La Roux

La Roux plays The Trinity Centre on Tuesday 23 March, her first Bristol date since her fourth album Old Flames came out. It's a solo show: Elly Jackson on keyboards and vocals. If you've only ever known her from the radio, that's how it's been for a while now. La Roux started as a duo in 2008, but became a solo project in 2011 when her songwriting and producing partner Ben Langmaid left the group.

She first made a name for herself in 2009 with a self-titled debut that won a Grammy and turned out 'Bulletproof' and 'In for the Kill' — two songs that defined the synth-pop sound of the late 2000s. From there, she became known for her androgynous style and non-conformist attitude, and her later albums Trouble in Paradise (2014) and Supervision (2020) pushed into different sounds. Old Flames is her fourth, and she describes it as her most personal record to date: she wrote, produced and arranged it herself, and it works its way through heartbreak, renewal, desire, isolation and acceptance. The sound draws on 70s and 80s soul and late-90s and early-2000s R&B, pop and hip-hop, so it's a bit of a departure from the synth-pop that first put her on the map.

On the night, the set will pull from across her career, so you'll hear songs from the early records alongside material from the new album. The production leans into electronic pop and R&B, and the songs from Old Flames will sit right in the middle of that. It's a good way to see where she started and where she's gone since. The show starts at 19:30, and tickets are £25 plus a £1.85 booking fee, coming to £26.85 in total.