With his trademark quiff, 1987 chart topper Never Gonna Give You Up and ubiquitous Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) production, Rick Astley was one of the most loved and loathed pop phenomenons of the late 80s. Then he jacked it all in after a tearful episode on the M4. In recent years, there has been a short-lived reinvention as a crooner and the subject of an internet meme: rickrolling.
Now, he’s back as his old self, with quiff, lugubrious baritone and youthful looks unfeasibly intact. However, the powers that once controlled his career would never have let him get away with such torrential self-deprecation (“Nat King Cole’s version is way better”, he says of When I Fall in Love), nostalgic double entrendres (“12 inch!”) and Peter Kay-type cheeky banter.
“Sway, you buggers!” he commands as a middle-aged audience recreate SAW mania, before he dons spectacles and feigns amazement at the sights – including two ladies wearing cardboard cut-out Astley masks.
In two hours, the music is all over the place, from copper-bottomed SAW hits to covers medleys to surprisingly good new soul stompers (new single Keep Singing) that give today’s Ricks – Sam Smith et al – a run for their money. We even glimpse Astley in unlikely guise of acoustic guitar-wielding protest singer, railing against corporate power.
If things get rather cruise-ship soul revue at times, it’s impossible not to warm to the man from nearby little Newton-le-Willows, fluffed intros, forgotten lyrics (“I’m 50 for God’s sake!”) and all. Beneath the tomfoolery he is touchingly sincere and after a riotously received Never Gonna Give You Up admits, “You made a middle-aged man very, very happy.” A perma-grin never once leaves his face and seems to say, “I’m Rick Astley, for God’s sake, and I’m still singing to you buggers in 2016. Isn’t that a hoot?” Indeed it is.
- At Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, on 4 April. Then touring.
