Rick Astley talks nerves, vaccine passports and joy of singing for fans again
ITV News Arts Editor Nina Nannar catches up with the king of 80s pop Rick Astley at Latitude
Rick Astley fans have, it seems, waited forever to be together with their favourite 80s pop crooner but he was never gonna give them up.
Rick put aside his own nerves to take the stage at Latitude in Suffolk for one of the first big live weekend music festivals staged since Covid restrictions were lifted.
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He told ITV News how the whole experience of singing live in front of a big crowd was quite a daunting one.
"I've not really been nervous in that way for a long time, but obviously getting back to gigging, it's strange. If I'm honest, it really is.
"And it's just, you're so used to being so literally locked up and everything that just seeing that many people, but you just have to keep thinking. Everyone's good. We're all good. We're all ready.
"You know, we're all safe. We're all doing this responsibly. And um, so let's just get it on and, and it was just amazing. Really fantastic."
He said he was longing to get back in front of a live audience. "It was emotional to be [here], we've been on zooms and things, but that's not the same.
"You need to be on a tour bus. You need to be in a dodgy dressing room. You need to be drinking water that's either too cold or too warm. You need to be, uh, you know, all of them things."
As for the issue of Covid safety - some musicians, such as Eric Clapton, have said they will not play if vaccine passports are made a condition of entry - Astley is more circumspect.
He told ITV News: "I think it's extremely difficult and it's a very, very personal issue for a lot of people, obviously. My thing is I want to go back to gigging.
"I want this to become normal again. And I'm sort of comfortable in putting my trust in science and I'm comfortable to a degree of putting my trust in the government, um, that they are going to lead us the right way to do this."
He went on: "I think the truth of it is it's going to probably need a passport. I'm not standing up for it. I'm not being the flag bearer for it. That's not what I'm saying.
"We're going to need something. Something's going to have to happen for this to go back to normal. And if that is the thing, and if we have to put our faith in somebody, I'd rather put it in somebody who knows a lot more about this than I do.
"Like I say, it's a very human choice as well. And I can respect people who say that's not for me. Totally. Personally, I just want to see people be able to go back to the theater and to gigs and I want to be on a stage again. So I'd have to say, I probably fall on that side of it."
And as for the music, Astley is more than aware that while plenty of people have had a really tough time with Covid over the past 18 months, festivals such as Latitude bring joy to so many more.
"It's really nice to see obviously people of my generation singing that song, but it's amazing to see younger people singing it because it's just, I dunno, it makes me giggle inside and it just, um, I don't know, it's just kind of bizarre, but I think that's one of the great things about festivals.
"I'm singing songs from 30 odd years ago, you know, it's kind of strange, but I just think it's beautiful. It's wonderful."