James: One Man Clapping

One Man Clapping is a live album released in 1989. The thirteen tracks are:

Release Info:

03/89 - UK LP [Rough Trade ONEMAN1LP] (sleeve)
03/89 - UK CS [Rough Trade]
03/89 - UK CD [Rough Trade ONEMAN1CD] (+Yaho track)

Album Info:


Produced by Steve Power
Engineered by Mike Long

*Recorded live at Moles, Bath November 1988
Thanks to: - Geoff Travis

One Man Clapping is a live CD with material pieced together from different shows. Some songs flow together while at other times you can hear the beginning of the next song fade out. Two songs, "Burned" and "Stutter" appear here for the first time. "Burned" is summary of alot of themes on Stutter and What For with Time screaming "I feel I've been burned" for a chorus. This band is very dynamic live and include use of acoustic guitars and unique drum sounds. The disc starts with a lot of energy for the first 5 songs, each building in tension. "Why so close" returns to the early folk sounds of James. Tim ad libs a great deal on the end of "Johnny Yen." One of my favortie tunes is "Are you ready" which has the band up and running again. "Stutter" closes the disc with another climatic song which builds to a frenzy. This is followed by 30 seconds of one man clapping. (A very neat idea.)
Here's a bit more info on one man clapping. It was recorded at the moles club in Bath England over 2 nights in October 1988. The band had just managed to release themselves from a contract with sire records. A clause stated that if the company did not contact them in a 6 month period the band were free to leave. Shows how shit they were treated. Having been released they were completely skint and wnt to their bank manager to ask for a loan i think it was 4000 pounds. The bank managers name is colin cook or colin west, look on the sleevenotes of the goldmother album and you'll find his name. Anyway to proove that their venture to release a live album on their own record label was viable they took their bank manager to see one of their live shows, i think it was at Liverpool royal court and on the strength of that one show he gave them the money. The album was released on one man records, james own label and distributed with the help of rough trade records who later signed them for the original release of sit down and come home in 1989.