Jazzy Angels by The Singing Loins

Chris (Brod) Broderick & Chris (Arf) Allen started The Singing Loins as a stripped-down acoustic duo in 1990, with the aim of writing honest, bare songs, outside of any particular style, coining the phrase ‘Authentic Raw Folk from the Medway Delta’.  Their first two albums were recorded with Billy Childish and released on Hangman Records.

After a couple more self-released albums, an album with Billy Childish (‘At The Bridge’), and plenty of acclaimed shows both home and abroad, the lads had a bit of a row on stage and went their different ways. Six years later, in 2005, they shook hands and returned with the triumphant ‘Songs To Hear Before You Die’. A year later they were joined by Rob Shepherd, who played banjo, mandolin & accordion, followed by John Forrester on bass. From there they went from strength to strength, releasing four more albums for Damaged Goods and touring Eastern Europe, Germany & France. They combusted again in 2013, returning briefly in 2019 to record what turned out to be their swansong, ’13 Moon Songs from Merry Hell’.

Chris Broderick sadly passed away in early 2022, having let Arf know that he wanted the others to carry on in The Singing Loins’ name, at which point Arf and Rob got together with Billy Childish again to write and record ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ LP, dedicated to Brod’s memory.

Jazzy Angels was written by Brod and Glenn Barnes before The Singing Loins even existed, for their band Dumfounded, which Arf ended up joining on bass. Brod’s ex-wife, Amanda (Maff) Randall, recalls, “Jazzy Angels describes Chris and I meeting on the steps of Coventry Cathedral when he first came to visit my home city. He loved how the modern building, with its intensely coloured stained glass and engravings of wildly dancing angels, emerges from the blackened ruins of the bombed out old cathedral”.

Jazzy Angels was never recorded at the time. Arf thinks he “probably heard a demo of it before I joined Dumfounded. After Chris died, around the time I was thinking a lot about him, I just woke up with it my head”. Arf remembered it word-for-word, recorded it on his phone, sent it to Rob, and the pair of them worked it up, bringing John in to add bass. It sounded great, so they decided to release it as a tribute to Brod.

‘Some Are Born’ was written by Arf and based on a William Blake poem. It was initially written for 2009’s ‘Unravelling England’ album but didn’t make the final cut and was never recorded…until now.

The eighty-fifth release on Spinout Nuggets, limited to 500 copies, this will be available via the label, the group and all very good record outlets.

Spinout Nuggets is a record label providing the music you didn't know you liked.

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