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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
1:40 PM 11th September 2016
arts

Interview: Rick Astley

 
Rick Astley
Rick Astley
Rick Astley has made a stunning comeback over the last few months, his new album 50, went straight to Number 1 and is currently still in the Top 10 album chart in the UK. His tour next year visits Halifax at the Victoria Theatre on Friday 17 March and Harrogate Conference Centre on Saturday 25 March.

Many readers will remember him for his debut single Never Gonna Give You Up, which he still performs in his live set. I caught up with him at the V Festival in Staffordshire for a chat about his new album and his career to date.

You played a great set today, you seem a lot more relaxed on stage than in the 80's.

I am a lot more relaxed these days and in everyday life in general. I think there is less to be nervous or worried about, mind you I was a bit nervous about doing the festival gig today as it's not my audience and also because it's also a young persons festival but it was really nice to see people who weren't even born perhaps when Never Gonna Give You Up was released, singing along and even with a couple of the newer songs off the new album they were singing and I was thinking" How do you know this?" but then again the single off the album has been on the radio a bit.

What was it like working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman in the 80's?

I think a lot of people think they were tyrants and some big corporation but it wasn't like that at all. I knew them kind of just before they really exploded so I just knew them as Matt, Mike and Pete and then they became the biggest producers in the world and obviously that brings pressures and they probably had to do things in a certain way and the amount of time that that they had with artists and they wanted to build their own Motown. They did make records quickly, there's no doubt about it and they got you in and out of the studio quickly but even producers now are still doing that.

Is it right that Pete Waterman used to come up with phrases for song titles, like I Should Be So Lucky, Never Gonna Give You Up etc?

He did sometimes, he'd say look I've got this idea, he wouldn't necessarily say I've got this lyric but as you say he would have the song title and say it needs to be about this. It was like an overview and he would say it's ok to make this record but we have to make a space for it in the chart. What are people going to like about this artist? I think certain people can sing things and make it believable and there are some people who can't, it's horses for courses.

Your new album, 50, went straight to Number One, were you surprised about that?

Yes, of course it was as it's been a while, I wasn't expecting that at all. It's been nothing less than amazing. The idea of making a new record was always a bit of a dream really. No one would have ever expected to do what the new album has done.

You have a tour coming up next spring too?

Really looking forward to it, we had a great time on the few dates I played recently but on the next tour we are playing slightly bigger venues. It's always fun to get out there and play live.

I can hear a bit of Sam Smith too on the new album?

I do like Sam Smith, I like a lot of the new artists out there. I think we are in a really good space at the moment in terms of great singers, all over the world but I think the UK especially. Adele is a global artist, her voice cuts through to everybody. Like I said earlier she is an artist who you can believe what she sings and that is one of the biggest parts of music really.