Missing going to gigs? Let the live show come to your living room and download the brand new mini album by The Anchoress: "Live at The London Palladium" available exclusively on Bandcamp now.
Featuring live tracks recorded at the legendary London venue (and one of the loveliest introductions ever by Jim Kerr), the album captures just one of the memorable shows on the acoustic tour.
There's two brand new episodes of The Art Of Losing podcast for you to enjoy this long weekend.
My guests this time are David Bowie producer Mario McNulty chatting about the psychology and ethics of working on "lost albums" and Welsh playwright and poet Patrick Jones, elder brother to Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers in conversation about the consolations of poetry, the journey of grieving, and the very primal wound that losing a parent leaves. Available now on Spotify & Apple Podcasts 🎧
The Art of Losing podcast takes on the topic of loss in all of its literal and metaphorical forms: lost albums, lost marriages, baby loss, lost possessions, and the death of loved ones, asking the question: is the art of losing ever something we can truly master?
Subscribe & listen here in Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-art-of-losing-podcast/id1482419612
Excited to announce my biggest headline show to date at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on July 8th. Having started my music career as an artist in residence at the Southbank Centre, it’s a very special place for me to be returning. Members tickets on sale at Weds 11 March 10am GMT. General sale opens Thurs 12 March 10am. Expect some very special guests...
All glammed up at the Q Awards last night. Thanks to everyone who looked after me! #QAwards2019
I was interviewed for this month’s MusicTech magazine about the songwriting process.
Get the songwriting special in all newsagents later this month!
CARDIFF CASTLE
It's been a busy few Welsh-based weeks as I headed down to Cardiff to play with the Manic Street Preachers for their special home-town show at Cardiff Castleto nearly 30,000 people. I had a fantastic time duetting with the band on 'Little Baby Nothing' and 'Your Love Alone' and can't wait to come back again very soon! Thanks to everyone who's given me such a warm welcome into the MSP family.
I did a little interview with Aston Microphones talking about my favourite pieces of studio gear 🎤🎛https://www.astonmics.com/EN/artist-details/Catherine-Anne-Davies
I spoke to the wonderful Sharon Van Etten for The Line of Best Fit about motherhood, transformations and the power of therapy. Read the interview in full here: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/longread/sharon-van-etten-life-transformed-conversation-interview
The Anchoress spoke to the BBC about why concept albums will be making a big return this year…
Read the article in full here:
Catherine recorded a special show for BBC 6 Music this month alongside host Martin Freeman, actor John Simm, and writer John Harris to celebrate 50 years of The Beatles’ White Album.
The radio show was broadcast on National Albums Day and included 3 hours of chat, opinion, and factoids about The Beatles ‘White Album’.
You can listen back to outtakes from the show here with Catherine discussing the musicology behind Glass Onion and While My Guitar Gently Weeps: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06nrzjx
Listen back to the 3 hour show in full here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0000q41
”I’m thrilled to be named as one of the recipients of the PRS FoundationWriter Producer award.
Anyone who has been following my work over the past few years will know what it means to me to be acknowledged for my work in this field. It really feels like a tidal shift is finally happening where it’s no longer a novelty to see women in engineering and production roles in the studio, and not just behind the microphone.
I want to say a huge thank you to all the generous people I’ve had the pleasure to work with and learn from over the years.”
The Anchoress performed a full band show at the Royal Festival Hall as part of Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. As well as performing her own solo show, she late rejoined the Manic Street Preachers onstage for two songs.
NME report on the Meltdown show with Manic Street Preachers:
Last week I popped into BBC 6Music for a special session and chat live with Steve Lamacq from Meltdown. Listen back to my interview here in one bite-sized clip 🎹🎧
The Anchoress appeared as a special guest with the Manic Street Preachers at Wembley & Manchester Arena, performing “Little Baby Nothing, “Your Love Alone”, and “Dylan & Caitlin” for two nights as part of the band’s arena tour.
She said:
“There's no words to explain what it feels like to perform with your childhood heroes. Thank you to everyone for the lovely reception…”
THE ANCHORESS DUETS WITH MANIC STREET PREACHERS
ON NEW TRACK ‘DYLAN & CAITLIN’ & ANNOUNCES MELTDOWN PERFORMANCE
The Anchoress duets on a brand new track with the fellow Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers.
‘Dylan & Caitlin” is taken from the Manics’ forthcoming album ‘Resistance Is Futile’ and documents the stormy relationship between poet Dylan Thomas and his wife Caitlin, with The Anchoress taking guest vocal duties alongside James Dean Bradfield.
The Anchoress will also play this year’s 25th Meltdown Festival at the invitation of The Cure’s Robert Smith and will appear at the Royal Festival Hall in London on the 19th June 2018.
Speaking about their duet, the Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire explains: “The story itself rolls through their relationship – drinking, fighting and ended up broken by America. The conversational nature of the lyrics lent themselves to a duet so we asked Catherine (aka the Anchoress) to provide the female perspective. She’s a hugely talented kindred spirit”. ‘Dylan and Caitlin’ follows in the tradition of the Manics working with guest vocalists which started with Tracey Lords on their debut album track ‘Little Baby Nothing’ and has taken in Ian McCulloch (‘Some Kind of Nothingness’), Nina Persson (‘Your Love Alone’) and Richard Hawley (‘Rewind The Film’). The duet appears on the Manics 13th studio album ‘Resistance Is Futile’, which is released on April 13th via Columbia.
Stream and buy the track here where you can also watch a special acoustic live version of the song- http://smarturl.it/DylanCaitlin?IQid=FB
I was so honoured to be asked to duet with the Manic Street Preachers on ‘Little Baby Nothing’ at the Q Awards last week (where they received the Q Inspiration award).
As a lifelong Manics fan they've been been a huge inspiration to me and to play with the band again was really a dream come true.
Check out some fan shot footage of the song below: https://youtu.be/dQnYI7BtqdY
BBC QUAY SESSIONS
It's been an exciting few weeks here, preparing for the forthcoming run of support shows with Simple Minds. I also flew up to Glasgow for my first live TV appearance on STV (watch back here 28 minutes into the programme) and for a special filming of the BBC Quay Sessions. It was so nice to meet a few of the lucky ticket ballot winners after the show and I appreciate how far some of you travelled to be there!
You can now listen back to highlights from the BBC Session, recorded live last week against a beautiful Glasgow sunset on Pacific Quay. The Anchoress' session starts 1h05 into the programme, with a 45 minute set of acoustic versions of songs from the album & interview.
Listen back here:
The special 45 minute BBC session, featuring acoustic versions of songs from 'Confessions of a Romance Novelist', was filmed for BBC Scotland with a small string section. Selected tracks are now available to watch on the iPlayer.
Watch 'Long Year' on the iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051y54m
Watch 'Confessions of a Romance Novelist' on the iPlayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p051y58s
Photos by Simone Byrne
Last week Prog Magazine premiered the brand new video for ‘What Goes Around’ (directed by Annick Wolfers).
I am so honoured to be sharing the cover of this month's MOJO magazine with the one and only Kate Bush. 'Bury Me' is also featured on the cover mount CD, which includes a collection of music inspired by The Ninth Wave. Out in all good newsagents on November 22nd.
