La Roux
() is a British electropop synth duo band made up of singer and synth player Eleanor "Elly" Jackson, and co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid. Jackson describes their respective roles as "very much a half and half sharing situation... not like a singer producer outfit", but also recognizing that it often can "look like a solo act". [1]. Their music is influenced by 1980s synthpop including Yazoo, The Human League, Heaven 17 and Blancmange.
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LA ROUX TICKETS
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Band members
Elly Jackson
Born 8 March 1988, Elly Jackson is the daughter of actress
Trudie Goodwin aka
The Bill's June Ackland .
[2] Jackson grew up in the
Herne Hill area of London. Jackson was nearly out of her
primary school at age 8 because she was bullied often because she "had a big fat ginger clout, had size nine feet and looked like a boy". She became confused and "grew to hate everything about the way (she) looked.”
[3]
Her first interest in music revolved around
folk music. She was particularly interested in
Carole King and
Nick Drake whom she discovered in her parents' record collection. Her early musical material consisted of folk ditties informed by
Joni Mitchell. Jackson's taste in music changed during her mid teens when she became involved in the
rave scene. She experimented with both folk and electronic music while spending a year at
Tabor Academy in the United States.
[4] She is presently on hiatus from the
University of Nottingham.
Jackson has been linked to a pop music trend that features androgynous twenty-something women with a strong individualistic attitude. She has cited musicians
David Bowie,
Madonna,
Annie Lennox,
Prince and actress
Molly Ringwald as her influences. She co-designs her own clothing with a friend. Jackson is unhappy with what she perceives as a "normality" fashion trend among a majority of today's musical acts.
[5] [6] Jackson has become a teen icon. Her clothing and hair style which has been compared to the 1980s group
Flock of Seagulls is being imitated by young women in London.
[7] [8]
Jackson wears a
cameo necklace by Australian designer . The necklace has become her signature piece.
The piece is called Neo-cameo and sells for $240–$250. Jackson says in an interview that she stole it off her stylist and has yet bought four more.
since August 2009}}" style="white-space: nowrap;">[
dead link]
Ben Langmaid
Langmaid, a London based producer and composer has been involved with various other music projects in the past. He has a close association with
Rollo Armstrong of
Faithless; the two musicians went to the same school and later collaborated as Huff & Puff in the mid 90s, releasing the house single 'Help Me Make It' in 1996.
[9] Langmaid also recorded as Atomic and was one half of Huff & Herb before contributing as a songwriter to
indie band
Kubb's debut album 'Mother', released in 2005.
[ This project was again linked to Rollo Armstrong; Kubb's frontman Harry Collier was introduced to Langmaid after Collier sang Happy Birthday to Armstrong whilst working as a waiter in a North London organic cafe. [10] Langmaid turned down the offer of a permanent position in Kubb. ][
'''
]
Supporting Band Members
Michael Norris
(Keyboards and Computers - tour band)
"Mikey" is a London based musician and is the computer operator and one of two keyboard players that support La Roux on their tours and live dates. Mikey, a native of the Chester area in Cheshire, UK, Norris studied music at University, joining La Roux shortly after graduating.
William Bowerman
(Drums)
Mickey O'Brien
(KeyBoards and Backing Vocals)
Mickey has been playing with La Roux for 18 months, touring Europe and North America. Although her voice is unheard on the album, Mickey performs backing vocals during song performances; namely Bulletproof, As If By Magic and Armour Love.
She is also known as "Ladyburden" and owns a MySpace page with her own songs.
Mickey is currently in a long-term relationship with British actor Jim Sturgess.
Career
In 2006 Jackson and Langmaid were introduced by a mutual friend. Their first project was named "Automan" and they wrote largely acoustic music. [
]
La Roux's first single, "Quicksand", was released by independent record label Kitsuné Music in December 2008.[ They then signed to Polydor Records in order to release their debut album.
