A troupe of players, well into middle age, had found new audiences for their work. Coping with the deaths of core members, the survivors regrouped and discovered that their pleasure in playing together was undiminished.

The fallen comrades were not forgotten. In spring 2010 the band played memorial shows for Sam in Liverpool and London, the ‘Shark Trek’ gigs, two of them at the Everyman. ‘The deaths in the band were devastating,’ admits Clive. ‘Tim was so young and we were so young. Sam we never thought would die, he'd just carry on. And Roy, I met him a couple of years ago and he was lovely. He told me he wasn't scared of dying, and I almost made up with him that I'd kicked him out the band. It's not a nice thing to do to anyone, but he didn't hold any grudges.’

More happily, reunion shows since 2011 have featured Paul Pilnick, their guitarist from 2nd Honeymoon days, still adding that rock'n'roll firepower. We miss those members who have joined the Choir Invisible, but the modern shows do justice to their spirit. No matter that everyone else is older, a latterday Deaf School show celebrates past and present. It honours collective memories, celebrates survival and promises good times yet in store. There is an exhilaration in there: it's the freedom of knowing the future no longer weighs upon you, with all its expectations of career advancement or hip approval.