More new music from The Beatles “conceivable”, says Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson has suggested that more new music from The Beatles is “conceivable”, following his work on ‘Now And Then’.
The filmmaker – who is most famed as the director of Lord Of The Rings – opened up about his time working on the new Beatles track in an interview with The Sunday Times, and suggested that he hasn’t fully ruled out the chance of more new releases in the future.
It comes as he worked with surviving members of the group, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, to help bring the “final” track to life; by developing a music video for the song using new footage of the surviving members and unearthed clips of the whole band.
Before the music video, which was shared last Friday (November 3), he had also worked with the band on the eight-hour docu-series, Get Back, which was released in 2021.
Looking back at his time working on both Beatles projects, Jackson said that he thinks it is “conceivable” that more new music from the band could be developed.
“We can take a performance from Get Back, separate John and George, and then have Paul and Ringo add a chorus or harmonies,” he told the outlet, reflecting on the series which saw him sift through 60 hours of footage and 150 hours of audio.
“You might end up with a decent song,” he added. “But I haven’t had conversations with Paul about that.”
In the discussion, he also went on to say that although the prospect is merely “fanboy stuff” for now, the chances of it materialising are “certainly conceivable”.
Shared last Thursday (November 2), ‘Now And Then’ stemmed from an old John Lennon demo tape, which was savaged with the help of AI and recorded as an official release.
According to McCartney – who spoke as part of a short film about the project – Lennon first wrote and recorded a demo of ‘Now And Then’ in his New York City home in the late ’70s featuring just his piano and vocals. Following his death, his wife Yoko Ono later gave the recording to McCartney, George Harrison and Starr in 1994, along with the demos for ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’.
The latter two were both released as ‘new’ Beatles tracks in the mid-’90s as part of The Beatles ‘Anthology’ project, and the work on ‘Now And Then’ was ultimately put on hold as “technological limitations” meant that Lennon’s vocals and piano were not able to be separated for a clear enough mix.
Shortly before its release last week, Macca and Starr hinted that the project was set to arrive imminently by sharing images of a cassette tape across social media as well as projections across the Fab Four’s native Liverpool.
Since its arrival, it has been reported that the song is on track to become the band’s 18th Number One single. Starr also revealed that he had doubts that the band “would last a week” when they first started, adding that he had plans to open a hairdresser’s instead.
Continuing the new releases this month, The Beatles are set to release new expanded editions of ‘1962-1966 (The Red Album)’ and ‘1967-1970 (The Blue Album)’, mixed in stereo and Dolby, this Friday (November 10).
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
