McCartney played ‘Now and Then’ during his set at the Centenario Stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay on October 1.

The show in Uruguay kickstarted the return of McCartney on the stage which will see him perform across South America, the United Kingdom and Europe in the upcoming months.

It was rumoured McCartney would potentially be performing ‘Now and Then’ after many fans took to social media to share their excitement over hearing McCartney perform the track during soundcheck for the show.

Paul McCartney Now And Then Soundcheck at Centenario Stadium, Montevideo Uruguay September 30 2024 pic.twitter.com/ok9AkqPuOe

— DIÁRIO DOS BEATLES (@Diario_Beatles) October 1, 2024

‘Now and Then’ was released in November 2023, as the ‘final’ song from The Beatles. To many fans surprise, the track was completed with the assistance of AI technology and even featured contributions from all of the Liverpudlian four-piece. It was the last track to feature all members: McCartney, Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison.

‘Now and Then’ originated as a ballad written and recorded by Lennon in 1977. It remained as an unfinished solo home demo. Due to production difficulties the track was shelved for almost three decades until it was completed by McCartney and Starr, featuring additional lyrics from McCartney, guitar contributions from Harrison from an abandoned session in 1995 and vocals by Lennon extracted from the original demo commissioned by Peter Jackson for The Beatles: Get Back, his 2021 documentary.

McCartney’s performance of ‘Now and Then’ suggests the legacy of The Beatles continues to live on, having a fond and prominent place in McCartney’s heart.

The performance of the track appeared as the 19^th song in the immense 37-track setlist. Seen as a worthy finale for The Beatles, ‘Now and Then’ appeared after ‘Here Today’, a tribute to Lennon alongside footage from the single’s music video.

This gesture from McCartney honours the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership that was prominent in The Beatles.

McCartney’s ‘Got Back’ tour highlights the musical legend’s finest contributions to the music industry, including popular hits from The Beatles, Wings and McCartney’s solo catalogue.

Paul McCartney’s Uruguay setlist:

‘A Hard Day’s Night’ (The Beatles)

‘Junior’s Farm’ (Wings)

‘Letting Go’ (Wings)

‘She’s a Woman’ (The Beatles)

‘Get to Get You Into My Life’ (The Beatles)

‘Come On to Me’

‘Let Me Roll It’ (Wings)

‘Getting Better’ (The Beatles)

‘Let ‘Em In’ (Wings)

‘My Valentine’

‘Nineteen Hundred and Eight-Five’ (Wings)

‘Maybe I’m Amazed’

‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ (The Beatles)

‘In Spite of All the Danger’ (The Quarrymen)

‘Love Me Do’ (The Beatles)

‘Dance Tonight’

‘Blackbird’ (The Beatles)

‘Here Today’

‘Now and Then’ (The Beatles)

‘New’

‘Lady Madonna’ (The Beatles)

‘Jet’ (Wings)

‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!’ (The Beatles)

‘Something’ (The Beatles)

‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ (The Beatles)

‘Band on the Run’ (Wings)

‘Get Back’ (The Beatles)

‘Let It Be’ (The Beatles)

‘Live and Let Die’ (Wings)

‘Hey Jude’ (The Beatles)

‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ (The Beatles)

‘Birthday” (The Beatles)

‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’ (The Beatles)

‘Helter Skelter’ (The Beatles)

‘Golden Slumbers’ (The Beatles)

‘Carry That Weight’ (The Beatles)

‘The End’ (The Beatles)

He continued, “It’s quite a sad song, in a beautiful way, and it’s probably one of the first songs I tried to teach myself on guitar. It’s one of those songs that gives me a lot of emotion.”

Perhaps best known for his work with the bands The Rascals and The Last Shadow Puppets, which he formed with Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, Kane has also become a notable solo artist. Releasing five studio albums to date, the singer has also collaborated with Turner, Noel Gallagher and French actress Clemence Poesy.

In 2017, Kane, along with fellow musicians Matt Bellamy of Muse, Nic Cester of Jet, Graham Coxon of Blur, Sean Payne of the Zutons and Nine Inch Nails and Jamie Davis formed The Jaded Hearts Club-a Beatles tribute band. Initially only playing songs by The Beatles, the band have also covered songs by Cream, The Who and The Kinks.

Kane has recently supported Arctic Monkeys on their UK and Ireland tour.

(1/6) “NOW AND THEN. THE LAST BEATLES SONG. OUT 02.11.23. #NowAndThen
New expanded and mixed editions of the “Red and Blue” albums to be released 10.11.23.
Pre-order now: https://t.co/jQtFaz4Tq8 pic.twitter.com/aLS2C046Pu

— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 26, 2023

This will be the final song from the Beatles, as the track was created by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with John Lennon and George Harrison being incorporated with the help of AI software, via using isolated demo tracks. The song was mentioned by both McCartney and Starr across the year, and its release was hinted earlier this week with projection images of cassettes across important landmarks related to the band in Liverpool like the Cavern Club and Strawberry Fields.

The track ‘Now and Then’, was first wrote by John Lennon in the late 1970’s, with a demo recorded with just piano and vocals from Lennon in his New York home. The recording was given to McCartney, Starr and Harrison in 1994, alongside already released demo recordings: ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, tracks that were released in the mid 1990’s as part of The Beatles Anthology.

Technological limitations at the time meant that the band couldn’t build upon the demo mix of ‘Now and Then’ as they did with the other songs, because they couldn’t find a way to separate Lennon’s piano and vocals to create a clear mix, something which was able to be achieved with modern day AI technology. George Harrison’s widow, Olivia commented on this, saying: “Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard”.

Paul McCartney commented on the new recording saying: “It’s quite emotional. And we all play on it, it’s a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023 to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven’t heard, I think it’s an exciting thing.” Ringo Starr also added: “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room so it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It’s far out.”

The creation of the new song was inspired by the AI audio technology used in the Peter Jackson ‘Get Back’ documentary, which released in 2021 as the technology was able to isolate conversations from videos of recording sessions of Let It Be. The band used the technology to remix Revolver in 2022, before deciding to use the technology to revisit ‘Now and Then’.

The Red and Blue compilation albums will also be reissued and remixed the following week on November 10th, with 21 tracks being newly added, 9 on Blue and 12 on Red. This includes newly mixed tracks from singles and albums that had not been previously remixed across the past 6 years with tracks like ‘Help!’ from Help!, ‘Nowhere Man’ from Rubber Soul and ‘Hey Bulldog’ from Yellow Submarine Soundtrack, just to name a few.