La Roux’s Elly Jackson has a hairdo to kill for. It’s a striking red coif that’s a mix between Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Era and that famous Poindexter cut David Johansen used to rock. It’s quite magnificent actually, and on this day, she tamed it a little bit by donning a fitted Fedora hat. Vocally, she’s kind of like a modern day Cyndi Lauper, and she’s backed by an arsenal of speaker-rattling, floor-shaking, ‘80s electro-pop beats.

When she takes the stage on Sunday evening, the last day of an rain-riddled festival All Points West weekend, she starts things off with one of her group’s hits “Quicksand” –but the song seemed to get only a couple of ravers moving to the beat. The lackluster response wasn’t her fault. That morning, the rain had made the festival grounds even more muddy and murky, and wading through it to get from stage to stage was a tough and arduous task. Visibly perturbed by the people’s minimal energy, Elly stopped proceedings and rallied the crowd, “I know you guys have had a tough day, I understand, but can you please rave just a little bit for me?” The call to action was met by genuine cheers. Figuring that she’d gotten everyone’s attention, she added, “Oh and whoever’s smoking the weed, can you bring some of it backstage after the show?”

And just like that, she completely won the fans over. She launched into another La Roux hit, “In For the Kill” that really got things started. By this time, everyone had forgotten their issues and the show had morphed into a full and proper rave. She ending proceedings with the hypnotic song, “Bulletproof” that took her to the top of the British charts, and the response to it was tremendous. All that was left to ponder was if the guy with the sticky doobies ever got back stage to share his stash with Elly and her crew.

Words by Geo Hagan, Photographs by Kwaku Kufour