Rick Astley The Quiet Man of Pop You won’t see photos of him in celebrity magazines falling out of nightclubs at 4am or attending every premier in sight. Yet, in almost three decades in the limelight the shy lad from Warrington, Cheshire, has had a string of hits and possesses one of the most distinctive voices in the business. He has just finished a sell-out tour across the USA and the UK and the reaction from fans old and new underlines the long-lasting appeal of the clean-cut icon who, with his smart hairstyle and metrosexual wardrobe, looks years younger than 51. This timeless assurance may be down to his simple philosophy on life:
“I’m a person who tries not to have regrets.” Some of that down-to-earth approach could lie in his Northern upbringing. He was the youngest of three boys and a
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girl and showed musical promise early, singing in the choir at his local church at 10. He learned to play the drums, piano/ keyboards, guitar and saxophone and in his teens was gigging in pubs and clubs with various bands like FBI. He commented: “I used to go to soul nights because I loved dancing, and so did my friends, and we loved the music. We used to go to listen to black American soul.” In 1985, Rick was performing with FBI, playing their own music, when he caught the attention of well-known record producer Pete Waterman. He persuaded the youngsters to come to London to work at his company, PWL recording studio, under what became the famous production team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. In ‘80s pop, Stock Aitken Waterman was THE leading force.
During this time of learning, the young singer also doubled as studio teaboy. As he recalled: “Working as a teaboy may have helped my confidence but not everyone else was so pleased. I could never remember who had milk or how many sugars, and I had an unusual talent for spilling tea on the recording console!” At just 21 in 1987, Rick released his debut single “Never Gonna Give You Up”, and it had a huge impact. It took instant residence in the charts and became the year’s best-selling single in the UK as well as making No.1 in 16 different countries. The song became the centrepiece of debut album “Whenever You Need Somebody” which sold a remarkable 15 million copies worldwide. He even cracked the US Top 10 – a notoriously difficult achievement for any British singer, especially with a debut single, earning him a Grammy nomination for “Best New Artist.”