Rick Astley: 'I didn't want to be a pop star any more'

1988. Newport. School disco. Flashing lights, sweets, crisps, cans of Coke and a soulful voice booming 'Never Gonna Give You Up' from the speakers on the school stage. It's Rick Astley.

2010. Ketley. A phone rings and a familiar voice comes out of the speaker: "Hi, it's Rick Astley. How are you?"

Blimey, I think to myself. I'm talking to Rick Astley!

For anybody under 25 it's hard to imagine just how famous Rick Astley was. As Smash Hits used to report, he went from Stock, Aitken and Waterman's recording studios, where Kylie, Jason Donovan and Bananarama churned out hit after hit after hit, to become, quite possibly, the most famous pop star in the world.

He was huge; the red-haired boy-next-door with the voice so deep and soulful it made you look twice and ask yourself: 'Is that really him singing?' It was a voice that sold 40 million records.

And then? Nothing.

In 1993, soon after the birth of his daughter, he simply walked away.

"I'd just had enough really," says Rick Astley. (Blimey. Rick Astley!)

"I wouldn't exactly say the wheels were coming off, but I did notice that certain things were beginning to bug me an awful lot. I developed a fear of flying, and it's not exactly easy to keep an international pop career going if you can't get on a plane," he laughs.

"I just realised, hang on, something is telling me to have a look at my life and the way that I'm living my life, I think. I'd become a father at that point as well and, I don't know, I just figured that I wasn't enjoying it any more.

Repetitive

His comeback began a few years ago when Rick, happily married, living quietly and still dabbling occasionally in music, got an invite to perform in Japan with some other 1980s acts. He'd always had offers, but this one was different.

"If I'm blunt and honest I did it for the money and because my family wanted to go to Japan. I'd always done well in Japan, I did commercials there and stuff, and I went there quite a few times and I loved it.

"It was almost like a holiday where I happened to be singing at a few gigs.

"I came home from it thinking what an amazing thing that was, and I said to my manager, 'Do you know what, I really enjoyed that'. So we just sat down and said Let's have a look at some of the offers."

After years of saying no, Rick Astley found himself saying yes.

"I think I had in my head, if I'm absolutely honest, that it was a bit naff for me to be up there singing 'Never Gonna Give You Up' when I was 40 years old. But I think having gotten over that, and actually done it, and seen the audience reaction as well, I kind of get it now. I get that it's actually okay to do it.

"It's like looking at yourself being 40 years old singing songs that you sang when you were 21 and thinking 'Oh get over yourself. It's a mid-life bloody crisis, man.' But that's because I didn't have a career that carried on. I had to jump back into doing it.

"But I enjoy it. It's a bit of a laugh and I have a laugh with the audience, I take the mickey out of myself and a bit out of them as well. I see the fun side of it.

"And the audience are a bit like that anyway, to be honest.

"It's not like they're going to see Coldplay or some new hot young band, they've come for a trip down memory lane. That's what it's about, and if we're honest to admit that, then we all enjoy it the more."

Rick's also been opening for Peter Kay on his recent live shows, and this month released a new single, 'Lights Out'. So is this a full-on comeback?

Er . . . sort of, seems to be the answer. "I guess anybody who puts a record out after not putting one out for years and then goes out and does gigs, you have to call it a comeback, but I'm just doing it at a very slow pace."

His wife has seen Rick the pop star before, but the past few years have been the first time that his daughter has seen him as a singer playing to big crowds. What does she make of it?

"She's embarrassed of me at the right moment, which she should be like any daughter should be of her dad, but I know she's proud of me as well because she told me that."

He laughs: "I know she appreciates the fact I can get hold of tickets for Glastonbury and lots of events like that because I've got lots of friends in the business, but I think she also appreciates I've had a very unusual life which has meant that her life has been a bit different because of it.

"On the one hand, because I kind of retired when she was about two, she hasn't been through the nonsense madness side of it, but she has seen some of the nicer things — we live in a very nice house.

"She's benefited, obviously financially, but she's also benefited from the fact that I've been here a lot more than most dads would ever get the opportunity to be."

He admits to walking away from stardom safe in the knowledge that, although he wouldn't be the richest man in his street he would be comfortable.

"I know it's a bit crass to talk about money, but I also think it's boring when people don't mention it. It's a massive factor in being a pop star and anyone who says it isn't is lying in my opinion.

"The first time someone hits you with an absolute monster cheque you sort of think, Wow! You kind of think, Right, that's my life changed forever. It's a massive part of it, it really is."

And that's Rick Astley, a modest, friendly and down-to-earth man happily enjoying a return to music but doing it at his own speed.

Take today, for example. He says he's going to potter while he waits to see how his daughter's A-levels went.

"I'm not actually doing any more interviews today," he adds. "And, no offence to you, that's marvellous."

- Rick Astley will be performing in Shrewsbury Quarry's eighties concert on Friday, July 9. For tickets visit imlconcerts.co.uk