{"id":551797,"date":"2026-04-26T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:01:07","slug":"the-best-pop-party-in-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/551797\/","title":{"rendered":"The best pop party in town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astley came to prominence through production trio Stock Aitken Waterman\u2019s (SAW) \u201cHit Factory\u201d in the 1980s, the pop conveyor belt also behind the music careers of Kylie Minogue<\/a> and Samantha Fox. But Astley\u2019s soulful voice outlasted the SAW melee and he has released five well-received albums since 2000. A critical reappraisal has occurred. Astley played Glastonbury\u2019s Pyramid Stage<\/a> in 2023 and has fronted a Smiths covers band with indie darlings Blossoms. Hence the big room.<\/p>\n

Backed by a tight nine-piece band, Astley oversaw a colourful pop party. \u201cLet\u2019s not be cool about this,\u201d he said (no chance). \u201cGet out of your seats and shake your a—.\u201d Old hits \u2013 Together Forever, Cry For Help \u2013 mixed with newer, sunshine-pop tracks such as Dippin Your Feet. Some inevitable filler was leavened by a constant cheeky wink. At one point Take That\u2019s<\/a> Gary Barlow left a message on a fake payphone saying how much he loved Astley. It was like an old-school Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe highlight was, naturally, set closer Never Gonna Give You Up. The pinnacle of SAW\u2019s brand of galloping plastic pop, it was the first of four number one songs that dominated the autumn of 1987, preceding Pump Up The Volume by MARRS, You Win Again by the Bee Gees<\/a> and T\u2019Pau\u2019s China In Your Hand. A blue-blazered Astley dancing on Top of the Pops, merrily side-scything his arm like he was feeding chickens, is seared into my skull. We had all that tonight. The crowd belted the song back in a state of nostalgic nirvana.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Astley talked about narrowly missing out on being on two of the biggest-selling movie soundtrack albums of the 1980s and 1990s, Cocktail and Pretty Woman. \u201cSo that\u2019s 32 million albums I\u2019m not on,\u201d he said, only slightly exaggerating the missed sales. \u201cI can\u2019t complain. I\u2019ve had a very, very, very good life.\u201d You\u2019d better believe it.<\/p>\n

Tour dates: rickastley.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astley came to prominence through production trio Stock Aitken Waterman\u2019s (SAW) \u201cHit Factory\u201d in the 1980s, the pop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7112,5343,96,128,146671,2820,263,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-551797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-concerts","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-o2-arena","13":"tag-pop-music","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}