RICK’S ROLL Rick Astley is set to release the second record of his unlikely comeback. speaks to the singer-songwriter about his 80s heyday and how the internet craze of ‘Rick rolling’ sparked his renaissance

AFTER topping the charts in 25 countries with one of the best-selling songs of the 1980s, you may have thought that success would have gone to many singers’ heads. Not Rick Astley, it would seem.

“I knew I wasn’t cool. I just wasn’t. Look at the videos!” a relaxed Rick, 52, laughs in a small sitting room upstairs from an upmarket London restaurant on a boiling hot day.

The bequiffed singer seems totally at home reclining in an armchair as sunlight pours in through the window next to him.

Throughout our conversation, Rick is friendly and self-effacing as he reflects on how much pop music has changed since his enduring classic Never Gonna Give You Up arrived 30 years ago.

“The sharp end of the business where I made my break still exists today,” he says. “I think it is slightly different because I think pop is cooler than it was then. If you look at successful artists like Adele and Ed Sheeran, they are pretty cool as well.

“It’s not like going back to the days where it was bright and breezy. They can sing really sincere, even dark songs with heavy lyrics and still be the biggest artist in the world.

“In terms of myself and how I would have fared now, I just think it was a very different time.

“I’m not saying that Never Gonna Give You Up is uncool. I’m saying I wasn’t cool. I think there is a distinction there.”

Under the guidance of production team Stock Aitken and Waterman, the Lancastrian shot to stardom. When asked if he ever pushed back from the way he was marketed, Rick replies: “There was no time for that.

“The first time I went on Top Of