Interview for The Daily Mirror

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It’s something Beatles fans thought they would never hear again – Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon harmonising on stage.

And Sir Paul has admitted it is “very emotional” to play new Beatles track Now And Then on his current tour – because it is a “John song” and so it feels wonderful to be singing with him.

Now and Then was released at the end of 2023, after a recording process that started in the late Seventies with a John Lennon demo, and ended with Ringo Starr and Sir Paul in the studio in 2022 finishing the song. It has been described as the last ever Beatles song and after wowing fans the world over on release, it now has two Grammy nominations.

Sir Paul has been including it in all his sets on his Got Back world tour and speaking for the first time about playing it, he says:

“It’s really great. When you introduce a new song, even though it’s an old song, like ‘Now and Then’, the first reaction is, people aren’t quite sure what it is or what you’re doing. But during the run of the concerts, they get the idea. The word gets out on the internet, you know. So now the reaction is really strong, and for us it’s great to play because it’s a nice song to play, and for me, it’s particularly great because it’s a John song. And so it’s very emotional for me. I love it. I love doing it, and the audience seem to love it too.”

Paul is talking having just returned to the UK after being on the road since October with his Got Back Tour going to South America and round Europe. He and his band, who have been together 22 years, will end the year with four homecoming gigs, kicking off this weekend in Manchester and then moving onto more sold out shows in London.

Aside from his Glastonbury headline set in 2022, and an intimate warm-up gig the night before in nearby Frome, these are the Beatles legend’s first UK dates since 2018. Paul said:

“Manchester is like, you know, next to my old hometown. It’s a great city, and we love it really. So that’s going to be good to be there. And then London, we finish it up around Christmas time. So that’s exciting. We’re looking forward to London, and then that will finish this tour, and we’ll all be very glad to have a nice Christmas holiday.”

Looking back over the year he highlights some particularly enjoyable shows in October and those close to him who have been on the road say it is clear he still loves playing live, treating fans to shows lasting nearly three hours every night with over 35 songs.

“The audiences in South America are insanely wonderful,” he says, having played 15 shows there to over 500,000 people. “And they are so keen and crazy that we have a party every time we play to them. So it’s been great.”

More recently he has played Paris and Madrid to incredible ovations, with fans aware that the chance to see the iconic 82-year-old does not come around too often these days.

And with 12 Beatles studio albums, 26 solo albums and 22 UK number ones to his name, he has also answered the question of how you manage to choose a set list each night. Aside from perhaps some obvious hits which must stay on heavy rotation, he still likes to be inspired by culture and the world around him.

In the tour programme, Sir Paul writes:

“If I see a movie and then hear one of my songs in it, I think: ‘Oh, I should do that one.’ Sometimes it will give me the impetus to actually look at that song and think of doing it. It may even just be someone saying to me, ‘Oh, I love that song of yours,’ and you go, ‘Oh…’ They love it enough for me to think, ‘Yeah, I should do that, just for you.’

“There are songs that some people say, ‘Oh, I love that one,’ and it makes a difference. That’s always happened. One of my own Wings albums, I’ll be thinking, ‘Well, it didn’t do too well, so maybe it wasn’t that good,’ and then you find some kids are playing the hell out of it saying, ‘This is a great album,’ so it gets me back into it.”

He adds:

“I’ll just hear it at a random place like you say, on the radio, at a party, and decide to include it. That’s always a good feeling, it’s like a little light bulb moment “ding, eurika” we should definitely try that one. That is often the way I decide how to do things, or decide what to do. You work on the setlist over time, and you finally feel you get it to a place where it’s working well. That’s how we all feel on the tour now – and it looks like the audiences agree!”

One downside of social media is fans coming to see the tour have had a good idea of the show they are going to see and especially what it will look like. As with all music gigs these days, thousands of phones are out to record the songs, perhaps even more so when it is a Beatle on stage.

But Sir Paul, who will be supported at the UK gigs by friends and family including wife Nancy McCartney, does his best to keep an element of surprise, so fans coming to the shows in the coming days won’t know exactly what to expect apart from some huge singalong hits.

He says:

“On the first night we can pull some surprises, but then the minute that gets on social media… It’s like the old comedians who used to complain that their jokes got told, so the next people who saw them knew the jokes. I approach every show and every audience in a slightly different way depending on the location of the show, so I suppose that’s the way I change it up a little bit.

“You’ll see your set list published and we’ll go, ‘Right, we’re gonna change it!’ We keep trying to be ahead of the guy who’s giving the game away. I would like it much better if people had no idea what they were coming to see, but the only answer to that is for us to make changes occasionally. So if he said, ‘They open up with this song,’ we’ll go, ‘Let’s open up with a different song,’ just to prove them wrong.”

Recent opening songs he’s played include Can’t Buy Me Love in Madrid and Hard Day’s Night in Paris, so whatever he chooses for Manchester, I’ve got a feeling Beatles fans won’t need much encouragement to sing along.

The interview was also printed on the Daily Express, dated December 14, 2024.

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