A rare Paul McCartney documentary is set to hit the cinemas this September.
One Hand Clapping was originally recorded at Abbey Road in August 1974 and featured McCartney and his then band Wings performing their hits live in the studio, along with some covers and a few old Beatles numbers.
It was supposed to have come out soon afterwards - indeed, voiceover interviews with the band had been recorded and a TV sales brochure was produced - only for the project to be shelved.
Both the album and the accompanying film gathered dust for decades, and was only seen for the first time in 2010 as part of a reissue for Band On The Run.
The film was originally shot on 1970s videotape but has now been scanned and fully restored. The between-song dialogue has been de-mixed using Wingnut's MAL software and the film features a new Dolby Atmos audio mix by Steve Orchard and Giles Martin.
The original idea behind One Hand Clapping was to capitalise on the success of the Band On The Run album. McCartney was on a roll at the time – after a difficult few years he was enjoying both commercial and critical success and had just resurrected Wings, bringing in guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and karate expert Geoff Britton on drums to join himself, wife Linda and Denny Laine. The band had just come back from Nashville where they had recorded the non-album single Junior’s Farm.
The doc was directed by David Litchfield and includes live-in-studio versions of Wings classics like Live And Let Die, Band On The Run, My Love and Jet. McCartney also talks about his writing process and how as a teenager he thought he might end up as a cabaret singer. The other members talk about the experience of working with the ex-Beatle and there are even some karate displays from the new boy Britton.
McCartney himself has fond memories of that time: “It's so great to look back on that period and see the little live show we did,” he 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.”
One Hand Clapping is set for a limited release at cinemas from September 26. Ticket details can be found here.
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