INCREDIBLY it's 13 years since Sarah Harding shot to fame as a member of pop group Girls Aloud. Along with Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and Nadine Coyle, they were plucked from obscurity on the TV talent show Popstars: The Rivals, and landed the number one spot in the charts as the newly formed group.

They went on to have 20 consecutive top 10 singles and six platinum-selling albums and, following a break, reunited for a tour in 2012 to mark their 10th anniversary. Now Harding's on the cusp of forging a solo music career, with her debut single Threads set for release this month.

But before that though, Bournemouth will get to hear a preview of her new musical direction when Sarah performs at Wave 105 Night Air this evening, as part of the Bournemouth Air Festival 2015.

No stranger to the area, Sarah told the Bournemouth Daily Echo: “Yes I've been down there with the girls and we played in Bournemouth back in the early days, I think it was our very first tour actually. Anywhere by the seaside is great, I am going to get some fish and chips down there,” says the 33 year-old.

“I am literally going back to basics. I am trolling the country, I am meeting my fans, I am meeting all the radio stations again, I am doing all the TV's and it's been really refreshing, it really has, I really enjoyed it,” Sarah added.

But how will Sarah feel about performing as a solo act tonight?

“I don't think I will be able to cope so much if it was just backing track and me. Because I have a more of a rock band behind me, it's not so bad, but I do miss having that banter with the girls performing together and you don't get to take as many breaths, as it's you just singing the whole songs.”

Harding, who as a child would spend time in the studio with her musician father, enjoys the ''cathartic'' experience of writing her new single Threads.

''I love that process of creating music and want a lot more say in what I'm doing, because I didn't really get to do that back in the day with the girls. It's really exciting; it's quite a gritty song.

“I co-wrote it and was in a bit of a bad mood that day,'' she reveals with a laugh.

“It's quite rock chick, which people might expect because I was always a bit of a rock chick in the band, but with a poppy edge to it. I went to do some proper music with real guitars and drums, but also have a little fusion with pop and rock in there, so it's little bit like a progression.''

The Girls Aloud clan have all ''been great, really supportive and congratulating me'', she says.

''I saw Kimberley and Cheryl a few weeks ago. But we're all so busy, it's impossible to get us all in one room at the moment. I was supposed to be there the other week when they were all together, I arranged it, but missed out because of work.''

Harding also has a budding acting career having appeared in the 2007 movie St Trinian's and last month a small-screen cameo in ITV soap Coronation Street.

''I know it's going to be a mixed reaction, because people are going to be expecting high standards, and so as long as I'm prepared for that, that's fine. I hope I've done the soap justice, but there are going to be people who go, 'Oh, she can't act'. I'm just going to go, 'It is what it is'.''

Harding was once known as a wild child and party girl, but after spending time at a rehab facility in 2011, reportedly for alcohol abuse, depression and sleeping pill addiction, she now says she likes nothing more than pottering around her home in Berkshire.

''I have five animals and lead the country life now. I've got a veggie patch and everything.''

  • Sarah Harding performs tonight at Wave 105 Night Air. For more information please visit bournemouthair.co.uk/night-air