Behind the lyrics – ‘Concrete Frog’

I remember being very shocked when I heard on the news that a body had been discovered in Beddau, at a block of flats which I’ve passed daily for years.

There was much speculation and finally the body was identified as John Sabine. What fascinated me most was the way the body was discovered. Two friends had been told by their neighbour that the mysterious bulky package in their communal garden was a medical skeleton from when she studied as a nurse.

After their neighbour died, the friends decided to cut open the package for a laugh. They’d planned on putting the skeleton on their sofa in order to scare a visitor. Now that does sound like a laugh.

As they cut through more and more of the polythene layers, they noticed a strange smell but still carried on. “As they cut through, the stench it grew, unfamiliar, something new”. Finally, they found the body of John Sabine who had been missing for eighteen years. He was wearing Marks and Spencer pyjamas and had been struck on the head with a concrete frog.

The friends called the police and became suspects themselves. The police found it hard to believe that they didn’t know that a real body had been there for all those years and was passed off as being an old student prop.

Eventually, the police decided that Mr Sabine’s late wife had killed him. She’d kept him hidden under their bed for years before moving him outside. Perhaps she felt he needed some fresh air.

(Lee Ann Sabine, her husband John and the gruesome concrete frog which was kept beside the marital bed - Photo: Daily Mail Online)

Mr and Mrs Sabine’s lives became well documented in the media and were fascinating. They’d met when she nursed the then married Mr Sabine after he was injured in the Korean war. They emigrated to New Zealand and had five children. Then one day, the moved to Australia – leaving the children at a daycare centre.

They returned to New Zealand in 1984, although some friends said they’d returned years earlier and had been living there in disguise. They made contact with their children again before leaving them once more and moving to the UK. They were investigated by the authorities for child abandonment and financial misdemeanours but were untraceable.

Settled in Beddau, Lee Ann Sabine told her new friends she was a childless Australian former model and cabaret artist. She dressed flamboyantly, called everyone “darling” and often wore Black leather gloves. Her husband disappeared soon afterwards. Mrs Sabine’s explanation was that he’d left her and was a “bastard”. She carried on with her life, having boyfriends and enjoying gardening until she died from cancer, taking her fascinating secret to the grave.

More about the murder:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/08/why-didnt-she-confess-killing-of-john-sabine

Our song is told from the perspective of the friends who discovered the body:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-35244554

Check out this video of our first live performance of Concrete Frog at the Fired Up charity event in Jac’s, Abedare

We hope you enjoy our new song :)