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a14 people & arts
Saturday 25 June 2022
Rick Astley revisits his career-making song with ‘gratitude’

By MARK KENNEDY what did it mean?
AP Entertainment Writer “I was overthinking it and
NEW YORK (AP) — How worrying about it and won-
does Rick Astley handle dering what it was. And our
one of his songs being daughter said to me — she
part of the biggest internet was about 15 at the time
meme of all time? He rolls — she just kind of said, ‘You
with it, obviously. do realize it’s got nothing
“Listen, let’s face it, ‘Never to do with you?’” She also
Gonna Give You Up’ has predicted: “There’ll be
sort of become something something else next week
else,” he says. “The video or tomorrow.”
and the song have drifted “She was slightly wrong be-
off into the ether and be- cause it’s still kind of kicking
come something else, and around here and there,”
I’m ever so grateful for it.” says Astley. “But the senti-
That song turns 35 this year ment of what she was say-
and is still very much alive, ing was, I think, really, re-
buoyed by a second chap- ally valuable. I embrace
ter as a gentle joke wherein my past, but I don’t have
someone baits you with an to embrace the Rickroll-
enticing online link, which ing thing in the same way
points instead to the video because I accept the fact
for this 1987 dance-pop that it’s got nothing to do
smash. It’s called Rickroll- with me to some degree.”
ing. The song has racked up 1.2
Thirty-five years later, Ast- billion streams on YouTube
ley is singing it this summer and 559 million Spotify lis-
on tour with New Kids on British singer-songwriter Rick Astley poses for a portrait before a concert at the Allstate Arena in tens. Time Out magazine
the Block, Salt-N-Pepa and Rosemont, Ill., on June 17, 2022. was always a little puzzled
En Vogue for the 57-date Associated Press by Rickrolling, asking why
“The Mixtape Tour 2022.” anyone wouldn’t want to
A remastered version of his thought you would have 20s while recording his de- wasn’t cool when I had my hear the buoyant mega-
1987 debut album also has strung me up in the village but album, “Whenever You hit records,” he says. Astley jam, saying it is “three and
been released featuring, square,” he says, laugh- Need Somebody,” with the has nothing but compas- a half of the most efferves-
of course, “Never Gonna ing. “They probably would songwriting and record sion for those chewed up cent minutes in the ‘80s
Give You Up.” have done at the time, but production trio known as by the fame monster. “It canon.”
“I’m never going to have I think over time, I think it Stock Aitken Waterman, must be unbelievably pain- Astley, of course, sees “Nev-
a song as big as that ever, just changes your perspec- who had crafted songs for ful.” Astley reemerged from er Gonna Give You Up” dif-
and I kind of knew that tive.” Bananarama and Dead or self-exile in 2016 with “50,” ferently than the people
while it was happening. Astley, 56, is the youngest Alive. named, with a hat-tip to who use it to try to mess with
I kind of thought, ‘We’re of four who grew up near “I sold a lot of records. I Adele, for his age at the friends. He acknowledges
never going to beat this.’ Manchester, England. His was having a lot of hits, time, a strong album that the video is “unbelievably
But I also kind of thought, sister played a lot of pro- and then it was getting to veers from gospel to elec- late-’80s cheesy” but “it’s
‘Well, how bad is that?’” gressive rock and adored a point where it’s like touch tro-funky. a good memory. It’s like a
There has always been David Bowie. A brother was and go — how is this going Norbury recalls hearing the fond memory.”
much more to Astley than a huge Queen fan, and he to go now because you first few demos on the al- For Astley, it is the song that
just that song. After blow- remembers Queen’s “Night have to make another re- bum and being impressed. led him to Copenhagen,
ing up in the late 1980s, he at the Opera” album cord?” He asked Astley’s manager where he met his wife, Lene
left show business frustrated played on a loop. Astley Burned out and frustrated, who wrote them. The an- Bausager. Without that
and has only recently re- soaked it all in, from Stevie he walked away at 27. “I swer was “Rick Astley.” He song, he wouldn’t have
emerged with the strong Wonder to The Smiths. think I just didn’t have it asked who was the co-writ- his daughter or have trav-
albums “50” in 2016 and He was in a band in school in me. I just didn’t. I didn’t er?” The answer was, “No- eled the world. “I’ve been
“Beautiful Life” in 2018. — they once performed want to do it,” he says. body.” Who produced? to some of the most amaz-
“Often the second act can “So Lonely” by The Police He admires pop stars like “Rick.” Then who played ing places in the world that
be more enjoyable be- with Astley on drums and Madonna or Kylie Minogue all the instruments? “He most people have on a
cause you’re more in con- singing — that wiped the for their longevity. “I actual- played all the instruments.” bucket list.”
trol and you savor every floor with rivals at a battle ly don’t know how they’ve Norbury calls Astley “prob- He thinks back to the days
minute,” said Alistair Nor- of the bands. He would go done it,” he says. ably one of the hardest when he was a new artist
bury, president of repertoire to gigs and dream of being Being a pop star messes working people in this busi- looking up to established
and marketing at BMG UK, a music star. with your head and Astley ness and always does it acts. Now he’s a seasoned
which signed Astley. He remembers being as- says that happened to him, with good humor and with pro with an arsenal of
The passage of time — and tounded one day when he too. “I think my days were a spirit of collaboration and songs, including an instant
the fact that Astley is such spotted the bass player of numbered anyway, but I partnership.” crowd-pleaser.
a sweet guy — has soft- The Smiths walking through think I just managed to get Rickrolling started in 2007 “At the time, I was like green
ened any sharpness. He town. “This can happen?” out before they threw me — at the infancy of You- with envy and felt totally in-
says he understands how he recalls thinking. “You out, you know?” He didn’t Tube — and it confused secure and all the rest of it.
the past can look different can be from a town that I perform for 15 years. Astley at the beginning. His Now, when I walk out on a
with rose-colored glasses. buy my records in but last Unlike other pop stars, he song and video for “Never stage and sing those songs,
Rock stars have lately told week you were on ‘Top of hadn’t invested his ego in Gonna Give You Up” were I just kind of think, ‘Yeah,
him they love his voice. the Pops?’” his looks or others’ percep- being used as part of an in- how lucky am I? Ain’t that
“And I’m like, ‘Really? I Astley was only in his early tions. “I was never cool. I ternet bait-and-switch, but great?’”q