Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘One Hand Clapping’ film to get wide release
Screenings, which include a new introduction from the artist, begin next month
By Kory Grow
Half a century after Paul McCartney and Wings took a studio vacation at Abbey Road to film their Band on the Run tour rehearsals, that picture, One Hand Clapping, is finally getting a wide release. This complements this year’s One Hand Clapping soundtrack album. The movie will start getting screenings around the world beginning on Sept. 26. The picture will feature a new introduction by McCartney, the “backyard session,” where McCartney sings Buddy Holly songs with only his acoustic guitar, and previously unseen polaroids from the sessions. Tickets will go on sale Aug. 16, with full details on a special website for the film.
A one-minute clip of ‘Band on the Run’ shows the group’s chemistry, even though each member of the quintet occupied his or her own part of Abbey Road. McCartney’s voice is strong as he and Denny Laine harmonise.
“It’s so great to look back on that period and see the little live show we did,” McCartney said in a statement. “We made a pretty good noise actually! It was a great time for the band, we started to have success with Wings, which had been a long time coming.”
Barely half a year had passed since Band on the Run first came out, and McCartney wanted to find the right vibe with his recently assembled lineup of Wings, which at the time included keyboardist Linda McCartney, electric guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, and drummer Geoff Britton, ahead of a tour. The set list included songs from that album, a few Beatles tunes, and hits from McCartney’s time after the Fabs, including ‘My Love,’ ‘Live and Let Die,’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed.’ McCartney’s friend, David Litchfield, captured the sessions on videotape for a TV special that never aired, though it did come out years later on a Band on the Run reissue.
For this release, the videotape has been rescanned at 4K, and the music and dialogue were de-mixed and re-edited into Dolby Atmos surround sound by Steve Orchard and Giles Martin.
“As a whole, listening to One Hand Clapping is a lark — just as it was for McCartney and Wings to record,” Rolling Stone wrote in a review of the album this year. “It isn’t overly serious, but the songs sound good, likely because the musicians were so relaxed at the time.”