"I prefer to stand when singing myself as I think it improves my performance (I seem to be able to breathe more easily)."

Absolutely Scrump - you need what has been described to me as "a straight column of air" in order to breathe properly - so standing up (or indeed lying down) are the best positions for singing in! Sitting down - unless you are adopting the best Alexander Technique postural position - encourages a scrunching up of the torso - not conducive to good singing technique!

"Yes, I agree it wouldn't be easy getting about with a broken ankle. Just thought I'd ask - if the alternative would be cancelling gigs, I'd probably try to go ahead with it myself in similar circs."

Possibly - but when you have other problems as well, and are in a lot of pain, you're hardly likely to be giving of your best. As somebody has already posted, I believe Norma was (to put it mildly)not in a lot of comfort doing the Christmas gigs, but went ahead anyway. I'd rather that an artist cancelled a gig rather than perform in pain - wouldn't make me feel too comfortable if I knew that somebody was forcing themselves to perform if they weren't really up to it just because I had paid to see them.

BTW - I haven't seen anything anywhere else that suggested that Norma had a broken ankle.