RARE early footage of The Beatles playing at a venue in Birkenhead features in the video for the band's latest number one. 

The Fab Four have reunited through the track Now And Then, released last week, which had originally been recorded as a demo by John Lennon in the 1970s.

It was developed by the other band members, including George Harrison in the mid 1990s, and was finished by Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr in the decades after the original recording was made.

Lennon and Harrison are seen playing instruments for the “last recorded” Beatles song alongside recent footage of the surviving members as part of the official music video’s visual effects.

The music video also includes the earliest ever footage of the band playing at St Paul's Presbyterian Church Hall in Birkenhead in February 1962, eight months before they released their debut single.

Pete Best, The Beatles' drummer before Ringo star, has handed the cine camera footage to his former band with the help of his brother Roag who purchased the silent footage from a man who filmed the performance when it came up for auction at Sotheby's in 1996. 

The Beatles played twice at the venue on North Road in Tranmere, firstly on Saturday, February 10 with support from The Zeros and again on March 10 when they were joined on the bill by The Country Four with Brain Newman. Tickets cost 5/- (25p) and The Beatles received a £20 fee plus their travel costs through the tunnel. 

The February 10 gig was the second chance to see The Beatles in Wirral that week as they had played the previous night at the Technical College on Borough Road, Birkenhead. 

The hall, which stood on the corner of Rocky Bank Road and North Road, has now been demolished and houses stand on the site. 

In a statement on the website of The Beatles, Jackson admitted he was initially “very reluctant” to take on creating a music video for the song due to scale of the task.

The director also said: “My lifelong love of The Beatles collided into a wall of sheer terror at the thought of letting everyone down.”

The remastered track, which was released by Apple, Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), used technology to extricate and isolate Lennon’s voice.

The band had not released the song until now because of issues with extracting Lennon’s vocals and piano – due to limited technology at the time.

Filmmaker Jackson’s recent Beatles documentary used audio restoration technology that allowed for vocals, music and conservations by the band to be isolated, a technique which was later used for Now And Then.

The song, which includes Harrison’s electric and acoustic guitar recorded in 1995, was finished by Sir Paul and Sir Ringo last year.

Recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, Sir Paul oversaw the track as backing vocals were added from the original recordings of Here, There And Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby and Because.

The musician described Now And Then as “the last Beatles record” in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in support of an exhibition showcasing Sir Paul’s Beatlemania photos at the National Portrait Gallery.

Alongside the song and music video is a 12-minute-long documentary Now And Then – The Last Beatles Song which premiered on Wednesday on The Beatles’ YouTube channel.