Rick rolls in to re-love those golden years

Eighties heartthrob Rick Astley talks to JODIE JEYNES about giving it all up in the 90s,then returning to music and playing at Osborne House next month.

Growing up, he sang in the church choir and then played drums in a band called FBI, but his life changed forever when he moved to London for a production deal with pop behemoths Stock, Aitken & Waterman.
A common misconception is that Rick started out as Pete Waterman's Tea Boy.

Though Rick says that's not entirely true, he does own that part of his job 'was to help out at the studios and that did involve making tea'.
He remembers: "I signed to RCA records, but I spent a lot of time making tea at first.".

"One of the best things about it was that I could go in and do my demos when the studios weren't being used."

"It was a brilliant time to be in that building. It was all very fresh and very interesting. They were doing records that didn't all sound the same – Mel and Kim were nothing like Dead Or Alive."

"But then they filtered it and filtered it, until there became a Stock, Aitken & Waterman sound," continues Rick, who now lives in Kingston upon Thames with his partner of 21 years, Danish film producer Lene Bausager (Flashbacks Of A Fool), and their 18-year-old daughter Emilie.

With the help of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, Rick was in the top 40 every week for the first six months of his career. He earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 1988 and he was the first male solo artist to have his first eight singles reach the top 10 in the UK (this has still to be bettered).

Then, in 1993 – at what Pete Waterman called 'the height of his fame' (though the artist himself disagrees) – Rick Astley retired aged 27. 'There were a number of reasons,' says Rick.

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