George Harrison said The Beatles could never properly continue without all four original members, making John Lennon the only person who could feature in a later reunion project. His remarks underline the group’s shared view that its name and identity belonged exclusively to Lennon, Paul McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr.

The comments concerned the 1990s Anthology recordings, when the surviving members worked on unfinished Lennon demos including ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’. Harrison explained that the band had agreed not to carry on as The Beatles if any member was absent, though Lennon’s archived recordings allowed him to be included posthumously.