‘I haven’t been up this late for thirty years,’ Elizabeth McGovern of Sadie and the Hotheads smiled at us, having danced her way onstage. Underneath a glitzy lightshow and with plumes of dry ice around the band, the beautiful leading lady proceeded into a charming set, but one that was unlikely to keep us up all night.
McGovern started Sadie and the Hotheads soon after she started guitar lessons in 2007. They are an able and enthusiastic group who add guitar, bass, keys, a mandolin and a drummer to McGovern’s voice/guitar combination. She is also joined by a backing vocalist who sways and clicks along to every song. Whilst this movement can sometimes come across a little insincere, there is no doubt she has a lovely voice which adds texture and harmony to the simple songs.
It was often McGovern’s most heartfelt numbers that were the simplest and, unfortunately, not always the most effective. The autobiographical ‘L.A. Days’ had a pleasant, whimsy sound but suffered lyrically. ‘The Wedding Song’ also fell into some rhyming cop outs. However, ‘All the Time’, written for McGovern’s husband, was an understated and touching love song that hit the spot occasionally missed by other pieces.
‘Your ‘Sadie’ is that thing inside you which makes you unique. Everyone has it,’ McGovern has explained in the past. Whilst her Sadie guise might be born of something very personal, it is at its strongest when she is singing more theatrical songs. The clicking in the intro for ‘Old Boyfriends’ is an exciting start to a great fun song. ‘My Debt Collector’ is in a similarly cheeky, knowing vein that suits McGovern’s voice well. Her fame as an actress is not necessarily a blessing and I don’t want to do her musicianship discredit by focusing on theatricalities, but there can be no doubt that she and her hard-working band benefitted from the character of the more uproarious numbers.
A strong succession of songs including ‘Cow Song’, ‘Nothing New’ and the slow-build of ‘Use It Up’ (which featured a fabulous guitar solo) provided an exultant end to the gig. As an actress, McGovern recognised that despite the odd lull and mishap, the show must go on. As a musician, she had the nouse to end on a very good note.
