Liam Gallagher reacts to "celestial" Beatles song Now And Then

2 November 2023, 17:48 | Updated: 3 November 2023, 15:10

The former Oasis frontman has shared his thoughts on the release, which has been dubbed 'the last Beatles song'.

Liam Gallagher has shared his honest reaction to 'the last' Beatles song.

Now And Then, which features all four members of the Fab Four, was released today (2nd November) with many music fans deeply moved by the project.

The former Oasis frontman, it seems, is among them and has praised the song, which features vocals from the late John Lennon, guitar from the late George Harrison as well as bass, guitar and piano from Paul McCartney and drums from Ringo Starr.

McCartney, Harrison and Starr first attempted to add music to the late '70s demo by Lennon back in 1995 as part of the Anthology project, However, the cassette of John's vocal was poor quality and the project was abandoned. Earlier this year the track was finished thanks to AI technology that was able to extract the vocal from all the background noise.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the Manchester rocker told his 3.6 million-strong following : "Now n Then absolutely incredible biblical celestial heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time long live The Beatles LG x".

When a fan quizzed Liam if he was worried he wouldn't like the single, he replied rather candidly: "The Beatles could s*** in my hand bag I’d still hide my polo mints in there."

Listen to Now And Then here:

The Beatles - Now And Then (Official Audio)

The track was released worldwide at 2pm GMT on Thursday 2nd November as a double A-side with the band's very first single, Love Me Do and there are a number of limited edition formats to pre-order at the official Beatles Store.

McCartney says of the song: “There it was, John’s voice, crystal clear. 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 says: “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.”

A music video for Now And Then will debut on Friday, 3rd November, directed by Peter Jackson, who was asked by the band's label Apple to visualise the song.

He explained: "I told Apple how the lack of suitable footage worried me. We’d need to use a lot of rare and unseen film. Nothing at all seemed to exist showing Paul, George and Ringo working on Now And Then in 1995 … There’s not much footage of John in the mid-seventies when he wrote the demo … And they didn’t even shoot any footage showing Paul and Ringo working on the song last year.

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Liam Gallagher - who named his first son Lennon after the Beatles icon - is in good company, with the song being widely praised online.

One fan wrote: "Oh my goodness!!!! A Beatles track being released in 2023! It's just so surreal but almost like they're all still here with us and have reunited! If only that were the case! My dad would've loved to hear #NowandThen I think he would've approved".

Others called it "beautiful," revealed they were moved to tears, and another exclaimed: "Christmas has come early".

Speaking of Peter Jackson's short film, another gushed: "Wow. This little 12-minute "making of" documentary had me choked up several times. The power of these four men and the music they gifted us. Thank you."

Peter Jackson's Get Back TV series had pioneered the use of audio restoration to isolate instruments and voices from 1969 documentary footage back, which allowed Sir George Martin's son Giles to effectively remix the classic album Revolver last year.

This work led to the Now And Then demo being revisited, with Peter Jackson and his sound team, led by Emile de la Rey, applied the same technique to John’s original home recording separating the vocal performance from the piano.

A 12-minute film Now And Then - The Last Beatles Song premiered on 1st November, which explains the process that went into the making of the song.

Written and directed by Oliver Murray, the clip includes exclusive footage and commentary from Paul, Ringo, George, Sean Ono Lennon and Peter Jackson.

You can watch the film below.

The Beatles - Now And Then - The Last Beatles Song (Short Film)

McCartney says in the short film: "We did Free As A Bird and Real Love and we'd got a little bit of time left to do Now And Then. On John's demo tape, the piano was a little hard to hear. In those days, of course, we didn't have the technology to do the separation. Every time we wanted a little bit more of John's voice, this piano came through and clouded the picture.

"Now And Then just kind of languished in a cupboard. It took almost a quarter of a century for the right moment to tackle Now And Then again.

Besides John’s vocal, the new version of Now And Then includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995 by George, Ringo’s new drum part, and bass, guitar and piano from Paul. McCartney added a slide guitar solo inspired by Harrison; he and Starr also contributed backing vocals to the chorus.

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