The Thames, they are a-changin'
She’s a mouthy young Londoner who knows how to strum a guitar and isn’t afraid to diss ex-boyfriends in song. Just don’t call Kate Nash the new Lily Allen.
Shilpa Ganatra, 31 Jul 2007
At a forgettable point on the Metropolitan tube line in London lies a just-more-than-nondescript town called Harrow, which boasts a school, Elton John and, er, the drummer from Cream.
Now it’s famous because that’s where a young Kate Nash went to her local cinema, fell on the stairs and broke her foot. House-bound, her dad and Dublin-born mother bought her a guitar to keep her occupied. And a year later, she’s number two in the UK singles chart.
Given the surprise success, it’s understandable that she’s far from throwing hissy fits backstage at Oxegen.
“Can you see any bits of food in my teeth? I’ve just had lunch,” is her opening gambit. She has an absent-minded feel around before baring her choppers to your Hot Press reporter. Luckily for both of us, all the traces of spinach/pepper/broccoli are gone. So are the mean questions I had about her ripping off Lily Allen and Regina Spektor shamelessly – she’s my mate now; I saw her teeth up close.
The incessant comparisons, particularly between Lily and herself, have all but marred her eventful year. Yet the chart-topping single at hand, ‘Foundations’ undeniably carries Lily-esque lyrics, such as the classic “You said I must eat so many lemons/‘Cause I am so bitter/I said I’d rather be with your friends, mate/‘Cause they are much fitter.” Picking up on this, an anonymous rapper (Just Jack anyone?) uploaded a song on MySpace entitled ‘LDN Is A Victim’, which grafted Lily's 'LDN' onto Nash's ‘Caroline Is A Victim’. Ouch!
“I like her music, so I don’t mind the comparisons,” she shrugs. “Though it’s been annoying for both of us because women are quickly boxed into categories, while there’s always room for boybands or another indie guitar band. That makes it harder for a woman to be considered an artist in her own right, which is what everyone’s essentially trying to do. And what I’m trying to do. But once the album comes out, it'll be fine because people will be able to see how different we are.”
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