understandastar (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} understandastar) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2008-03-24 20:31:00 |
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Rick Astley Never Gives Up
IT ALL goes to prove that you should never say never. Year after year, Rick Astley said he had no desire to get on stage and sing the likes of Never Gonna Give You Up in the time-honoured fashion.
There was a tentative return to the performing fray three years ago, with Astley singing smoochy standards, but he fought shy of reprising his old hits in the bouncy Stock Aitken Waterman style.
But finally, Tony Denton, the promoter behind the phenomenally successful Here and Now tours, persuaded Rick to jump aboard the nostalgia bandwagon.
"Every year he's asked me and I've always said no because it's a little bit like going backwards," says Astley, who was born in Warrington and raised in Newton-le-Willows. "But then I thought, I'm 42 now and there's going to come a year when he doesn't ask me to do it, and I'll probably regret that. So I'm going to do a few this year, and I may never do any again."
Astley dipped a toe in the water by doing three nostalgia shows in Japan two years ago, and found he enjoyed it. It was the first chance that Astley's daughter Emilie, now 16, had to witness her dad as a pop star.
"I think she's highly embarrassed but also sneakily proud and intrigued by it," says Astley. For many years, the subject of Rick's fame was barely mentioned in the London home he shares with his partner Lene Bausager and Emilie.
"It's not like we sit around the dinner table talking about it and there's not one gold record up in my house or anything," he explains. "I do have my old CDs but it's not like they have pride of place, they are just in a collection with a thousand others. I didn't sit Emilie down and say, by the way, I used to be a pop star."
That phrase "used to be a pop star" is telling. Astley's unique claim is not just that he was, briefly in the late 1980s, one of the biggest-selling artists in the world, but that he then turned his back on fame.
He had first been spotted singing in a Warrington social club by producer Pete Waterman and served an apprenticeship as a studio tape operator-cum tea boy at the Stock Aitken Waterman pop empire.
Opted out
From 1987 to 1991 he had a string of hits but then opted out in 1993. On his way to catch a plane to New York to appear on the David Letterman show, Astley stopped the car and said "I can't do this any more".
For 11 years, there was no new material, no tours and few sightings of Rick, who became a family man, helped other people with their music and generally shunned the limelight. Latterly, he has been writing the screenplay and songs for a film musical, which he hopes to see made with the help of Lene, a film producer.
It is now a full 20 years since Astley was at the height of his fame. What does he now feel looking back on that heady era?
"It doesn't make me feel old, but it does make me feel time has flown," he says. "To some degree, I've lived some of my life in reverse. Most people are achieving the peak of their career in the late 30s or 40s. I reached mine at 22 or 23. It's a bit odd that. It took some coming to terms with.
"It was a conscious thing, me not wanting to do it any more. but I think my days were numbered as well. It's hard to realise where you are in the public's perception when you are a pop star like that.
"But I know for a fact Take That were on the scene and they were the new big thing, and you just think, that's it."
Since then, of course, Take That have come and gone and come back again. Doesn't Rick fancy recording some new material and taking a shot at second-time-around pop success?
"The chances of that are so slim. I don't think I've got the energy," he says. "I've got the best of both worlds. I can go and stand in front of 10,000 people and sing a song that was a number one record right round the world, and then go home and not have one person recognise me."
Astley may be more recognisable than he thinks, though, due to an internet phenomenon called `rickrolling'.
That is when someone creates a bogus online link which is supposed to be taking you to a subject relevant to the page you are reading, but instead takes you to an old video on YouTube of Astley performing Never Gonna Give You Up. As a result, that video has had over ten million viewings.
But for Rick himself, the greatest accolade he has had recently was getting a mention on the American animated comedy Family Guy.
"I don't know why, but the dog gets up and sings Never Gonna Give You Up at this party, and whoever they get to do the voice is absolutely brilliant," he says. "I've played that to more people than I've played any record I've made. It's priceless."
Rick Astley appears at the M.E.N. Arena on Tuesday, May 13 as part of the Here and Now Tour. Call the Box Office on 0870 060 1768 to book or click here .
