On this day, 25 August 2007, singer,songwriter and actress Kate Nash played Cardiff Calling, based in Bute Park in the city centre.
Nash embarked on a musical career in 2005, when she started recording after falling down the stairs and breaking her foot, which left her homebound.
She started performing live, holding her first shows in pubs, at open mic nights, and an anti-folk festival in Brighton.
After several gigs, she uploaded her music to MySpace where she secured a manager and found exposure thanks to support from Lily Allen.
Her debut single, featuring songs "Caroline's a Victim" and "Birds", was recorded and produced in Iceland by Valgeir Sigurðsson, and released through Moshi Moshi Records in February 2007.
Nash's biggest musical influences include Hole, citing their 1994 record Live Through This as her favourite album. She is also influenced by riot grrrl group Bikini Kill, crediting lead vocalist Kathleen Hanna as her idol.
Nash is also a fan of Arctic Monkeys. She appeared alongside the band in the documentary Evidently... John Cooper Clarke where she discussed the influence of John Cooper Clarke's poetry upon her lyrics, singling out the song "Foundations" in particular.
Kate has also cited M.I.A. as inspiration, claiming she was her favourite artist in 2014.[85][86] Some of her earlier influences include Buzzcocks, Celine Dion, the Spice Girls, Nirvana, Mis-Teeq, the Beatles, Pink, Blink-182, and Sum 41.
Beginning in the Girl Talk album era, Kate started to incorporate elements of punk rock and grunge into her work as well as 1990s-inspired visuals, notably in the music videos "She Rules" and "Trash". She is also known for retaining her thick London accent when she sings and makes no attempt to sing in an American accent.
Her music was used as part of an exhibition at the British Library which traced the history of Cockney English. The exhibition, which ran from November 2010 to April 2011, used Nash's music to demonstrate today's younger urban mode of Cockney English.