Rick Astley has regained his pop star status and is set to rock Hampton Court this month, says Miranda Jessop
Pip
As a teenager, I spent many hours sprawled across my bed listening to Rick Astley’s catchy tunes on my Sony Walkman. Thirty years later, it feels slightly incongruous to be sitting in my loft bedroom which also doubles as my office, waiting for the 1980s pop legend to call me. Although I haven’t heard Rick sing for more than two decades, I find the words to Never Gonna Give You Up running through my head with perfect recollection and I am curious to find out how, after a break of so many years, this resident of East Molesey now finds himself back in the limelight.
The youngest of four siblings, Rick grew up in Lancashire. “My parents divorced when I was just four and it was a mess. I don’t remember the details exactly, just the pain that built in me. I went to live with my dad but my mum lived with my grandparents close by, and I saw her every day and at weekends.”
Rick remembers finding great pleasure in singing from an early age, performing with the school choir and in various primary school productions.
“I was cast as the Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. I wore a silver jumpsuit with orange fringes and I was the only one with a microphone. At the end, I had to lie across the laps of four of the hottest girls in the year above me and I thought, ‘Yes, this is for me!’.”
Rick was 19 and playing in a local band when he was invited to take part in a music showcase. This day was to change the path of his life forever. “Somebody came to see us and I think he recognised in my voice something that made sense to him.”
The person in question was none other than Pete Waterman who went on to become one third of the hugely successful music production and songwriting partnership Stock Aitken Waterman.
“They were just a small company at that point but I remember Pete driving me to the recording studio in London in his Jag, wearing a pair of red leather trousers and my mind was made up, nothing more needed to be said,” he laughs.
Fortunately for Rick, the time of his signing the record deal just happened to coincide with Pete Waterman’s emergence as one of the biggest pop producers of the moment.
Rick’s first single Never Gonna Give You Up was released in 1987 when he was 21. It was the UK’s biggest selling single that year and number one in 16 different countries. How did he cope with the overnight success?
“It was like being hit by lightning. I was flying all over the world and it was all consuming. Although I was enjoying life, it was also a bit weird, if I’m honest; I was wrapped in cotton wool and people were doing everything for me.”
The song became the centrepiece of his debut album Whenever You Need Somebody which sold 15 million copies worldwide and earned Astley a Grammy nomination for ‘Best New Artist’.
The ensuing years saw Astley release a string of acclaimed hits but things changed after he met his Danish partner, Lene and their daughter, Emilie was born in 1992.
“Having a child was like a light going on, I wasn’t enjoying being away from home. I began to think about what I valued and what I actually wanted out of life. I also started to develop certain fears and I didn’t really want to fly which, when you are a pop artist expected to fly round the world, is tricky.”
Rick clearly remembers the day he decided to give it all up at the age of 27. “I was on my my way to Heathrow to catch a plane to New York. I turned to my manager with tears in my eyes and told him that I couldn’t do it anymore. He knew I was serious and told the driver to take me home. A day or two later I didn’t have a record deal and that was it.”
From that moment on, Rick led a quiet life with his family, totally out of the public eye. People may even have forgotten about Rick Astley if it hadn’t been for an internet prank, which began in 2007 and involved the unexpected appearance of the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up. As the stunt went viral, it became known as ‘Rickrolling’ and, although Rick had nothing whatsoever to do with it, he agrees that it definitely helped in jogging people’s memories about him.
“Ten years ago, I started to get more offers to sing my old songs. Lene and Emilie persuaded me to accept an invitation to go to Japan as they wanted to come. Two songs in, I realised that I didn’t have to make it a career, I could perform simply because I enjoyed it.”
As well as starting to sing regularly again, Rick was busy writing new songs and, with his 50th birthday approaching, he wanted to do something special to mark the occasion.
“The album was a pet project really but it just started to grow and grow. I made the whole record myself in my studio at home. I played it to some people and they really liked it and then I decided to play it to the record label I used to be with.”
Released a year ago, the album, which is called 50, has sold over 295,000 copies and is close to platinum status. With Lene now his manager, Rick is well and truly back, and clearly enjoying life.
“It’s not the same this time around, I am busy every day but I don’t feel the pressure like I did before.”
Even though he is in the midst of a big European tour when I speak to him, it is clear that Rick is living by the declaration on his official Twitter profile that he is “taking time to enjoy it this time round”. He still makes time to present a regular radio programme on Magic FM, plays local charity gigs with two friends in The Luddites which he jokingly describes as their “midlife crisis band” and has just launched a craft beer called Astley’s Northern Hop.
And on June 22, Rick will be performing at Hampton Court Palace, a place that is very special to him. “It’s an amazing thing to have at the bottom of your road. It’s such an iconic place and it means so much for me to be playing there because I am usually wandering through in my walking boots on my way to Bushy Park, or going past in my little boat along the river.”
Rick will be playing a mixture of old and new songs, but I feel I owe it to my fellow fans from the 80s to secure a cast iron assurance that he will be singing the unforgettable tune which made him a millionaire by the time he was 22.
“Of course,” replies Rick without any hesitation. “I’d get lynched if I didn’t and rightly so!”
- Rick Astley performs at Hampton Court Palace Festival on June 22. Other acts include Will Young, Amy Macdonald, Bryan Ferry and Corinne Bailey Rae (June 7-24). hamptoncourtpalacefestival.com
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