One Hand Clapping
A visit to Abbey Road with McCartney and Co
Prior to attending the screening, I admit to not knowing much about One Hand Clapping, the newly-restored 1974 documentary featuring Paul McCartney and Wings, recorded at Abbey Road studios during August of that year - I’d seen a couple of clips on YouTube taken from the original production, and I seem to have missed the album release earlier this summer. But when it was announced that a spruced-up version of the documentary was being shown in selected cinemas worldwide this autumn, I decided to have a look.
Before I get to discussing the documentary itself, I should mention that this was my first visit to the new Everyman Cinema in Edinburgh’s St James Quarter (sadly, my local, independently-run cinema wasn’t scheduled to show it). It’s a nice place with friendly staff. The entrance leads into a bar area with table service where cinema goers can eat and drink while they wait for their screen to become available. I had a glass of Coke Zero while I waited which I hadn’t by the time we were told Screen 3 was now available to us, so I took my drink and went in (by the way, at no point was I ever asked to show my confirmation email proving I’d bought a ticket!).
It was a small screening room with seven rows of seats, a mix of comfy chair and sofas. My seat - a two-seater sofa - was in the back corner. For the next ten or so minutes, it was as though I was in a restaurant that happened to have a large screen on the far wall - as people arrived and settled into their seats, staff approached them and took food and drink orders, returning with bottles of wine, soft drinks, pizzas. Because the feature was scheduled to last just over an hour, I decided not to bother ordering anything.
Eventually, after several ads and trailers, One Hand Clapping was introduced by the man himself. Then 2024 McCartney was replaced by the youthful 1974 McCartney as he and band members, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch, and Geoff Britton, launched into a spirited version of Jet, from the Band on the Run, released the year before.
The music was interspersed with voiceovers from each member of the band - the only one I struggled to understand in places was Denny Laine, but it could have been a mix of the original recording and simply how Laine spoke - I’d never heard him speak until this point. While the non-music aspects were interesting - there was a brief, delightfully random moment with drummer Britton busting some karate moves while dressed in a karategi - the highlights were definitely seeing and hearing the music being performed. The sheer love of music McCartney, in particular, has here is evident and infectious. You want to jump into the screen, pick up an instrument and play along.
For me, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is possibly my favourite track from Band on The Run, so to watch McCartney record the vocals here was fascinating. Armed with only a microphone, and cigarette, you could see the man lose himself in the sound as he sang and ad-libbed as the music built to a climax. Without guitar or piano, it was unusual to see him with only the mic and I briefly wondered what his life would have been like if he’d never learned to play a music instrument and had a career as a singer, with others providing the music.
At the end of the main feature, McCartney 2024 appeared again and told us to stay put for a special treat which turned out to be the Backyard Sessions, a recording of 1974 McCartney sitting in the grassy backyard of the Abbey Road studio, acoustic guitar in hand, playing a handful of songs from his youth. It was a nice, relaxed mini-gig that was a great way to end the documentary.
When the lights in the cinema came up, the lady next to me struck up conversation as we made our way out the cinema. She’d seen McCartney live nine times (that’s nine more than me) and she wanted to come back and watch One Hand Clapping again. She said she had a good friend who is a massive McCartney fan but they’re currently in Spain or she would have brought them. We fangirled a little over McCartney and his ridiculous musical talents as we stood outside, until it was time for me to catch my bus home.
I really enjoyed watching One Hand Clapping and could have watched another hour of it and not got bored, especially with all that great music being played. In particular, I love watching footage of bands rehearse or record in studios. Possibly because I'd love to be in a studio recording my own music!
A couple of people I’ve mentioned the documentary to have asked if it’ll be streaming or on DVD. I can’t answer that but I hope it’ll be available on both, especially it being a limited run in a limited amount of cinemas. I would guess if it does stream, it'll be Disney+ to sit alongside Get Back and McCartney 3, 2, 1. The latter is probably not as well known as the former, but if you like deconstructing songs, it's a fascinating watch.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about the documentary if you've seen it, or anything McCartney-related you want to mention, in the comments!
(If you’re looking for more McCartney, check out my earlier post below about how I became a fan of The Beatles, and Paul in particular)
Unfortunately missed it at our local cinema, but found your review very interesting. Must admit that Wings didn’t click for me at the time, but much more so now!
Hi Gayle — I saw this last week and really enjoyed it, that Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five vocal in Studio 2 was awesome, as was hearing Suicide, which isn't on the accompanying album. It's amazing to think they put so much effort and investment to film the thing and then just dropped it, put it on the shelf for 50 years. Even if the footage is pretty poor quality, the album is fantastic.