Paul McCartney kicked off his 2025 Got Back North American tour with a pop-up underplay at the Santa Barbara Bowl, where he played his first full version of “Help!” since 1965. As Rolling Stone reports, McCartney played a 50-second snippet of the title track to The Beatles‘ 1965 album and film during a 1990 tribute medley to John Lennon.

McCartney announced the one-off show at the 4,562-seat Santa Barbara, CA, outdoor amphitheater just two weeks ago, and tickets sold out within minutes. Attendees were required to lock up their phones in Yondr pouches, but that didn’t stop one enterprising fan from capturing 30 seconds of “Help!” from the soundcheck the night before. Given the constricted cell phone situation, this will probably be the only footage of “Help!” until Monday’s tour opener at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, CA, should McCartney decide to keep it in the set.

Paul McCartney — “Help!” — 9/25/25 — Partial Video

[Video: All1Song]

Prior to Friday, McCartney hadn’t played any portion of “Help!” since the final leg of his 1989–1990 Flowers in the Dirt tour. In a tribute to John Lennon, McCartney incorporated a portion of “Help!” along with snippets of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Give Peace A Chance”. McCartney typically shies away from performing Beatles songs written primarily by Lennon. Before 1990, he hadn’t performed “Help!” since December 12th, 1965, when The Beatles played the Capitol Theater in Cardiff, Wales.

Paul McCartney — “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Help!” / “Give Peace A Chance” — Liverpool, England — 6/28/90

[Video: Good9tTo9t]

Aside from the “Help!” bust-out, McCartney’s setlist at the warmup show kept to his classics. Though McCartney isn’t a fan of “the guy who’s giving the game away” by publishing his nightly setlist, sufficient to say it’s got favorites like “Getting Better”, “Blackbird”, “Get Back”, and “Helter Skelter” plus some Wings songs. In a modern update to his 1990 Lennon tribute, Sir Paul performed a digital duet with John on “I’ve Got A Feeling”, and McCartney also included the “new” Beatles song, “Now and Then“.

Touted as “the last Beatles song,” “Now and Then” features contributions from McCartney, Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr from throughout the decades. It started as a demo Lennon recorded at The Dakota in 1977, was brought by Yoko Ono to George, Paul, and Ringo in 1994 when they worked with producer Jeff Lynne to issue “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love”, and was finalized by the last two Beatles with director Peter Jackson when he was working on the ambitious Get Back documentary.

Paul McCartney will begin his tour in earnest on Monday outside L.A., with dates at stadiums across North America scheduled through November 25th. Find tickets and tour dates here.