Red currants

I was freecycled some red currant in autumn. I pruned most of them back hard and put them in some really poor chalky soil (this all my garden has).

Unlike my black currants which are growing buds these looks pretty lifeless. Are they dead or slower to wake up from winter? I want to take them down to my plot - but not of there dead

How are everyone else's red currants looking in the south?

Thanks Tom thats really helpful just don't wanna take them down the plot and be laughed at when they don't grow!

Red currants prefer a soil that's 5.5 to 6.7 pH, and I wonder if yours is just a bit too alkaline for them? You say it's chalky, so perhaps a surface dusting of some sort of sulphur powder now would help. Rain would carry this down to the root areas by spring and give the currants a good start.