One Hand Clapping Revisited

A preview clip from the new ‘Yellow Cow Records’ DVD release of ‘One Hand Clapping’;

Paul McCartney & Wings

One Hand Clapping (From A Different Angle) NTSC DVD

‘Dual Audio 35th Anniversary Collectors’ Edition’

98 minutes, dual audio, remastered.

This is far and away the best version of ‘One Hand Clapping’ you will find anywhere.

This DVD features a previously circulated 35mm transfer of the film with ten of the 17 tracks remastered in stereo and the voice-over commentary removed. Peeling away the chat and restoring Juniors Farm to the running order reveals a superb glimpse of a band at the peak of their powers.

Main Feature;

01 One Hand Clapping
02 Jet
03 Junior’s Farm
04 Soily
05 C Moon/Little Woman Love
06 Maybe I’m Amazed
07 My Love
08 Bluebird
09 Piano Medley; Suicide / Let’s Love / Sitting At The Piano / All Of You / I’ll Give You A Ring
10 Band On The Run
11 Live And Let Die
12 1985
13 Baby Face

Bonus Feature;

Stereo Performance Edit

Easter Egg;

‘This Is Your Life’ – Edit of show from 6th Nov 1974 featuring Wings.

Pro shot .

For the purists the original mono soundtrack with voice-overs is also included (as audio channel 2), and there is also a bonus edit of just the available stereo musical performances.

With Band On The Run still riding high in the charts, Paul assembled a new lineup for Wings in 1974. He took the band to Nashville in June for a working holiday. The six-week stay resulted in the first new Wings single in several months; “Junior’s Farm/Sally G” was released in November. Wings also worked on several Cold Cuts that Paul stated would be issued after the next proper Wings LP. Pleased with the new lineup, Paul and Wings gathered at EMI’s Studio Two in August to rehearse and record old and new material. MPL videotaped the events with the intent of producing a Television special. Geoff Emerick recorded the sessions for possible commercial release. A tour was also under consideration. The sessions took place over four days in late August with almost forty hours of videotape shot. Directed by David Litchfield, the idea was to shoot on videotape and then edit and transfer the selected footage onto film. Frank Zappa’s film 200 Motels inspired this technique. The film was named One Hand Clapping, and is an interesting Wings documentary. The film takes the viewer right inside Studio 2 as Wings rehearse, record and share their thoughts. The film also gave each Wings member their own spotlight section; Paul’s being a rare piano medley that included several songs never heard before or since.
Let It Be style behind the scenes footage of the group at work and at play is also included, such as Geoff Britton performing a drum solo and practising karate, as well as Paul and Jimmy jamming a version of ‘Billy, Don’t Be A Hero’.
Joining Wings at the sessions are the orchestral arranger/conductor Del Newman, and the Liverpool saxophone player Howie Casey, a veteran of the Liverpool music scene who first teamed up with Paul when he played in Hamburg with The Beatles in the early Sixties. Following this session, Paul invited Howie to join the group on a more permanent basis and he later appeared on the Wings 1975/1976 and 1979 concert tours. In early 1975, during the Venus And Mars sessions, overdubs for the films finale “Baby Face” were recorded in New Orleans.

From the “easter egg” bonus feature.

In spite of the effort put into the project, One Hand Clapping remains unreleased to this day. The soundtrack to some of the film (and also to some outtakes not included in the finished film) leaked out on vinyl bootlegs, and the film itself later leaked out to video (VHS) collectors some time in the early nineties. It has subsequently also found an audience in the digital domain on DVD. The hitherto best representation of the film was released a few years ago as part of the 2 DVD Wings set “Lightspeed”, released by the Picture Perfect bootleg label. That version was the debut of the special from a 35mm print of the film, all earlier versions were derived from a 16mm film print. We understand that the same 35mm film print is the source of this version, although this representation features audio enhancements synched in from the earlier stereo audio bootlegs.