The Deaf Club was a notable music venue located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18-month period.

Daphne Hanrahan, manager of The Offs, discovered the San Francisco Club for the Deaf, and was able to rent it on a nightly basis.

He wrote ‘OK & $250,’ so I wrote ‘OK.’”[1] The first show as the Deaf Club on 9 December 1978 featured the Offs, started by guitarist Billy Hawk and singer Don Vinil, and later joined by former Hot Tuna drummer Bob Steeler and a rotation of horn players including Bob Roberts, Richard Edson and Roland Young.

Over 100 bands such as Northern California's The Dead Kennedys, Tuxedomoon, The Units, The Zeros, Crime, The Dils, Flipper, Negative Trend, Los Microwaves, The Jars, Minimal Man, Voice Farm, Humans, Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, The Sleepers, Avengers, Factrix, Bpeople, S.S.I., NON, MX-80, V.I.P$, K.G.B., Monitor, Blowdryers, BoB, VKTMS, Snuky Tate, JJ180, On The Rag, Noh Mercy, No Alternative; as well as Southern California's Bags, The Alley Cats, Germs, X, Soul Rebels, Walking Dead, Wall of Voodoo, The Rotters, Seizure, Z'EV, Barry Kooda Kombo, Vs., Fillmore Struts, Punts, Inflatable Boy Clams, Jah Hovah, Plugz, Suburbs, The Vandals, The Controllers, Nervous Gender, U.X.A., Dinettes, and some touring bands from Vancouver like D.O.A., Pointed Sticks, and Subhumans, and even touring bands from England like Levi and the Rockats would play this small underground club.

Given the unique nature of the venue and its location in the Mission District near 16th Street and the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk and arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters and occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department and the alcohol and beverage control until it closed.

[citation needed] The house DJs were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager and chef at the Zuni); BBC celebrity Johnnie Walker; and Daphne Hanrahan.

[citation needed] About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants comments: "The earthiness, I guess, of playing places like the Deaf Club seemed to have a lot more energy to them.

Indeed, punk music might be tailor-made for deaf people to enjoy, because of the constant frenetic thudding of the 4/4 beat that can be sensed as vibrations.

The deaf people were amused that all these punks wanted to come in and rent their room and have these shows.” According to artist Winston Smith, “They put their hands on the table and they could hear the music.

It was recorded on a mobile 8 track by Jim Keylor (also of Army Street Studios), DJ'ed by Johnnie Walker [1], produced by Daphne Hanrahan who also managed and booked the Club, and coordinated by Peter Worrall.

It was recorded live at the club during early 1979 and is a testament to the authentic underground punk and "new wave" scene during that period in San Francisco's music history.

The album featured The Mutants' "Tribute to Russ Meyer" and "Monster of Love" and performances from other first and second generation San Francisco Punk bands like: From the Deaf Club, Walking Dead also produced, with William Passerelli, Dirk Dirksen (Mabuhay Gardens), Paul Rat Bachavich (Temple Beautiful) & Goody Thompson: the Western Front Festival.

"[This quote needs a citation] Selvin authored an extensive article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 1979 on page 6 entitled "S.F.

"[citation needed] It documented the scene during that time and included interviews with Dirk Dirksen, Joe Rees, Daphne Hanrahan, Johnnie Walker and Paul Rat Bachavich.

'"[This quote needs a citation] Herb Caen in his daily San Francisco Chronicle column dated Monday August 13, 1979 "Have a Weird Day" said: "I don't know about you, but I find it slightly bizarre that The Deaf Club at 530 Valencia – indeed a social hangout for deaf people – features punk rock groups, such as Zen, Off, The Pink Section, Blow Driers and Mutants.

Daphne Hanrahan would do a radio show with Johnny Walker (BBC punk rock DJ) on the side of the stage, it seems.

We'd load in, and the punk bands would always get in crazy fights, especially Brittley Black, drummer of Crime, who fell out of the upstairs window many a night.The deaf people were receptive.

It seemed private, like an inside thing --- you would meet everybody and be in the family.”[4] In a conversation with Klaus Flouride of The Dead Kennedys he looks back at the state of the Deaf club.

"[4] Esmerelda Kent of Noh Mercy recalls that, "The Deaf Club was down the street from our “house” which was a ginormous storefront, 1920s dry goods store on Valencia Street that is now Artists Television Access (ATA Gallery) at 992 Valencia St., where me, Tony Hotel, and our manager (and Tuxedomoon's manager) Adrian Craig lived.

[citation needed] The DEAF CLUB closed after the WESTERN FRONT, a September–October festival of West Coast Bands, which went underreported.