Born Anne Martin in Whitstable Kent, Bette Bright was a founding member of Liverpool cult favourites Deaf School.
Criminally underused in that group, she released the singles My Boyfriend’s Back (a cover of The Angels’ hit) and The Captain Of Your Ship (by Reparata and The Delrons) with her backing band The Illuminations (which included Glen Matlock from The Sex Pistols), before blossoming into an exciting performer in 1981 on the album Rhythm Breaks The Ice, thanks partly to the help of clever friends.
The album was produced by fellow DS graduate Clive Langer and his partner, Alan Winstanley, the team behind the phenomenal early success of Madness.
Bright further intertwined the family trees by marrying that band’s singer, Graham ‘Suggs’ McPherson, in 1981. She then retired from the music industry, although she took part in a Deaf School reunion in 1988 and has joined them for one-off appearances since.
