“Obviously, coming out of that Stock Aitken Waterman thing, I had witnessed things go really quickly, and I had actually made tea on sessions for Dead or Alive, and Mel and Kim and Bananarama and all of that. Rick Astley performing on German music show Formel Eins in 1988. It was just like, boom, straight out of the blocks. You get an idea of what is this: Oh, this is Top of the Pops, this is this, this is what a tour bus looks like. It was not like saying, ‘OK, I’ve made an album, first song, nobody really picked up on, second song, wow, we got it in the top 30, third song, oh my God, we’re in the top 10. “The only alternative view of that perhaps is that there was no preparation. “There is a definite change in my whole emotion about it all,” he says, “in the sense that I think I was super lucky on the one hand, because I had this song which just blew up, and it was the first song out of the gate, and how amazing is all that and everything. He was all over the charts on both sides of the Atlantic - a sensation he can now look back on with a sense of wonder, and goodnatured bemusement. Rick Astley was barely in his 20s when his career exploded, initially through ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, followed by a wave of hit singles. It is an uncommon trait in an industry that has been turned on its head by the internet and streaming platforms. If this all sounds sensible, it’s because it is, and Astley’s career is a peculiar mix of showbiz madness and his ability to step away, for his own sake. “You want it loud,” he says, “that’s part of the emotion of it. When he’s performing, Rick admits that the adrenaline at the start of the show equates to volume. The misheard lyrics gambit is similar to part of a show by comedian Peter Kay - for whom Astley has opened in recent years - where commonly misheard lyrics were repeated and lampooned on stage. Rick Astley, re-recording the vocals to 'Never Gonna Give You Up' to reflect some of the interpretations brought on by hearing difficulties. One example is his daughter, who lives in Denmark, visiting and telling him he has the TV on too loud. “I didn’t notice so much myself, I notice it when other people notice it.” “I have definitely noticed over the last how many years, where I’ve said to myself, I have to turn this down,” he says in his Lancashire accent. It’s an entertaining wheeze in collaboration with Specsavers, but there is a serious point: Astley himself has some hearing loss, which he attributes to his years in the music business. The 1987 smash is among the top 10 songs for misheard lyrics, but the latest version incorporates some of those, such as “‘never gonna run around with dessert spoons”. He has also re-recorded his eternal classic and biggest hit, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, as part of a new campaign to raise awareness of hearing loss. He is about to launch a new album, something he describes as “a bit full on”, though he is clearly grateful, adding: “It’s crazy to still be making records after all these years.” He is fresh from acclaimed performances at Glastonbury and Electric Picnic, and while he has the wisdom of a man befitting his 57 years, his boyish looks and vibrant quiff knock a good two decades off. At least it’ll make a good anecdote for me in a few years.Īstley already has plenty of his own. Every record is shipped in original factory-applied shrink wrap and has never been touched by human hands.But the man who has been both a million seller and a meme strikes just the right amount of empathy, even as he’s left grinning and shaking his head. Self-written, produced and recorded, the opening track "Every One of Us" is a brand-new song that shows that the power of Rick Astley 2.0 is undiminished.Įach record is protected within its record sleeve by a white vellum anti-dust sleeve.Īll items are shipped brand-new and unopened in original packaging. It charts the initial run of his biggest hits from the '80s and '90s, including "Never Gonna Give You Up," "Together Forever" and "Cry for Help," alongside recent fan favorites such as "Keep Singing," "Angels on My Side" and "Beautiful Life." The set is bookended with a step into the past and an eye to the future. Rick Astley continues to celebrate his extraordinary story with the release of a 1LP format of his career-spanning compilation, The Best of Me.
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