Source
I think this is the best post I have ever made. I am so proud of it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
Fromabsoluteandy, the Family Guy clip: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/1ed07e
IT ALL goes to prove that you should never say never. Year after year, Rick Astley said he had no desire to get on stage and sing the likes of Never Gonna Give You Up in the time-honoured fashion.
There was a tentative return to the performing fray three years ago, with Astley singing smoochy standards, but he fought shy of reprising his old hits in the bouncy Stock Aitken Waterman style.
But finally, Tony Denton, the promoter behind the phenomenally successful Here and Now tours, persuaded Rick to jump aboard the nostalgia bandwagon.
"Every year he's asked me and I've always said no because it's a little bit like going backwards," says Astley, who was born in Warrington and raised in Newton-le-Willows. "But then I thought, I'm 42 now and there's going to come a year when he doesn't ask me to do it, and I'll probably regret that. So I'm going to do a few this year, and I may never do any again."
Astley dipped a toe in the water by doing three nostalgia shows in Japan two years ago, and found he enjoyed it. It was the first chance that Astley's daughter Emilie, now 16, had to witness her dad as a pop star.
"I think she's highly embarrassed but also sneakily proud and intrigued by it," says Astley. For many years, the subject of Rick's fame was barely mentioned in the London home he shares with his partner Lene Bausager and Emilie.
"It's not like we sit around the dinner table talking about it and there's not one gold record up in my house or anything," he explains. "I do have my old CDs but it's not like they have pride of place, they are just in a collection with a thousand others. I didn't sit Emilie down and say, by the way, I used to be a pop star."
That phrase "used to be a pop star" is telling. Astley's unique claim is not just that he was, briefly in the late 1980s, one of the biggest-selling artists in the world, but that he then turned his back on fame.
He had first been spotted singing in a Warrington social club by producer Pete Waterman and served an apprenticeship as a studio tape operator-cum tea boy at the Stock Aitken Waterman pop empire.
Opted out
From 1987 to 1991 he had a string of hits but then opted out in 1993. On his way to catch a plane to New York to appear on the David Letterman show, Astley stopped the car and said "I can't do this any more".
For 11 years, there was no new material, no tours and few sightings of Rick, who became a family man, helped other people with their music and generally shunned the limelight. Latterly, he has been writing the screenplay and songs for a film musical, which he hopes to see made with the help of Lene, a film producer.
It is now a full 20 years since Astley was at the height of his fame. What does he now feel looking back on that heady era?
"It doesn't make me feel old, but it does make me feel time has flown," he says. "To some degree, I've lived some of my life in reverse. Most people are achieving the peak of their career in the late 30s or 40s. I reached mine at 22 or 23. It's a bit odd that. It took some coming to terms with.
"It was a conscious thing, me not wanting to do it any more. but I think my days were numbered as well. It's hard to realise where you are in the public's perception when you are a pop star like that.
"But I know for a fact Take That were on the scene and they were the new big thing, and you just think, that's it."
Since then, of course, Take That have come and gone and come back again. Doesn't Rick fancy recording some new material and taking a shot at second-time-around pop success?
"The chances of that are so slim. I don't think I've got the energy," he says. "I've got the best of both worlds. I can go and stand in front of 10,000 people and sing a song that was a number one record right round the world, and then go home and not have one person recognise me."
Astley may be more recognisable than he thinks, though, due to an internet phenomenon called `rickrolling'.
That is when someone creates a bogus online link which is supposed to be taking you to a subject relevant to the page you are reading, but instead takes you to an old video on YouTube of Astley performing Never Gonna Give You Up. As a result, that video has had over ten million viewings.
But for Rick himself, the greatest accolade he has had recently was getting a mention on the American animated comedy Family Guy.
"I don't know why, but the dog gets up and sings Never Gonna Give You Up at this party, and whoever they get to do the voice is absolutely brilliant," he says. "I've played that to more people than I've played any record I've made. It's priceless."
Rick Astley appears at the M.E.N. Arena on Tuesday, May 13 as part of the Here and Now Tour. Call the Box Office on 0870 060 1768 to book or click here .
I think this is the best post I have ever made. I am so proud of it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
From
absoluteandy, the Family Guy clip: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/1ed07e
