Test Card Girl EP Launch at Retro Bar Manchester
Test Card Girl launches her new EP with a gig at Retro Bar supported by Manchester International Festival’s MIF Sounds programme. Test Card Girl will be joined on stage by ex-I Am Kloot drummer Andy Hargreaves and bass player Nathan Sudders whose previous projects include The Whip and has worked with Guy Garvey and Nadine Shah. Support on the night comes from artist and producer Richard Lomax’s project Granfalloon and singer/electronic musician Caitlin LM.
Test Card Girl is a solo project by new Manchester indie singer-songwriter Catherine Burgis. Having grown increasingly frustrated with an admin-based existence, and wishing to conquer a life-long fear of singing in public, Catherine embarked on a country-wide tour as a musical comedian in 2018 complete with novelty miniature keyboard. Winning awards (North West Comedian of the Year, Frog and Bucket 2018, Funny Women Semi-Finalist 2019, Beat the Gong Winner, The Arc, Stockton 2019) and growing in confidence as a singer, she performed her first (and last) gig as solo synth-folk artist Test Card Girl in February 2020, with all subsequent gigs immediately being cancelled due to the dawning of a global pandemic. With live performance not possible, Catherine turned her attention to recording and released her first single ‘Holds Me Down’ in 2020.
The single was picked up by BBC 6Music, Radio X, Absolute Radio and XS Manchester and she was named Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6 Music ‘One to Watch’ in January 2021. Catherine was awarded an Arts Council grant to make a further 3 singles in 2021 and is currently working on her debut EP ‘Fly’ with producer Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios, Manchester.
Test Card Girl’s music ranges from lo-fi bedroom pop to simple indiefolk songs, influenced in equal parts by the standard-issue musical taste of a 90’s Manchester teenager; an obsession with the MIDI sounds of childhood keyboards past and finger-picking folk songs of old. In January 2022 Catherine was announced as one of 10 Manchester International Festival MIF Sounds artists and will be performing live throughout 2022.
