Sir Paul McCartney compared his return to New York's Ed Sullivan Theater to a school reunion when he headed back to the venue which hosted the Beatles' first ever U.S. Tv gig with bandmate Ringo Starr.

The veteran musicians recently paid a visit to the historic venue to celebrate 50 years since the band's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, and they were given a personal tour of the building by Tv host David Letterman, who now presents his own talk show from the theatre.

The musicians admitted the stage set felt much smaller than when they first performed there 50 years ago, with drummer Starr telling Letterman, "I'm so excited coming back... I've been back hundreds doing the shows with you... But now I'm here, I'm looking out the window... We're back on this stage again. The memory I have was it was four times bigger (back then) - we thought there was (sic) thousands of them (audience members)."

Meanwhile, MCCartney compared the visit to a school reunion, adding, "It's like going back to your old school isn't it...? It looks little now but we thought it was huge."

The interviews with Letterman will air in the U.S. on Sunday night (09Feb14) during a Tv special as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations. Letterman has marked the occasion on his show during the week by inviting artists to perform Beatles tributes. The artists involved were Lauryn Hill, Broken Bells, Sting, Lenny Kravitz and the Flaming Lips, who performed with John Lennon's son Sean.