Over 50 years since their split, and nearly 30 since their last virtual reunion, THE BEATLES are back together. In new interviews, PAUL and RINGO tell the story behind the elegiac Now And Then, rescued from the same batch of Lennon demos as Free As A Bird but, with Ringo unbound, GILES MARTIN onboard, and someone or something called MAL, flying far higher. "It was like an impossible dream," they tell TOM DOYLE.

Portrait by JEAN-MARIE PÉRIER.

Nothing is real: The Beatles break out during recording sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, February 1967.

GROWING UP IN THE DAKOTA building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Sean Lennon was forever opening up cupboards and discovering his dad’s old guitars, amps and effects pedals. As his own ambition to become a musician grew, he would ask his mum if he could put some of it to use.

“She was pretty careful with the guitars,” he tells MOJO today, “even though she did let me play a few. What she wasn’t as worried about was the pedals, so I got to kind of rummage through that stuff. I got to nick them and mess around with them.”

The only items of John Lennon’s extant musical paraphernalia that Yoko Ono deemed absolutely off limits to the young Sean were the cassettes and tape reels containing his dad’s home recordings. “The tapes were definitely protected,” he says. “She wasn’t gonna let me, y’know, accidentally record over a demo or something (laughs).”

Even though he was only five when his father was killed, Sean Lennon has unusually vivid memories of him. “I’ve looked into it,” he admits. “I think it has to do with experiencing trauma. It sort of makes your brain create long-term memories. I think that’s because a lot of those memories were really impactful for me.”

Growing old together: McCartney, Harrison and Starr reunited for The Beatles’ Anthology project, 1995

jean-Marie Périer/Photo12

Paul, Ringo and George, as seen in the 2023 Now And Then documentary

Jeff Lynne and George Martin, 1995

Sean and Yoko Ono Lennon with Paul McCartney at John Lennon‘s Rock Hall of Fame induction, 1994.

© 1995 Paul McCartney/Photographer: Linda McCartney, Getty (3), © Apple Corps Ltd (3)

WHOLE LOTTA RODIE

The MAL technology that allowed Lennon’s voice to be lifted off his Now And Then demo – supposedly an acronym for Machine Assisted Learning – is named at least half in tribute to legendary Beatles roadie/minder/driver/ factotum Mal Evans (below), known for his ability to lump backline from pillar to post with barely a whimper. As Ringo Starr puts it, “Peter Jackson has the MAL machine that can just lift anything.”

Many of his recollections involve his father making music: “Just seeing him with the guitar and some kind of 4-track or a 2-track. He was always playing guitar and piano and stuff.” John was less concerned, however, with carefully cataloguing his output. That became Yoko’s job. “He lived with a creative mess around,” Sean says. “My mom is incredibly organised. Y’know, she’s an archivist. Thank God, because she really did a good job of keeping ever ything in its right place.”