]
La Roux
(2009)
La Roux's second single "In for the Kill" was released on 16 March, 2009, and prominent dubstep producer Skream has created a remix of the track [11] as well as one being made by Lifelike. [12] "In for the Kill" debuted at number 11 in the UK Singles Chart on 22 March 2009, peaking at number 2 to date. Bulletproof was released on the 22 June 2009 and debuted at number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.[. The song was released on 11 August, 2009 in the United States and so far has peaked at the the number 7 position on the Dance/Club play songs chart. [13] I'm Not Your Toy is scheduled for 28 September release. [14]
]
In order to promote La Roux
, the band were the supporting act on Lily Allen's UK tour of March 2009. [15] La Roux headlined the Samsung NME Radar Tour 2009 and played alongside Magistrates, Heartbreak and The Chapman Family. [16] They were scheduled to perform at the Glastonbury, Reading, Oxegen and Leeds festivals as well as the Scala, Southend Chinnerys and Coventry Kasbah venues. [17] [18] In July and August 2009 La Roux toured North America. The 8 city tour included performances at the Montreal Osheaga Festival, All Points West Festival, and the Lollapalooza event. [19] On 23 July the group performed on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. [20] The group will return to North America for a 7 date tour in October. [21] The group sold out their two Australian dates within minutes forcing an upgrade in venues. [22] November will see the duo embark on an 11 date United Kingdom and Ireland tour. [23] La Roux gained fifth position on the BBC's Sound of 2009 poll. [24] The Guardian
website featured La Roux on their new band of the day column. [25] The Guardian
also featured La Roux as one of the "Best New Acts of 2009" in the January of that year. The album has been nominated for a Mercury Prize. [
]
Discography
Studio albums
Year
| Album details
| Peak chart positions
| Certifications
|
UK [26]
| ARG [27]
| AUS [28]
| BEL [29]
| FRA [30]
| IRL [31]
| NOR
[
] | SWI [32]
| CAN [33]
| GER
|
2009
| La Roux
- Released: 29 June, 2009 [34]
- Label: Polydor
- Formats: LP, CD, digital download
| 2
| 20
| 22
| 51
| 115
| 7
| 38
| 54
| 8
| 67
|
|
Singles
Year
| Song
| Peak chart positions
| Certifications
| Album
|
UK
| IRE
| AUS [36]
| EU [37]
| GER
[
] | BEL
| NL [38]
| CAN [39]
| TUR [40]
| U.S. HSS
|
2008
| "Quicksand"
| 133
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| 18
| —
| 18
|
| La Roux
|
2009
| "In for the Kill"
| 2
| 13
| 36
| 9
| 92
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
|
"Bulletproof"
| 1
| 5
| 52
| 6
| 24
| 16
| 29
| 69
| 8
| —
|
|
"I'm Not Your Toy"
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
| —
|
|
"—" denotes did not chart or was not released
|
Music videos
Year
| Music video
| Director
|
2009
| "Quicksand"
| Kinga Burza [41] [42]
|
"In for the Kill"
|
"Bulletproof"
| The Holograms@UFO [43] [44]
|
Awards
Year
| Award
| Category
| Nominated work
| Result
|
2009
| O2 Silver Clef Awards
| Best Newcomer
| La Roux
| Won [45]
|
Studio8 International Music Awards
| Best Female Newcomer
| Elly Jackson
| Won
|
Mercury Prize
|
| La Roux
| Nominated [46]
|
Studio8 International Music Awards
| Studio8 Song of July 2009
| Bulletproof
| Won
|
References
- The Best New Acts of 2009: La Roux
- Videowatch - La Roux - In for the Kill
- La Roux singer tells of bullying Ireland online 8 August, 2009
- Tabor Academy Exchanges Accessed 31 Aug. 2009
- Pop's new wave: quirky, stylish girls fashioned from the 80s
- A Girl Named Roux Leads 80s Revival; Electropop Trendsetter Recaptures the Style of New Romantics for A New Generation of Music Fans
- Music review: Stellar set by La Roux San Francisco Chronicle 25 July, 2009
- Where the Wild Girls Are New York Magazine Fall Preview '09
- La Roux Biography
- Kubb Biography
- Electronic review: La Roux, In for the Kill (Skream remix)
- La Roux - In for the Kill (Lifelike remix)
- Billboard Chart Listing La Roux
- La Roux announce new single details NME 13 August, 2009
- La Roux To Support Lily Allen On UK Tour
- La Roux to headline 2009 Samsung NME Radar Tour
- La Roux to play London Scala NME 1 June, 2009
- La Roux, Marmaduke Duke, Big Pink for Reading And Leeds Festivals NME 9 June, 2009
- La Roux announce North American tour NME 19 June, 2009
- Thursday's Talk Shows Los Angeles Times 23 July, 2009
- La Roux plot North American tour NME 26 August, 2009
- LA ROUX shows sold out - venues upgraded to meet demand! Altsounds 26 August, 2009
- La Roux Announces Massive Autumn UK Tour Festivalwise 8 July, 2009
- BBC Sound of 2009: La Roux
- New band of the day- No 433: La Roux
- La Roux UK Chart Positions
- Weekly Ranking from 09-08-2009 until 08-15-2009
- La Roux album chart positions
- Discography La Roux - Belgium
- Discographie La Roux - France
- Discography La Roux - Ireland
- Discographie La Roux - Switzerland
- http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Charts/ALBUMS.html
- La Roux announces debut album's called Harriet Howard
- Certified Awards Search
- Discography La Roux - Australia
- http://www.billboard.com/#/artist/la-roux/chart-history/170748?f=349&g=Singles
- La Roux Chart position
- http://www.billboard.com/charts/canadian-hot-100#/charts/canadian-hot-100
- http://www.billboard.com.tr/pages/Turkiye_top20.aspx
- La Roux’s Quicksand by Kinga Burza
- La Roux In for the Kill by Kinga Burza
- La Roux's Bulletproof by The Holograms
- La Roux's Bulletproof by The Holograms
- Take That, Madness Win Silver Clefs Billboard Business News 4 July, 2009
- Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2009: nominees announce NME 21 July, 2009