Sadie And The Hotheads

YouTube Fan Tribute, November 2011
Sadie and the Hotheads fan Larkriser1 has edited and uploaded a wonderful video to the track 'Mama's Hands' featuring stills of the band, and some great press shots of Elizabeth - including her Lady Cora from the hit TV series 'Downton Abbey'.

Maverick Magazine, August 2008
Gig review - The Bedford, Balham, 8th July

It's an unlikely line-up: electric guitar, acoustic guitar and bouzouki along with a drum kit played like percussion, and then a percussionist. Oh, and a bass player and backing singer. It's even more unlikely when you consider you're watching a Hollywood star singing in a south London pub on a Tuesday evening. Elizabeth McGovern is the singer, star of movies such as Once Upon A Time In America, and (now that she live here) the BBC comedy Freezing, and cuts a delicate, well, actress-like figure.

The delicacy spills over into the songs, and into the quavering, girl-like quality of the vocals. But this isn't some wimpy, singer-songwriterish stuff, nor an actress who wants to prove she can (and, goodness knows there are enough of those these days). This is very much a rocking band who play a finely-structured, semi-acoustic kind of rootsy pop. To be honest, it's difficult to liken to anybody else, what with the musical hub of the Nelson Brothers-Simon and Steve, countryish record makers in their own right-creating-creating the bubbling soundscape along with Goldfrapp drummer Rowan Oliver's inventive playing.

The unlikely setting is simply because with an album out-the gorgeous I CAN WAIT-the band can't wait to get up and running as a live act. It's an entrancing set, culled entirely from the record, McGovern's vocals rounded out by the harmonies of Rietta Austin, a solo act in her own right. It kicks off with the cheery Lucky and takes in I Miss you with its crashing percussion, the 1920s jazzy feel of Jealous Heart and 'our cowboy song' Where Oh Where with its Jesse James theme. There's Use It Up which starts as a more conventional number, all jangly, and ends up like something from REVOLVER with the sitar-like sounds of Simon Nelson, whose electric guitar adds a stylish spiky edge throughout the set.

McGovern is thoroughly enchanting, winning over the audience with gentle humour and neat guitar picking. Already South By South West has expressed an interest in linking a show of her films with a band performance-so catch them around London while you can.

Nick Dalton

Maverick Magazine, August 2008
Cool debut from a face you’ll know

Mesmerising debut from a band, which brings together two very different worlds. Singer is Elizabeth McGovern, Hollywood actress (debuting in Redford’s Ordinary People) and, now living in London, star of the BBC comedy drama Freezing) while the musical nucleus is Steve and Simon Nelson, champions of British roots country as the Nelson Brothers. She writes the lyrics, they create the music while the band also features drummer Rowan Oliver from sometime folkies Goldfrapp. The result is a curiously off-kilter mix, most definitely not just a singer-songwriter with backing. The Nelsons bring their dark and haunting textures along with their ability to create a good old country riff. McGovern’s breathy vocals (like an innocent Marianne Faithfull) go off in all directions in songs that are fractured ideas within a tuneful confine. Dobro and echoey percussion drive the opening track, Lucky, while McGovern’s voice almost whispers in 60s fashion over a tinkling piano. I Miss You is a great pop record, chunky lead guitar duelling with trumpet while elsewhere there’s a more acoustic touch, such as Jealous Heart with its gentle harmonica. Intriguing and very catchy. Watch for low-key London gigs. ND

Times Online, February 2008
"Elizabeth McGovern: from Hollywood to a South London pub"

Click here to read the full article.