Paul McCartney plays The Beatles' final song 'Now and Then' live for the first time

2 October 2024, 10:34 | Updated: 2 October 2024, 10:37

Paul McCartney kicks off the latest leg of his Got Back tour.

Paul McCartney has always sprinkled a healthy number of Beatles songs in his solo setlists and even played his old band's music with Wings as early as 1975.

Given that The Beatles quit playing live in 1966, that meant that Paul could perform songs that the Fab Four never got a chance to play live themselves.

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As Sir Paul relaunched his Got Back tour in Uruguay last night (October 1), he gave a live debut to a song The Beatles never could have played live – 'Now and Then'.

Released as their "final song" last year, 'Now and Then' was pieced together from a John Lennon demo given to Sir Paul, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the early 1990s as they readied their Anthology project.

While the "Threetles" finished off and released 'Free as a Bird' and 'Real Love' at the time, 'Now and Then' was left on the shelf uncompleted for a mix of artistic and technical reasons.

Now And Then - Paul McCartney (Live debut Montevideo 2024)

Using advances in de-mixing technology, Ringo and Paul finally finished off the song and released it last year, along with a music video by Peter Jackson.

Sir Paul had hinted at giving the song – which features all four Beatles – its first live performance when he released a video on social media ahead of the gig showing him playing in front of a screen showing the video.

And he played the song in full as part of a stunning, career-spanning set at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.

The full setlist was as follows:

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. Junior's Farm
3. Letting Go
4. She's a Woman
5. Got to Get You Into My Life
6. Come On to Me
7. Let Me Roll It
8. Getting Better
9. Let 'Em In
10. My Valentine
11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
12. Maybe I'm Amazed
13. I've Just Seen a Face
14. In Spite of All the Danger
15. Love Me Do
16. Dance Tonight
17. Blackbird
18. Here Today
19. Now and Then
20. New
21. Lady Madonna
22. Jet
23. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
24. Something
25. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
26. Band on the Run
27. Get Back
28. Let It Be
29. Live and Let Die
30. Hey Jude
    Encore:
31. I've Got a Feeling
32. Birthday
33. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
34. Helter Skelter
35. Golden Slumbers
36. Carry That Weight
37. The End