Overnight 80s sensation Rick Astley has successfully revived his career thanks to modern digital ‘prank’

NEVER Gonna Give You Up was a pure product of the 80s.

Rick Astley’s single hit the airwaves during the era of Sony Walkmans, Amstrad and Commodore computers, Nintendo Entertainment System and Etch A Sketch.

So it must have felt surreal that the song became a phenomenon all over again thanks to the digital age.

Rick went viral when the video for Never Gonna Give You Up was used for an internet craze called ‘rickrolling’.

The YouTube video, which has been viewed by almost 84 million people, was part of a prank where web users would click on spoof links and be inadvertently led to the 1987 tune.

“I didn’t understand it at first,” said Rick, who grew up in Park Road North in Newton-le-Willows.

“I don’t think a lot of people did. But it’s been really good to me.

“I’ve been paid well to rickroll a few people. I even did it in New York at the Macy’s Day Parade.

“I’ve also taken it with a pinch of salt. I’m aware it could have been anybody’s cheesy song and video that somebody decided to start a craze with.

“It just happened to me. I just say count your blessings.”

And that is exactly what the former St Peter’s School pupil has always done since becoming an overnight sensation.

Rick originally joined hit makers Stock Aitken Waterman as a ‘tea boy’.

He told Weekend: “They had got a new guy in to do a lot of programming and I made tea for him and brought biscuits and sandwiches because I loved what he was doing.

“He had this new piece of equipment called Fairlight which cost about £200,000 and I helped him take it out of the boxes.

“You could do it all on a laptop now but it was like the Holy Grail of equipment at the time. It was a whole new era.”

Rick was one of the first to use the Fairlight computer keyboard to record a song on New Year’s Day 1987 but he did not think anything of it.

But his life would change forever when it was released as a single eight months later.

Rick added: “That became Never Gonna Give You Up. It was pretty weird because I was kind of a tea boy at the time.”

The record spent five weeks at the top of the charts and was number one in 25 countries.

He said: “I was 21 and in that period I became a millionaire and that’s pretty ridiculous.”

Rick swapped his second hand Mazda 626 for a BMW 325 – and his dad Ozzie made a grand gesture too.

He added: “It was a bit nuts for my parents because I don’t think they could relate to it because it was hard enough for me to relate to it.

“But they were really enthusiastic and my dad went a bit bonkers over it all.

“He used to have a garden centre in Newton-le-Willows and put a big sign out the front saying ‘My Rick’s number one’.”

But after 40 million record sales, world tours and even a collaboration with Elton John, Rick decided to call it a day in 1993. He was just 27.

“I’d just had enough of it really,” said Rick, who was voted Best Act Ever at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008.

“I never truly fell in love with the concept of being famous.

“It is amazing and I’ve milked it at times and got some great things from it.

“But I never really felt comfortable with it. I was never the kind of kid who chased after people for autographs.

“In terms of day-to-day life it’s more of a hindrance than it is a positive.”

So Rick spent his time raising his daughter Emilie and he built a studio in Fulham to learn the craft of making a record.

He added: “I’d been around records and made a few but the nitty gritty of how you actually do that was lost on me.

“I really love the whole process and I was doing that as a kid but it got taken out of my hands a bit when my career took off.”

He returned to the music scene in 2002 and the rickrolling craze of 2007 only helped cement his reputation as 80s icon.

Rick, who first sang as a youngster with St Peter’s Church choir, said: “It’s amazing to think I went in a studio 20 odd years ago and it’s still around. It was one of the first songs I ever recorded.

“Then again when I’m at some of these gigs and I listen to certain songs by certain artists like Kim Wilde’s Kids In America I’m transported back to being in my dad’s garden centre in Newton-le-Willows.”

Rick’s fans will certainly be taken back in time when they see him at 80s festival, Rewind North in Capesthorne Hall.

“It’s a bit nuts,” added Rick, who sang backing vocals on The Lion King soundtrack.

“I’m 48 and some of those songs are older than some of the people in the audience.

“There’s obviously a bit of déjà vu going on at times but I just count myself lucky that I’ve got a few tunes that for some reason have managed to hang on in there.

“It’s pretty weird to be honest and something I’m still grateful for.”

* Rick Astley performs at Rewind North at Capesthorne Hall, near Congleton, on Saturday, August 30. For tickets, visit rewindfestival.com/north.http://rewindfestival.com/north