La Roux's third single 'Bulletproof' went straight in at #1 in the UK top 40 last week, her debut album 'La Roux' entered at #2 yesterday with 63,000 sales.
Of all the pop debutantes perched on the edge of success as 2009 began, La Roux – AKA 21 year old South Londoner Elly Jackson - is currently the only one to be commanding such genuine mass crossover appeal. Her music is as likely to appear on urban blogs, as it is to be blazing out of cars and over summer parks from Radio 1 or pounding out of Shoreditch clubs. This spring she headlined the sold-out NME Radar tour, which, considering the previous year's headliners were art-punk dilettantes Crystal Castles, pays great testament to both La Roux's credibility and broad appeal. After all, not many artists headline an alternative music tour while sat at the top of the charts.
This self-possessed young girl, poised beneath an extraordinary gravity defying hair sculpture, making music that looks backwards to leap forwards, has leapt beyond her electropop contemporaries with the raw confessional quality of her songwriting and the sharp sophistication of her through-the-looking-glass 80s aesthetic. La Roux seems to know exactly who she wants to be and is fully aware she's already achieving it with ease.
After playing to a packed out dance tent at this years Glastonbury and a rip-roaring album launch show at the Forum last week – Elly Jackson is pleased to announce a series of live shows this coming November.
Live dates are:
12/11 Dublin Academy
13/11 Leeds Stylus
14/11 Newcastle University
16/11 Glasgow ABC
17/11 Nottingham Rock City
18/11 Birmingham O2 Academy
20/11 Bristol O2 Academy
21/11 Manchester Warehouse*
22/11 Norwich UEA
24/11 Southampton Guildhall
25/11 London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
* on sale July13