- Title: Eighties singer Rick Astley returns with new album
- Date: 6th June 2016
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT - APRIL 28, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SINGER, RICK ASTLEY (ON WHETHER HE MINDS BEING SO STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH ONE SONG, 'NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP'), SAYING: "No I totally get it, I mean that's what you do. I think even somebody like Madonna who's had like a 'real' thirty-odd year career, there's probably four songs, given whoever you're talking to, that we pick out of her career, out of all those albums she's made, there's certain songs that they're going to pick out and go well that's the Madonna that's my Madonna, do you know what I mean? So in the four or five years that I had, why wouldn't somebody say it ('Never Gonna Give You Up') is my biggest song, and also it's had this bubble on the internet and different things happening, so of course that's what people are going to do you know. I think it would kind of be a bit strange not to."
- Embargoed: 21st June 2016 11:26
- Keywords: Rick Astley Never Gonna Give You Up album Keep Singing
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / UNIDENTIFIED FILM LOCATIONS
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / UNIDENTIFIED FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Music
- Reuters ID: LVA0064L40DHP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Almost three decades after releasing 1987 chart-topper 'Never Gonna Give You Up', it appears that eighties pop star Rick Astley hasn't given music up yet - by returning with a new album.
Astley announced that he was 'retiring' from the music industry aged 27.
But twenty three years later, the singer is releasing his first new studio album in over a decade - '50', a nod to his age - leading with comeback single 'Keep Singing'.
"When I was a kid, being 50 was pipe and slippers time, it's kind of like you're done, you're going to be retiring... And I think that's completely different now. People in their fifties are doing things that they wouldn't have dreamed of doing perhaps 25-30 years ago, the world has changed and age has changed, you know. But I just think if you look at the calendar of your life I think there are certain years, you know, and fifty is one of them. It's something to be celebrated or at least to be acknowledged, you know," he said, joking: "And also I thought it would be funny 'cause Adele has called her albums 19, 21 and 25 so I thought, you know, I'll take 50."
Speaking to Reuters television about why he hadn't released a solo album for several years, Astley said that he initially hadn't had the "courage" to - but that he was eventually persuaded by comments on social media.
"I've not wanted to release a record really because I've not really had the courage to do it, 'cause it's kind of like who cares, you know, or that's the way I felt. And I think social media changes your perspective on stuff because you're actually firsthand getting people saying 'Oh go on, make a new record, I'd really like a new record, I like your old ones but I'd like a new one.' And eventually if enough people say that you start to have the faith that like 'Well, ok, maybe I'll make one then you know'," he said.
It isn't Astley's first encounter with the power of social media. 'Rickrolling' is a popular internet prank based on his song, 'Never Going to Give You Up', which emerged in the late noughties. The prank happens when the music video appears to web users unexpectedly, using a disguised hyperlink.
Astley said he felt 'lucky' for the exposure the internet meme gave him - and that he thought it could potentially win him legions of new fans.
"I think I've been really lucky in terms of that whole thing of Rickrolling, because on the one end certain artists and certain people could look at it and say 'Oh that's really negative 'cause this and that', I don't view it like that, I just think kind of well... someone's opened a window to people to just even look," he said.
"It's nice that people who have been fans before and have bought records before like it, that's great, and that's my first port of call. But the fact that there's kids who've actually kind of said 'I quite like this, I wasn't expecting to but I quite like it', who weren't even born when I had my first records out, that's pretty amazing, you know, it's quite heartening, you know what I mean, it's good."
Astley said he "totally gets" why he is so heavily associated with that particular single ("I think it would kind of be a bit strange not to,") - adding that he "wouldn't mind" if his new material was turned in to an internet meme.
'50' will be released on June 10. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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