2022 TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED

2022 TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED! I cannot wait to finally be able to play songs from ‘The Art of Losing’ for you all on my first proper headline tour Join me in 2022 for all this and more...

11th March - Guildford Boileroom

12th March - Gloucester Guildhall

13th March - Hebden Bridge Trades Club

14th March - Hull Central Library

28th April - Cambridge Storey Fields

1st May - London Queen Elizabeth Hall

2nd May - Brighton Komedia

3rd May - Bristol Thekla

5th May - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

6th May - Birmingham Institute

25th May - Manchester Deaf Institute

26th May - Liverpool The Leaf

11th June - Wakefield Long Division Festival

THE ART OF LOSING NOMINATED FOR WELSH MUSIC PRIZE

I am absolutely thrilled to be nominated for this year’s Welsh Music Prize for 'The Art of Losing'. As someone proudly of Welsh bones and blood (and who’s been bravely learning the language for the past few years despite that verb construction doing its best to defeat me ) it's a huge honour to be nominated alongside so many other amazing Welsh talents.

ELTON JOHN INTERVIEWS THE ANCHORESS

I was absolutely thrilled to be the specila guest on Elton John’s radio show Rocket Hour this week where we chatted about the album and he was telling the world about how ‘The Art of Losing’ is one of his “favourite records of the year”! What an honour!

You can watch the video clips on my social channels right now and listen back to the whole programme at apple.co/Elton

THE ANCHORESS TO SUPPORT MANIC STREET PREACHERS ON TOUR

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be headed out on tour with Manic Street Preachers this Autumn! Can’t wait to be back on the road. Imagine how great it will feel?

26th September NEWCASTLE, O2 City Hall

28th September EDINBURGH, Usher Hall

29th September DUNDEE, Caird Hall

1st October STOKE-ON-TRENT, Victoria Hall

2nd October MANCHESTER, O2 Apollo

4th October YORK, Barbican

5th October GLASGOW, Barrowland Ballroom

7th October LEEDS, O2 Academy

8th October PORTSMOUTH, Guildhall

10th October BOURNEMOUTH, O2 Academy

11th October CAMBRIDGE, Corn Exchange

13th October BATH, Forum

14th October BRIGHTON, Dome

THE EXCHANGE feat. JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD PREMIERES WITH NME

Ahead of the release of her new album, The Art of Losing, The Anchoress unleashes a brand new duet with James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers on March 9th. 'The Exchange' is the fourth track to be taken from The Art of Losing, the forthcoming second album from Welsh producer and multi-instrumentalist The Anchoress (aka Catherine Anne Davies), to be released on March 12th via Kscope on 2LP, CD, and 3CD limited edition hardback.

‘The Exchange’ is an epic dark-rock anthem featuring the powerhouse vocal of the Manics’ James Dean Bradfield in a duet that examines the destructive dynamic created by “a world that sees people as puppets rather than as human beings”. It is accompanied by a powerful video directed by young filmmaker JJ Eringa that explores the exploitation of a young woman trapped inside a purgatorial cycle. Davies says: “We wanted to make a bit of a homage to The Red Shoes. We follow her fate as she is forced to play piano until her hands bleed, only to be brought back to life time and time again when she collapses with exhaustion”. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/HLFqdfYeVJ4

The new track is produced by Davies and mixed by Dave Eringa (Manics, Wilko Johnson). She says: “I was so lucky that James agreed to lend his vocal to this track. It was written as a duet that explores a toxic dynamic created by those that see people as puppets rather than as human beings. When I first pulled his vocal into the finished track I had one of those goosebump moments where you pinch yourself that one of your childhood idols is singing a song that I wrote. The power and emotion in his voice is what makes him one of my all-time favourite singers. He’s a very inquisitive and intelligent musician. The legend that is Sterling Campell (who played drums for David Bowie for decades) also very kindly agreed to guest on the track. He was a dream to work with and he nailed it straight away in a remote session from his studio in New York. We first met while I was touring in Australia and Sterling was also playing with the mighty B-52s. We struck up a friendship through Mario McNulty (also part of the Bowie cohort) and the rest is musical history…”

Read more + watch the video over at NME now. https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-anchoress-shares-video-for-the-exchange-featuring-manics-james-dean-bradfield-2896680

THE SUNDAY TIMES ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Thank you The Sunday Times Magazine for making ‘The Art of Losing’ their ALBUM OF THE WEEK! I’m just completely gobsmacked! So many of my favourite albums have been discovered by reading Dan Cairn’s reviews. I wouldn’t have discovered the amazing Jennifer Terran if it wasnt for him championing her, so it’s extra special to find such lovely words on the record this morning:

“...recalls fellow experimentalists Bowie, Kate Bush, the Cure, Talk Talk and Tori Amos. A brave and inspirational album. And what a remarkable artist.” — Sunday Times Album of the Week

The album is out on Friday! x

Mail on Sunday's Album of the Week

Blown away to be Album of the Week in BOTH The Sunday Times Magazine and the Mail on Sunday today . The album is finally out this Friday and I couldn’t have asked for more rave reviews.

“Davies’s voice, like Annie Lennox’s, mixes vulnerability with verve. She gets to the heart of grief, showing it’s not so much five stages as six emotions at the same time. And she turns it into something life-enhancing.”

MAIL ON SUNDAY (Album of the Week)

Read the review in full here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-9325781/The-Anchoress-album-review-gets-heart-grief.html

THE ANCHORESS on BBC RADIO 4's FRONT ROW

Thank you for all the lovely messages about my interview and feature on Front Row on BBC Radio 4. I don’t think my phone has ever buzzed so many times in an hour! Managed to get in a Bowie AND a C.S. Lewis quote, as well as refraining from the phrase “Tory B*#%*^s” when we talked about support for the Arts.

If you missed it, you can listen back now here (17m in): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000sqlr?fbclid=IwAR17D4xCXRf4hhcQUzj_wWkYaV23tV-WoiN_WgRgSiPXwzII2ch47W4erRI

NME INTERVIEW + VIDEO PREMIERE FOR THE ART OF LOSING

I was thrilled to be interviewed by the brilliant Elizabeth Aubrey for the NME about the making of the new album and collaborating with the Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield and Sterling Campbell.

The NME are currently premiering the brand new video for new single 'The Art of Losing'.

Watch it and read the interview in full here: https://www.nme.com/news/music/anchoress-art-of-losing-interview-listen-manics-bowie-2861941?fbclid=IwAR1yxe9pcm17eUJ1JO91kfJGqSi5aphqlbJHburBoh-cziUGBIZpQmeP5QU



STEVE LAMACQ PREMIERES THE ART OF LOSING

Thank you Steve Lamacq for the world premiere and kind words for my new single ‘The Art of Losing’ on BBC Radio 6 Music today. “What doesn’t kill you makes you strong, and I think this is a very strong record…”

If you missed it, rewind on BBC Sounds to 1h37m - 1h46: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rds6 to hear Steve talking about the album release and its wider themes.

p.s. Anyone want to take a guess at what the bleeped out word is?