Scouse Roxy Music if you will, with a dash of Sensational Alex Harvey and smart songwriting to rival 10CC. A multi-instrumental and visually striking challenge to the scruffy pub-rock and Prog egg n’chippers, shuffling on stage in the same brown-ale stained denim they’d been wearing all week. Deaf School had style by the yard and they wore it well.

Their debut album came out in 1976 by which time their theatrical swooning seemed a little too 1975 and never quite caught on. Writer Paul Du Noyer said “They don’t sit along any neat continuum. In fact they inhabited a fracture-line between two eras, and they nearly slipped right down it, forever”. They remained, however, the very definition of a cult band. One Kevin Rowland adored them, and their style and swish informs his Dexy’s Midnight Runners to this day. Suggs from Madness liked them so much he married the singer. Liverpool, as Liverpool does, never forget them and has remained fiercely loyal – suffice to say this short tour will end with two big shows at the Philharmonic Hall. They’re here in Hebden Bridge with a smaller but no less enthusiastic crowd to burn them in ready for the weekend.

For years (in spite of interventions by the aforementioned Mr Du Noyer) I never quite caught on to Deaf School musically – I always liked the idea and the presentation – I couldn’t quite hear it. There is however something increasingly fascinating about the 1970s, as it fades in the rear view mirror and suddenly what may have sounded a bit rinky dink sounds increasingly like something to grasp at and make sense of – what WAS that?. I’m also a great believer in if you really want to understand what a band is all about – go and see them live. It’s about time. I have done my homework and turns out, their debut ‘2nd Honeymoon’ is a remarkable record that rewards a few listens but also the follow-ups ‘English Boys/Working Boys’ and ‘Don’t Stop the World’ (seen as a bit of a mis-step and an attempt to chase the coat tails of The Clash ) are hugely underrated after all.

As I enter the ever welcoming and brilliant Trades Club I am handed a handkerchief – so already I’m intrigued. More of that later. It is 50 years since their debut LP and wonderfully, six of the original line up are here to play it for us. On comes amazingly youthful Ian Ritchie (who also played the sax on ‘Club Tropicana’ no less and countless others), Steve ‘Average’ holding it down on Bass (and one excellent lead vocal), the amazing Clive Langer (aka Cliff Hanger) on guitar – check out his incredible production credits and over on the keys there is a man in a lime green suit and a vicar’s dog collar – the Reverend Max Ripple is in the house (aka the Emeritus Professor John Wood). They are soon joined with great ovation by the spiv-like wide boy Enrico Cadillac Jnr and the formidable Bette Bright who are about to take us on a very merry dance indeed. Fantastic.

They glide through most of that debut album, and choice cuts from the others over an hour that flies by. Along the way it’s hard not to be completely charmed by the interaction of Enrico and Bette – singing to each other, slow dancing and seemingly having an ongoing conversation (about lord knows what) whispering sweet nothings between themselves and putting on a proper Pop Art show- but they also interact with the crowd who- in spite of Deaf School being a niche concern, help out on backing vocals singing back every song – they know all the false starts, the cues and the false endings (a Deaf School trademark).

The band are, as you might expect given the array of talent on the stage, dazzling. Clive Langer in particular is an understated, unflashy, utterly delightful guitarist and the Rev. Ripple – dayglo crucifix around his neck bashes out some piano lines that make it very clear where Mike Barson and Madness got those barrelling music-hall fairground vibes from.

After a thundering ‘I Wanna Be Your Boy’ (one of those great under-rated tracks of their later record) the sublime title track from ‘2nd Honeymoon’ is the cue for those handkerchiefs we were given to be waved aloft, and another massed singalong followed by the traditional encores of their cover of Flamin’ Groovies ‘Shake Some Action’ and Bette, who has vocally soaring throughout gets to belt out an amazing ‘Final Act’. What a way to end it all. OK I get Deaf School now – maybe they just had to wait for the rest of the world to catch up with them and while it will no doubt be a celebratory shindig this weekend in Liverpool it felt like a real privilege to catch them in a more informal setting in the best venue in the land.