The Irish Mail on Sunday

Wiped out – by a bowl of Brazilian shellfish

- HOLIDAYS OF A LIFETIME RICK ASTLEY

CONTINUING our series featuring holiday memories of famous people, this week singer

RICK ASTLEY, 52, recalls his lifetime of adventures...

My first holiday:

Going to Cornwall when I was three. My parents took us to a fishing village called Polperro on the coast. It had a lovely harbour and a beach where we spent hours building sandcastle­s and swimming in the crystalcle­ar sea. The holiday really sticks in my mind because my mum and dad divorced soon after and it was the last family holiday we went on.

First time abroad:

I was 13 and I went on a ski trip to Italy with school. We stayed in a small resort in the Dolomites. I learned to ski there. I wouldn’t say I was good but I didn’t break anything. I didn’t go skiing again until I was 20 and from then on I have skied all over the world.

My honeymoon:

I didn’t really have one as I got married [to Danish wife Lene] on a whim in 2013. We had been engaged for 15 years but decided to tie the knot and, two weeks later, married at a registry office in London, and spent the night at a nearby hotel.

Best holiday:

When my daughter Emilie (who is now 26 ) was growing up, we used to hire a villa with another family in Sardinia. It was in a village called Villasimiu­s on the south-east of the island and there was nothing fancy about it. The kids would play on the beach, have an ice cream at the end of the day and a bowl of pasta in the evening.

And the worst:

I had a shocking stomach bug when I went to Sao Paulo in Brazil on tour six years ago. I decided to take a few days holiday and I went to this restaurant that served the most amazing seafood, but I got unlucky and came down with a bout of food poisoning from the shellfish. I was so ill that I didn’t get out of bed for two days.

My dream destinatio­n is:

Paraggi next to Portofino on the Italian Riviera. Lene and I have been there several times and I want to go again on our delayed honeymoon next year. Rick Astley’s latest album, Beautiful Life, is out now.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? IN TUNE: Paraggi in Italy. Below: Rick in 1988; and, above, as a youngster with his big brothers in the 1960s
IN TUNE: Paraggi in Italy. Below: Rick in 1988; and, above, as a youngster with his big brothers in the 1960s

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Ireland