An Unexpected Turn

The Art Of Falling

You know me by now. When I make art, I put everything into it. Heart, soul, body — right to the limit.

As it turns out: sometimes quite literally.

This past weekend, I took a dramatic fall and fractured my right wrist. I’m in quite a lot of pain, surgery is scheduled for next week, but the prognosis for a full recovery is — thankfully — good, if slightly elongated.

I’ve spent a couple of days in two minds about whether to share this with you. I am, in many ways, a deeply private person. Over the years I’ve chosen not to disclose very difficult and dark times that have been running alongside the performing and the touring and the carrying on as if everything is fine. Some of you have been with me long enough to know that there has been quite a lot of carrying on…

But in 2026, attempting to run an album campaign without the use of my dominant hand and not explaining why there appears to be a plaster cast and sling in every photograph — feels, frankly, nigh on impossible. So here we are.

What does this mean for the album?

Nothing. I say this with a genuine sense of pride: I have been extraordinarily organised. The inserts for the vinyl are all signed — thousands of them — and were already dispatched to the label. The artwork and design? All signed off. And I finished the final sixteen bonus tracks for the deluxe 2CD edition just in time at the end of last week.

So, As We Once Were is coming on August 7th, exactly as planned.

What about the 100 Club album launch show?

It will look a little bit different to what I had first envisaged, but it’s happening, and I cannot wait. I’ve enlisted the help of a very good friend who’ll be joining me on keyboards so that I can focus entirely on giving you the best possible first live rendition of this new music. There is, perhaps, a kintsugi joke in there somewhere about being forced to rebuild around your limitations and ending up with something unexpected and beautiful.

I’m a little nervous about the surgery , I won’t pretend otherwise. Surgery on a part of your body that is quite so integral to what you do, to what you live and breathe — it asks something of you. But the surgeon is confident, and I’ve always been a good patient.

What I know for certain is this: you will be with me every step of the way. You always are. With The Art of Losing, I sat on a finished album for nearly two years before it saw the light of day, not knowing whether it ever would. And somehow that record found its people. Every album campaign takes an unexpected turn. This one is just taking its turn a little earlier than most.

I’ll be back with more news very soon — and I’ll be in full voice on August 22nd.

Catherine x

P.S. If you’d like to support me, you can do so by preordering the album here or by becoming a member of my Patreon here.

Final tickets for the 100 Club show are here.