The Beatles are hailed by many music-lovers as the world's best-ever band, with their tracks still being enjoyed by millions decades after their last album. Fanatics know every song and album that the Fab Four ever released and have watched all of their documentaries and consumed anything Beatles-related.
And just when people believed there was no new tune they could buy from the legendary band, Sir Paul McCartney has dropped the biggest of Beatles bombshells. He plans to use artificial intelligence to create the band's "final" song.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning [June 13] that the technology had been used to "extract" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so he could complete the song.
READ MORE: Amazing pictures of when The Beatles played in Bristol exactly 60 years ago
"We just finished it up, and it'll be released this year," he explained, as reported by BBC News.
Most fans will have already indulged in the band's eight-hour Get Back documentary. During that series, AI was used to isolate the Beatles' voices to create "clean" audio.
"He [Peter Jackson] was able to extract John's voice from a low-quality cassette recording," McCartney told Radio 4's Martha Kearney. "We had John's voice and a piano, and he could separate them with AI. They told the machine, 'That's the voice. This is a guitar. Lose the guitar.' So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had, and we were able to take John's voice and make it pure using this AI. Then we can mix the record as you would normally do. So it gives you some sort of flexibility."
Taking to Twitter fans said they couldn't wait to hear the track. One person said: "Wow! A new song from Beatles is on its way. With a little bit of help from … AI. The technology has been used to "extricate" John Lennon's voice from an old demo so it was possible to complete the 'final' Beatles song."
Another wrote: "With the just announced release of "the last ever Beatles song" this year, I'm hoping that this is the reason the Archive Collection has gone quiet & further hoping that once the new song is out it's all systems go again for the Archice Collection."
During their rise to fame, the Liverpudlians played many times in Bristol at the then-called Colston Hall. There were threats of bans, day-long queues for tickets, and John, Paul, George, and Ringo were even 'attacked' on stage – there was never a dull moment.
A capacity of 2,500 was permitted for each concert, significantly exceeding the hall's current capacity, with tickets going on sale for 12 shillings and sixpence. When tickets for the November 15, 1963 shows went on sale, people queued from the venue to the long and winding Queens Road for 24 hours.
As you would imagine, the tickets sold out rather swiftly, with scalpers later selling them for astronomical prices.
