Rick-rolling Rick Astley ... never giving up. Photograph: Mauro Carraro/Rex Features
Rick Astley's career revival may be based on people being tricked into seeing him, but the 80s pop star is now counting on fans buying actual tickets. Not only is Astley again headlining the Here and Now nostalgia tour, but the man who promised to never give you up, let you down, run around and desert you ... is writing a movie musical.
New York Cowboy will tell the story of a small-town boy who moves to New York City in the 80s. It is not, in other words, an autobiography.
"My wife's now a movie producer so I read a lot of scripts and I'm really passionate about films," Astley said in a recent interview. "One day I thought, 'Well, why don't I write one?' And it turned into a musical – but not for the stage."
Astley "hooked up with a guy in California", he told the Times, and after writing a script the two are now seeking an agent. "I'm not fooling myself – nothing may come of it and I totally understand that, but as a process I have loved it. When you're writing frothy pop songs the lyrics can be a bit 'whatever', they are hooky and you just sing them because they work. But writing these songs ... Do they call that a libretto?"
Astley's appearance on the Here and Now tour is unexpected. Despite headlining the show last year, he hadn't intended to participate in 2009 – until Boy George was sent to jail. "Poor George," Astley said now. "I don't know him but it seems such a waste, somebody as sharp and intelligent as that being sent to prison."
Though Astley's a fitting billing along with Kim Wilde, Howard Jones and Brother Beyond, these days he's most keen on the Luddites – a covers band he plays in with his mates. "I play drums and sing with my two friends Graham and Simon and we play East Molesey Cricket Club every now and again," he said. "We were going to call ourselves Mid-Life Crisis because that's what it is."
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